There is an app for everything these days. Need food? There’s an app. Need a ride? There’s an app. Need a sugar daddy? There’s an app.
Need fanfiction? There’s an app, and it’s called Wattpad.
Wattpad, according to it’s about page, “takes everything you love about storytelling, and turns it into a social, on-the-go experience. The result is a one-of-a-kind adventure in creation and discovery.”
While it’s not the only place fanfiction can be found, one of the most appealing things about Wattpad is that it’s free! Users can sign up using Facebook or an email. Each user gets a library to store books they love or are interested in reading, and they can even write their own books.
Wattpad’s usefulness stems from its accessibility. With an easy to use app, minimal advertisements (there is a premium version for $6 a month), and a helpful search bar – even a non-millennial can use it.
The down side to Wattpad? There’s little restriction and monitoring, which means it can take a bit a digging to find something worth reading. With a community of over 64 million users, there are plenty of cringe-y, grammatically inept, down right awful stories: a con of any self-publishing site.
But Wattpad doesn’t only have fanfics – it has “real” books such as the classic “Pride and Prejudice.”
“In a world of 7-second attention spans, people everywhere still long to be immersed in content that matters to them. The Wattpad community collectively spends an incredible 15 billion minutes each month using Wattpad. Wattpad gives people from around the world access to an audience of millions, and connects them with content they can’t find anywhere else. You can discover the things that speak to you, or choose to create them from scratch. It’s the freedom to express yourself with an authentic voice, and the knowledge that you will be heard,” Wattpad also said on their about page.
Taking away the fact that fanfiction has been steadily rising in popularity over the years, think of Wattpad as just any other app.
An article by Business of Apps reported there was around 50 billion more app downloads in 2017 than in 2016. A projection shows by 2021 the total app downloads number will “jump to a stunning 352 billion.”
At the rate apps are growing and being used, Wattpad can only get bigger and bigger. And with the accessibility of apps in everyone’s pocket at any given time, its not surprising.
Wattpad is a place for fanfic readers and writers to enjoy what they love the most – fanfics. It is a community of people coming together from all over the world, finding a connection in this social media crazed world.
She Reads (Fan)Fiction 