Author's note:
Thanks for reading the first chapters of Lizzie Bennet's Diary!
I decided to self-publish this novel in eBook and paperback after completing the manuscript in spring 2018. Here's the URL of the Books page of my new author website, where you'll find links to the publications from different retailers (Amazon, the iBookstore, etc.) as they become available: https://author.tkmarnell.com/books/
When I started writing this novel, I had no intention of publishing it on other platforms. Unfortunately, Wattpad is increasingly becoming a company I can't support anymore.
A few weeks ago I was reading another fun Jane Austen retelling on the Wattpad app. While not-so-patiently waiting through an immersion-breaking ad for a mobile game between chapters, I realized, "The revenue from this ad isn't going to the author of this story." And if I were to pay for a "premium" subscription to escape the silly ads, not a single cent of that would reach the author, either.
In short, Wattpad profits from content hard-working writers produce without compensation.
I joined this community to meet and support other writers, not to help a corporation exploit them. Every company in existence does its best to exploit content producers for maximum profits--that's how capitalism works--but even abysmal royalty rates are better than paying authors nothing while the company rakes in millions per year.
Below is an excerpt from a Forbes article published September 2018, titled "$400M Fiction Giant Wattpad Wants To Be Your Literary Agent."
"Wattpad has more than 4 million writers, who post an average of 300,000 pieces a day. The company brings in an estimated $19 million in revenue, mostly from ads on its site and from stories sponsored by companies like Unilever who want to advertise alongside a specific writer or genre. Nearly all its writers are unpaid; several hundred make money from ad-sharing revenue and 200 of those also earn from writing sponsored content and inking publishing deals with Wattpad."
Sure, maybe 0.01% of us are getting paid a tiny slice of that $19 million. Maybe 0.001% are lucky enough to make it big, secure traditional book deals, and see their stories turn into Netflix miniseries. But the other 99.99% are supposed to content themselves with some virtual golden stars.
Many writers might be fine with that. They might believe the opportunity to connect with readers is payment enough. As much as I love you guys, it's not enough for me. If nobody were paid, that would be one thing. I didn't expect to make money from publishing on Wattpad, anyway. But it's inherently unfair that 0.01% are paid from ad revenue, while the 99.99% whose stories are also delivering those ads aren't. I can't support that system any longer.
Unpublishing the majority of Lizzie Bennet's Diary on Wattpad is painful because I'm losing so many readers' wonderful comments. Writing this explanation of my decision is also painful because my number one goal as a writer is to make people happy, and here I'm saying the opposite of happy things.
I could have simply said, "Thanks for reading the preview! Here's the link for more!" But that would give you the impression I unpublished the chapters because I'm greedy for money...which is only half true. (Hey, I live in a capitalist society, too.)
Thanks to all of you who made writing this novel a fun experience. I wish all of my fellow writers the best of luck in their own careers, whatever they decide to do with them.
- T. K. Marnell