The book-to-screen pipeline has existed for as long as Hollywood existed, but the democratization of that process has only started within the past few years. The original home of currently released titles, including “My Life With the Walter Boys,” “The Kissing Booth,” and “After” series, Wattpad had strong connections with fans of these titles before Netflix became widely known for its film and television adaptations.
“I’ve been at Wattpad for a very long time, and it’s almost 12 years, so in a very early age it was one of the best communities in the world for readers and writers with millions of users all over the world.
Founded in 2006, Wattpad was acquired in May 2021 by Naver, the owner of Webtoon, a Korean internet conglomerate, for an estimated $600 million. Wattpad is certainly not a niche today, as Wattpad is part of Webtoon Entertainment’s IP and Creator Ecosystem, made up of 155 million active monthly users, but it retains its status as an alternative to the traditional publishing business, despite Wattpad’s development of its own model to work with authors and creators who want to go route with Wattpad Originals.
“I think what remains constant when we evolved is this really beautiful mix of art and science that we have,” Levitz said. “We have incredible storytellers from all over the world who tell stories that are important to them. No one says they can’t write them like this. It’s really pure creativity. They mix it up with the zeros behind it.
Wattpad’s business has grown to include collaboration with creators, adapting its production to television series and films via Webtoon Productions. The most recent success story is Tubi’s original “Sidelined,” based on the Wattpad story “The QB Bad Boy and Me.” When Ali Novak’s “My Life With the Walter Boys” first adapted on Netflix in June 2021, its production system was out of place, but as season 2 of this week’s Romance series drops, Wattpad is ready to shepherd a future hit.
“We didn’t produce the ‘Walter Boys’ ourselves, but that phenomenon started with Wattpads and was a huge success with what we created,” Levitz said. Whether QB Bad Boy and Me is “The QB Bad Boy and Me” to become “Sidelided” on Tubi, one of the biggest hits of all time, something like Anna Todd’s “After” series is one of the biggest international hits on Netflix. The universe, whether it’s a book we publish or whether it’s really changing us for me, when we were able to find new fans to bring in readers and writers together, we were able to see our users back, so we couldn’t see our spies.
