e- is for ease . . . the Wattpad phenomenon.
I’ve just uploaded The Sheriff’s Collector to Wattpad
which provides free downloads to mobile phone apps. Urged to do this by a fan of Guy of Gisborne, I thought long and hard about it. For months I’ve been reading all the intel on the internet about e-books and what will happen to bookstores and publishing when these new mechanisms really start to fly.
Agents’ blogs say we should all be ready to e-book and of course, most of our loved authors on Amazon and others are already available in e-format anyway. I decided I wanted to see what being electronically available was like. My other books are not available in e-format yet and may never be . . . who knows . . . but I decide The Sheriff was available for a little experiment.
My purpose was to see if the story as it was (a basic first draft) could engage readers with no marketing whatsoever. Because it is unedited, it should be free. It shouldn’t have a bookcover as its free and anything that detracts from the content is pointless on a free download. All I hoped for was fan-comment, unlike the more serious work I upload to YouWriteOn.com
which is peer reviewed and seriously viewed. I also wanted to see who downloaded, what type of reader etc.
The Sheriff went to Wattpad at the beginning of the weekend. It was tagged very basically: Gisborne, Sheriff of Nottingham, fan-fiction, fantasy, Robin Hood and costume drama. In a short time it has had 108 downloads. Is that good? I wouldn’t know. But what I do know is that I have not marketed it in any way except by mentioning it on a small ‘friends only’ Facebook profile and on my even smaller profile on Twitter, so any interest has come purely from Wattpad.
Comment is sparse and on reading other stories, some of which are excellent, some are appalling, I note that comment is basically a ‘thank you for uploading’ and ‘thank you for reading’. Again, very basic. So it seems one takes one’s success or otherwise from the number of people who download the story. As to the reader demographic: almost impossible to analyse. But being an era of rampant mobile phone usage, I’m guessing 16-30? Maybe someone can enlighten me. What I like is that those fingers download your story and ‘read’. What could be better? You are encouraging people to read by offering free books. Literacy, or a form of it, rules.
I love writing The Sheriff. 
At some point it departed from fan-fiction to take on a life of it’s own and I suspect in second and third draft, the mention of Guy of Gisborne, Robin Hood and the Sheriff could change completely. Again, who knows? I’m not sure I’ll put many more chapters up on Wattpad because this may be a story I want to develop and only so much should go into the public eye and no more. That may even happen on the blog, I just don’t know. What would be the most wonderful thing is for an audience to be created and for them to want to see what finally happens to Guy and Ysabel and who may just be prepared to buy the book as en e-book or even better as a hard-copy book.
But it’s been fun to do and so easy. No publication hoops to jump through, ready acceptance . . . what could be better? A big thanks to the 108 and may there be 108 more.
I’m really torn about the Guy of Gisbourne story. I don’t have the Armitage fandom to tempt me to read it, and I find that serial fiction doesn’t suit my attention span. It’s easier for me to read a novel than a short story, and reading on the computer is frustrating.
Everyone seems to have a sentimental attachment for small independent bookstores, but I grew up in a very small town where the only access to books was the paperback mysteries and science fiction on the drugstore rack. I think I bought my first hardcover book in a bookstore when I was 26. Amazon and ABE changed my life forever.
But I’ve enjoyed the Eirie novels so much that the thought of ANY new writing by Prue Batten …. I have to have it. So I’ll be downloading, too.
Certainly, Pat, the story has cashed in on the RA Army phenomenon, but that’s only on the blog, because images aren’t uploaded on wattpad, or not by me anyway.
It stopped being about Guy of Gisborne and started being about Ysabel, Lady Moncrieff, at about the second line of Chapter One for me, so that if it ever proceeds to second draft, the title may change, along with the reference to the legend of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. Then again, if it does build fans, the idea of change might be an utter anathema.
I do confess to feeling a degree of guilt for going to e-book in any form, as I have a really close relationship with my favourite bookstores and want that to continue.
By the way, a partial submission of Millefiore/Glass Flowers has been invited by Curtis Brown (Australia). Cross everything!!!!!!!
I think we all need to have an open mind about e-publishing, it scares me but I’m trying to learn 🙂
You took a big step Prue and I’m so glad you put The Sheriff out there- it’s such a great story, I’m glad many will get the chance to read it now. And 108 is a very good number, I’m so excited for you!
Thanks Lua. I had nothing to lose because as it stands The Sheriff is not something I would send out to query. I would love to develop it to novel standard (so much historical research required).
Are you getting excited? Any minute now is D-day?
Oh yes- somewhere between nervous and excited 🙂 I’m leaving on the 19th! I’m almost done with the packing so fingers crossed.
Have you tried Smashwords? It turns your Word.doc into any e-book format… will write a post about them soon! 😉
Yes Barb, thanks, I know about Smashwords but don’t plan on e-booking anything in the near future apart from what’s up on Wattpad. This is just an experiment at the moment.
my cellphone is just that, a phone. But I’m enjoying e-books in PDF format. So if you ever upload it anywhere (Smashwords or Lulu, or wherever), I’ll be glad to download and read it all in one sitting, edited or unedited! 😉 I’m not very much on serial stuff… and I write on Serial Central! 😀
Thanks for the offer, Barb. It’ll stay with Wattpad as is for the forseeable future. Surprisingly, it’s getting quite a few downloads via the mobile phone, obviously a favourite way for many people to read at the moment.
Further chapters will be placed on this blog for a little while longer. After that, it will become a framework for an actual WIP, with name changes etc . . . but as it’s historical fiction, it’s going to require masses of research and that needs time and my time is on the current fantasy WIP right now. Cheers.