BUSINESS AND IT TECHNOLOGIES: Wattpad, a new publishing paradigm, Canada’s e-book moguls versus literary London

It’s first thing in the morning on the opening day of the London Book Fair, but the steps of the Earls Court Conference Centre could be the entrance to a Macau casino. The place is crowded with smokers, almost all of them Asian, cheerily puffing away and trading gossip under a cloud of nicotine fumes. It’s no surprise: China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco (and basically everything else), also happens to be the “market focus” of this year’s fair, with 180 publishers and a couple dozen writers having made the trip from the Far East to west London.

That focus on China has provided the fair’s biggest controversy this year – there’s the notable exclusion of well-known dissident writers such as Gao Xingjian, China’s only Nobel laureate in literature; and a morally questionable collaboration between fair organizers and the Chinese government agency that regulates and censors print media. English PEN held a recent conference on the subject and many anti-censorship activists are calling foul. But as publishing markets go, China is the future and everyone here knows it.

It seems oddly fitting, then, that the businessman being touted as the future of Western publishing also happens to be of Chinese descent, even if he is a Canadian entrepreneur through and through. Toronto-based Allen Lau is the co-founder of Wattpad, a site that bills itself as “YouTube for e-books” and is doing its best to live up to the boast.

Growing numbers of digital publishers have in recent years established themselves in the traditional e-book pay model – Byliner, Kindle Singles and boutique house The Atavist come to mind. But Wattpad is the fastest-growing repository of user-uploaded electronic texts: In other words, it’s completely free, both for writers and readers.

Because of this, Wattpad is growing at an astonishing rate. Since 2009, it has doubled its users every six months. It currently boasts eight million monthly visitors and three million newly uploaded stories. Late last year, the site received a $3.5-million (U.S.) cash injection from New York-based venture-capital firm Union Square Ventures, which has made similar early bets on Etsy and Twitter.

On the fair’s opening day, Lau teamed up with another Canadian digital-publishing pioneer, Bob Young, owner of the online self-publishing company Lulu.com (and owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats), to convince the publishing world that Canada holds the key to the future of books.

Lau and Young also constituted the “upstart” team in the fair’s second annual Oxford-style great debate. On the old-guard side were Fionnuala Duggan, from the textbook publisher CourseSmart; and Evan Schnittman, an executive at publisher Bloomsbury.

An animated crowd of more than 200 came out, drawn by the following proposition: “In the fight for survival, outsiders and start-ups are taking on today’s heavyweight publishers and will ultimately deliver a knock-out punch.”

In the predebate vote, 88 spectators voted in favour of the upstarts, with 82 undecided and the remainder against. That showing prompted Young, the first debater to take the podium, to thank the audience and joke, “You can all go home now.”

But, in fact, the fight was far from over.

Young began his argument by evoking the most famous slogan of another Canadian innovator, Marshall McLuhan. “Every time humanity develops a new medium, everything changes,” he said, occasionally pausing to tweak his bright orange ball cap. “It takes a new generation of humans to understand it.”

In Young’s view, the war between digital upstarts and traditional publishers has already been won. Just last week, he pointed out, Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it was no longer producing a print edition. As for readers, and Amazon and Google are outdoing venerable publishing houses everywhere. “Now it’s a matter of the next generation taking over,” he said.

Lau took that argument further. “The new reality is that everyone is a writer,” he said. And by the same token, social networking has made everyone a critic.
While you may not like much of what’s published on sites such as Wattpad or Lulu, you will undoubtedly find something to read, since their output is so vast. Lulu alone publishes 5,000 books every five days. As a parting shot, Lau compared traditional publishers to the human appendix: essentially useless, ripe for removal.
There is a hole in that argument of course, and the competition jumped on it. Taking the podium, Schnittman summed up his position thus: “User-generated content is crap.” As his teammate Duggan observed, “One cannot underestimate the importance of editing, selecting and preparing the books for publication. There will always be a market for editorial value.”
Perusing Wattpad this week, I couldn’t help but agree with him on one level: There are truckloads of dreadful writing on the site. But here’s a question: Is a bad poem still irrelevant to the culture after 25,000 people have read it? What if that number hits 25 million? At what point does amateur dreck become pop culture?
The same question, of course, could be asked of YouTube. Still, as Lau pointed out, the next James Cameron is never going to post a blockbuster movie on YouTube – he needs $300-million to pay for overhead. J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, had her first manuscript rejected by 12 publishers before accepting a tiny advance from Bloomsbury. “It’s quite possible the next J.K. Rowling will end up publishing on Wattpad first,” Lau told me after the debate.
And indeed, there’s precedent. Brittany Geragotelis, an American young-adult author, recently attracted over 13 million reads with her Wattpad story Life’s a Witch, after which Simon & Schuster signed her up to a six-figure, multibook deal. In this sense, Wattpad has replaced the publishing-house “slush pile” with a kind of open test market for future bestsellers.
Fine, but largely irrelevant, argues Wattpad, employing a golf analogy: “I’m not looking for the next Tiger Woods here – I’m just trying to provide a nice open course where amateurs can play for free.”
As for the debate? It was, in the end, a resounding upset for the upstarts: 147 against, 41 for, 30 undecided.
Lau, for one, was unfazed. “What do you expect?” he shrugged, watching the rumpled crowd of publishers filing out the door. “Most of these people work in traditional publishing, after all.” He did not look defeated, just somewhat misunderstood. “What people don’t get is that it’s not about the highest quality, it’s about the most entertained.”
I may not be reading it, but my vote’s with Wattpad..

LEAH MC LAREN BIOGRAPHY

Bio:

Leah McLaren has been a national columnist and feature writer with The Globe and Mail since 1999. From 2002-2004 she served as London correspondent, and was nominated for a National Newspaper Award for her work there.
Her first novel, The Continuity Girl, published by HarperCollins Canada and Warner US, was an instant national bestseller, spending nine weeks on the Globe and Mail bestseller list.
Her screenplay, Abroad, based on her experiences as a Canadian reporter in London, was produced and shot as a feature-length television movie for CBC television last year, starring Liane Balaban. Leah is currently developing the ongoing series for CBC and is simultaneously at work on her second novel for HarperCollins.
Her writing has also been published in The Sunday Telegraph, The London Evening Standard, The Times of London, Fashion, Flare and Report on Business and the Spectator.
Leah attended McGill and Trent Universities and graduated with an honours degree in English Literature. She was born in rural Ontario, grew up in a small town and now splits her time between Toronto and London, England.

Toronto through the eyes of Leah McLaren

Posted by Katie Drummond / June 5, 2010

3 Comments

Leah McLaren might not be a permanent Toronto literary fixture anymore, now that she spends half her time in London, England. But, as a weekly columnist for the Globe and Mail, her signature take on everything from Canadian smugness and orthorexia (an obsession with healthy eating) to women's butt anxieties and the horrors of Hammer pants is delivered - with wit - to her die-hard Toronto fans.
Our beloved city doesn't always feature in her column in the Saturday Globe's Life/Style section, but Toronto is inescapable in McLaren's non-newspaper work. Her 2006 novel, The Continuity Girl, and her recent screenplay, Abroad (which aired as a feature-length film on CBC in March), each follow single Toronto thirty-somethings who flee the Big Smoke to work - and meet men - in London, much like McLaren did in real life. (Spoiler alert: she married a Canadian.)

Still a homeowner in the Trinity-Bellwoods Park area, McLaren frequents west-end staples such as Type Books and The Drake Hotel, and loves scoping out the fresh crop of restaurants, cafes, and bars that have sprouted in the neighbourhood since the last time she was home.
She's currently working on her second novel. Its setting? Toronto.
Where do you live when you're in Toronto?
I have a house near Bellwoods Park but I rented it out last fall so lately I've been staying with friends in the same area. I still consider it my neighbourhood.
What are the major differences between your Toronto neighbourhood and your London neighbourhood?
I live in Kensington, which is very up-market, full of nannies pushing prams and old men in tweed coats walking retired greyhounds. The houses are huge and covered in wisteria this time of year. I live in what's called a "mansion block" which isn't a mansion at all but Victorian apartment block. Like most up-market neighbourhoods it's a bit boring. But there are great parks and I'm a runner. Plus I got a good rental deal through a friend, which is always the deciding factor in London.
As for Bellwoods, it just keeps getting better. Everytime I go back there's some new cafe, restaurant or bookshop to explore.
What do you miss most about the city when you're abroad?
The way the park smells the first day the snow melts. Healthy take out from Fresh. Type bookstore. Cycling without fear of death.
Speaking of being abroad, you scripted a CBC TV movie called Abroad based on your experiences as a Canadian expat working and dating in London. What were the major differences that you found between dating and/or men in Toronto versus dating and/or men in London?
I married a Canadian in the end so maybe that says it all?
What kind of reaction do you generally get from Londoners when you tell them you're from Toronto?
People say, 'Oh wow, my cousin's family lives there. I've heard it's lovely." And I say, "What's you're cousin's name? I might know them." And they say, "Nah, you won't." And I say, "Lay it on me." And about a third of the time I do.
What is your ideal way to spend a day in Toronto (let's say it's summer and the weather is on our side)?
Run along the waterfront trail, puttering the garden, followed by impromptu drinks on my friends Dave and Pam's porch. They live across the park and I often drop by. That's another thing I miss about Toronto: Dropping by.
Are there differences between writing for a Canadian versus British audience?
In Britain you're encouraged to use a lot more adverbs and words like "rather," which in Canada would make you sound like a total ponce. Apart from that the main thing to remember is that Brits only really care about Britain and Canadians only really care about Canada.
Where's your favourite place to write in Toronto?
In the office on the second floor of my house. I know a lot of people who write at their kitchen table, but I don't believe in writing where you eat.
Do you have any plans to base a future novel or TV project in Toronto?
The novel I'm writing now is set partly in Toronto and partly in a fictional small town on the shore of Lake Ontario.
What do you think of when you think of Toronto. For example, I say Toronto, you say...?
Home. Then cold.
Would you ever permanently leave Toronto? Why or why not?
I never ask myself questions like that. Instead I see it more in terms of, I will live where ever it makes the most sense to live.
How has living in London changed your sense of style?
When I first got here I gorged on Top Shop and Primark, but as time goes on I find myself gravitating back to my old uniform of black, grey, jeans and sweaters, with the occasional cocktail frock for special occasions. As a rule, Londoners are much more fashion-forward than Torontonians. Living in the city seems to speed up the trend cycle. Your eye adjusts more quickly. I recently bought a vintage hat made of blue feathers for a wedding. That's something I'd never think of wearing in Toronto.
If you could transport one Toronto landmark to London, what would it be?
I'd plunk the Toronto Island right in the middle of the River Thames and move into the nicest cottage.
Where's your favourite place to meet your girlfriends for cocktails on a Friday night?
Every single Toronto girlfriend of mine has decided to have a baby in the past year (honestly, it's like they all got together and had a meeting while I was away) so drinking, when it happens, happens at their houses, before 9 pm. Having said that I did have a fantastic boozy lunch with a couple of friends on mat leave at the Drake cafe last year. Self employment means you can hang out with the yummy mummies!
If you could make one change that would improve the city, what would it be?
I'd fix the waterfront, which is a complete disaster as far as public access is concerned. Also the parks needs better tending. Living in London really shows you what an inspiring refuge great green spaces can be.