This year’s New York Comic Con had a lot of big names and celebrities present during the duration of that event. From David Dastmalchian, Simu Liu, and even was standing like a deer in headlights right next to Matthew Lillard as my small birb brain can’t comprehend his presence while waiting at the interview rooms in the venue. Notable Celebrities aside, there were also various CEOs, founders, co-founders, and staff members from the various companies which made themselves present during the event.
One of those is Wattpad Head of Content Alessandra Ferreri, who joined The Beat for an interview about Wattpad, Webtoon, adaptations, publishing, anniversaries, and writing in a world that is threatened by the ever-encroaching generative Artificial Intelligence within the user-created content scene online.
Justin Guerrero: As head of content what do you do exactly?
Alessandra Ferreri: I run our content team. What that means is since Wattpad is a user-generated content platform, so we have so many stories. We have millions of millions of millions of stories on the platform. My team is responsible specifically for understanding what is happening, what writers are writing, what readers are reading, what’s going viral, what’s blowing up.
So, we take a look at a lot of our data, to try and track what’s happening on the platform and what storytellers are doing. Then, we also do a lot of reading, and we look at a lot of trends to see what the appetite is like on the platform. What are the genres and sub-genres that are doing well? What are the new things that are popping up that we haven’t seen before? All that stuff.
Our fandom is absolutely thriving on the platform, so we try to keep track of all of that, and then we bring our insights to the team at large: the marketing team, the business team, or whatever, so they can all get a sense of what is actually happening, and what is the creative heartbeat of the platform.
Guerrero: As the head of content, does your team also scout out stories on the platform to become adapted into Webtoons, Novels, Television Shows, or Films?
Ferreri: We look at a little bit of everything. Obviously, we want our writers on Wattpad to thrive on Wattpad. We want them to find their readers, communities, and thrive in that space. But there are also instances where we find a story or a creator that we find can be adaptable off the platform, so we are taking it out of its own digital storytelling medium, and applying it to a more traditional medium like publishing, film, animation, TV, all of that stuff.
We also have working relations with Webtoon Productions, which is our adaptation arm, and we have departments across trade publishing, graphic novels, film, TV, animation. We talk to the Webtoon production team who does actual webtoon development for the Webtoon platform. We talk to them about what they are seeing in the market, what they are interested in looking at, what are some genres, topics, themes, and tropes that they are looking for. From there, we try to play matchmaker.
We will look for what we have on our platform, and in our catalogue that we’ve read, that we think can be good contenders for those things. We like to do a mix of arts and science, so we look at stuff that has a built-in audience. Stuff which readers are really enjoying, people are following through, and everyone’s really engaged. We also just want to look at really good stories — exciting stories.
I think, what I look for on the Wattpad side — which is maybe a little bit more different than an acquisition pipeline — is that we don’t necessarily have to follow the rules of what the industry is looking for and what the publishers are looking for. We’re able to think outside of the box a bit more and say, “This is not exactly the cookie-cutter way of what Hollywood is looking for right now. But we do think there is something special that we think we can do something with this.”
Guerrero: So you’re not quite chasing trends in a sense?
Ferreri: No. While we do like to know what is trending, but in a lot of ways Wattpad tends to be either ahead of the trend or responding to the trend. Sometimes we would end up being a bit off cycle, but that’s the benefit of it. Sometimes you’ll be ahead of things before it hits the mainstream, and then we can kind of say “I told you so.”
When i think of Romantasy having such a boom on BookTok right now, I was reading YA stories with dragons five, six years ago on Wattpad, and finding out that this is so interesting to me. There’s also Mafia romances and billionaire romances that are happening out in this space. Anora won best picture, and it was definitely a billionaire romance. So this is the kind of thing that Wattpadders have been doing for years and years and years where the mainstream is finally starting to catch up.
So, when you look at our acquisition pipeline, we don’t want to feel prescriptive about what we think the industry wants. We want to look at great stories, and what’s resonating on the platform, first and foremost.
Guerrero: On the topic of trendsetting, is there any genres you have noticed is more of a sweet spot for Wattpad?
Ferreri: I think romance is our sweet spot. But i don’t mean that it necessarily has to be super traditional romance. I think it’s the relationship building and the chemistry based storytelling that I super-super well on Wattpad. You sometimes read stories that go on for hundreds of chapters, and you’re invested in these characters, you’re invested in this world. So I find that romance, whether it’s paranormal romance, fantasy romance, or straight up contemporary romance tends to do really well.
Wattpad has this flavor of wish fulfillment and escapism, so it’s [a question of what] you really need to escape? Where do you want to go when you’re on the platform? Where do you want the author to take you? Anything that tends to fall within those two buckets, tends to do well.
Guerrero: I’m also aware on Wattpad there are also fanfiction on the platform. Has there been any that have been considered or even adapted into the other mediums from there?
Ferreri: So when it comes to fanfiction, we want the community of our fanfic writers to just have a good time, thrive, and do their own thing. We don’t monetize fanfiction, we don’t try to adapt fanfiction. But if there is an author in that space who wants to change the names in their story or take their fanfiction and evolve it beyond that fandom on their own, that is one hundred percent within their prerogative to do. But we would never go to a fanfic writer and tell them to change their story.
We would never go to any writer and tell them to change their story. What we are looking for is great storytelling in general for the platform. But we have seen some creators who have started in fanfiction move on to write original fiction, or take their story that they started that was in a specific fandom and change their names, change some things. One of our biggest franchise authors, Ana Todd did that. She wrote a Harry Styles fanfiction contemporary romance. But now it is, even on the platform, wholly its own original story. Nothing to do with Harry Styles at all now.
Guerrero: Oh right, Ana Todd was at the Webtoon pop up last year.
Ferreri: She is awesome and definitely one of such a good example of somebody who started writing in a fandom, gained an audience, did her thing. But then evolved past the fanfiction part and now has basically created a fandom for her original story. So it’s totally possible, but on the Wattpad side we just let the writer lead in what they want to do with the story and their original vision with their goals. We’re always there to help.
Guerrero: So Wattpad allows creators to retain their own agency in the stories they want to tell.
Ferreri: For sure, I mean we are constantly talking to writers on the platform. Not necessarily just to adapt their story, but I want to know what they are interested in. What their motivations are. Because there has to be a strong human level cause we are a community-based platform. So community, interaction, especially social interaction is actually what is at the core of what makes Wattpad so special. It’s why people keep coming back to it.
Even as someone from the company’s side at HQ, we just want to keep having conversations with creators because we want to know what they are up to. So, that is part of our strategy and ways is to just to go the creator first. Understand where, you know, where their inspiration came from and then go from there.
Guerrero: As head of content and with all of these writers you interact with, what is the demographic you have noticed while in this position on the platform?
Ferreri: Our demographic is primarily women who are Gen Z and Millennial. So that has definitely given Wattpad a specific flavor, but I like to think it’s important to know why that is. Wattpad has always kind of existed as this alternative space, where storytellers can find the stories that they want, write the story that they want, and in a lot of cases, our writers are people who are not seeing themselves reflected in the mainstream. They are not seeing themselves reflected in film, in books, or in TV shows, and they’re like, “I just feel like I’m going to write it myself,” or “I’m just going to find a story on Wattpad cause I’m not seeing the type of story that I want to do.” When you think about it traditionally, most of the people that are not being reflected in the industry are a lot of women. In that case, it feels like a natural container for that kind of creativity.
Guerrero: And in terms of fanfiction sites overall, what sets Wattpad apart from its competitors such as AO3?
Ferreri: I think the main difference between AO3 and Wattpad is…I like to say the word sisters, and not twins. Fanfiction can live in a lot of different spaces, but we can all have our own strengths and vibes.
Wattpad in particular is a space where fanfiction lives alongside original fiction. It’s not just a space for fanfiction, it’s a space for any type of storytelling. Any Genre, any type, it really is a home for storytellers, period. Not only is it a place where you can find your own fandom and engage with it that already exists if you’re interested in a specific kind of fandom, but you can also create your own.
Some of our creators are able to create their own franchises or have a huge following on their own that is purely from their original work that can be alongside fanfiction. You can have an author profile and you have a fanfic but you can also have an original story right besides each other, which I think is unique to Wattpad.
The other piece that I think stands apart is the social aspect. We have an inline commenting feature. In some aspects you can write a comment in the story, tell the author why you like it. In Wattpad it can be fully immersed in the story. So you can highlight a line in the story and write “I love this line.” or “I’m so excited that they kissed.” It makes storytelling really social, it’s almost like the way that I can best describe this is when you live-tweet reactions to things. You can live comment your reactions to a story as you’re reading it, which is amazing for the users because you can react in real-time, but it’s also incredible for the author since they are getting this literal real-time feedback from the people that are enjoying their work. I think it’s kind of a unique side to Wattpad that all of our users have.
Guerrero: As a creator I find it a neat feature to get real-time feedback as it can help me improve on my stories or see what people like as i’m writing them.
Ferreri: Yeah, you’re getting real-time feedback and you’re also enabling the ability to even do real-time fanservice as you’re writing your story. So, when i think about so many writers that I know, who just write alone at their desk, perfectly fine. But they have a gorgeous manuscript that no one’s ever seen.
What would happen to that story if you were able to bring it out to the masses and find readers that are engaging with it? Would that change your writing process? Would that help you write faster? There’s so many ways in which Wattpad can be used as a tool to create a process that helps with writer’s block or beta-testing your ideas, and the nice thing about it is you can change it if you feel like your readers are reacting to it one way or another. You can change your story to suit those reactions or stick to your guns and delight your readers in that capacity as well.
I’ve heard from writers on Wattpad who, if their readers can guess the plot twist, they will change it. Or, i’ve also heard people who they’ll be reading, “Oh! I’ll definitely give them exactly what they want.” So you as a creator can have that kind of interaction in that reader-writer kind of relationship be built in as you’re writing ’cause that makes makes it really unique and fun.
Guerrero: Do elaborate more on how the profiles on Wattpad work? Is discoverability community driven? or Algorithm driver?
Ferreri: So Wattpad is built like a social media platform even though it is a storytelling app. So you get the best of both worlds. When you join Wattpad, you will have a profile with a photo, username, and a wall that people can write on as well, and you have a space for your stories. If you are a writer you can start posting stories on your profile.
If you’re not a writer, it’ll stay blank and it’s no big deal at all. But you also have this space where you can curate reading lists, so let’s say you’re playing around on the website and you find a bunch of stories that you like. You can add them to your library to read, which is kind of like a private library that you’ll see on the app, or you can add them to a publicly facing reading list so you can show other people what are you reading. It is such a great way for whether you are a reader or writer to just show people and get to promote your friends, other writers that you enjoy, and you get to show your taste in a way.
All of the profiles are like that. Some of them are individuals, so it would be like @Alessandra is mine, as I have a bunch of reading lists on there, but some of them are more topics based instead. We have genre profiles which is like the horror list, sci-fi or werewolf list, for instance, where they will be curating content within these areas. It is totally within their prerogative to decide how they want to identify or how they want to create those reading lists. Sometimes we have profiles that are about contesting, so they give tips or tricks on how to finish your novel, whatever that may be. Sometimes they can be cause-based, like, “here is a profile specifically for LatinX readers and writers.” We see a lot of those pop up in the community, and it a chance to curate content from a community lens, and promote it, and advocate for it. So yeah, it is a behavior that has been ongoing since the beginning, and it’s great.
Guerrero: So when you create those reading lists, how do people discover those?
Ferreri: Well how do you find someone on social media like twitter for instance? You will often see people engaging with people on those profiles, and chatting with each other. But I find the community profiles are a great way to find like-minded people. If you’re commenting on a story, you might go and follow that person since you think their comments might be kind of funny. So, it’s like any kind of social media site; it’s a lot of exploring, and once you find someone, you can follow them, and then you can start seeing what they are reading, and interact that way.
Guerrero: So Wattpad is a site that more often than not encourages the user to go out there and put themselves out there.
Ferreri: Yeah, it’s a lot of organic engagement which I think is kind of the core of Wattpad. It is such a community driven platform that, it really is about exploring a lot, going after your own interests, and niches.
We also present things like reading lists on the homepage if we have curated stuff through HQ. But, it is a nice balance. We don’t want to be telling anyone what they have to read, right? We want to show you and guide you in that direction, but really the community and where you find your people is going to be the most that matters.
Guerrero: So with all that, how exactly did Wattpad end up connected with Webtoon considering how different that platform is?
Ferreri: That’s a good question! Webtoon Purchased Wattpad back in 2021, so we instantly became collaborators from that point. So we instantly became collaborators from that regard. They’re both user-generated content platforms. We are looking at Webtoon as the comic side, and Wattpad as the novel side.
So there are obviously differences, but, there’s a lot of similarities in how we look at community, and storytelling, and wanting to really democratize the experience of saying how anyone can write their story. Anyone can find their friends and fans in these spaces. These are two different formats. So, now that we are under the same content umbrella, the same company, we are able to collaborate. [My team could say] that this story can make for a good Webtoon, and vice versa. So, it’s fun to be able to have those kind of conversations, and look at how we can take those amazing stories and offer them different opportunities depending on the author and if they’re interested.
Guerrero: Since the platform is user-generated content driven, what is Wattpad’s stance on the rise of generative AI and has it done anything in regards to any stories on the platform that most likely are generated by AI?
Ferreri: We are really in the business of supporting human creators. That is first and foremost what we are looking to do. Part of the process on the content side and in our departments is that we want to engage with creators at a human level. So, we do a lot of chats with our creators. We want to reach out to them and say, “Hey! What are you reading? What are you writing?,” etc. So, we try to maintain that human relationship in general to understand our user base.
With AI, we are always going to be focusing on writers who want to write and create their stories. There are instances where AI might be a tool that a writer wants to use, because we are a user-generated content platform that their prerogative if they think they want to use it. But what we are really looking for is unique, amazing stories that are resonating with people. So that is our priority.
Guerrero: How long has Wattpad existed since it’s been four years from the acquisition by Naver?
Ferreri: Wattpad was founded in 2006, so we are coming up on our twentieth anniversary as of next year which is so cool! It’s so crazy.
Guerrero: There has to be some plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary.
Ferreri: We are working on it. Because yeah, I would love to celebrate it. Think about how different social media platforms are in general, from around 2006. Twitter was just starting, Tumblr was just starting, AO3 was just getting their ducks in a row. Really, we have come so far, and Wattpad has been a mainstay for storytellers in general, so it’s amazing to see it change but also stay consistent over the last twenty years. There are so many people who want to tell stories, that want to do that in the long format. So it is really nice to see it flourish over twenty years.
Guerrero: Out of curiosity, since Wattpad has existed that long, have you read or noticed any stories that have been ongoing just as long on the platform?
Ferreri: Yeah! The thing with Wattpad is that it’s all your own timeline as a creator. It really is a tool for you to use as a creative and anyone that can do so. There are some stories that started years ago, then stopped, and then came back, or they revised it, or they took it down. So, you never know what is going to pop up on platform. It’s really cool to see certain writers leave, and then come back and be like, “oh yeah, i’m going to revise this. I’m newly inspired.”
Guerrero: So that would be funny to run into what I could consider actual Wattpad veterans then by that case.
Ferreri: So funny story — we have one author that we are publishing at the Wattpad book side which is publishing this year, but she has started writing her novel in…I don’t know the exact year, but it was probably around 2014. It was a long time ago. She went back as an adult, since she originally wrote a teen fiction story. Came back, revised the whole thing, kind of aged it up a little bit to be more in her current voice as a twenty-something. So now we are publishing it.
So, it’s really fascinating on the Wattpad side because it’s not like your stories will ever expire. It’s not like they will never not be relevant. Trends and interests and appetites are very cyclical. We’ll have this space where you can have a story that you wrote ten, twenty years ago, that is totally relevant now and has come all the way back around. It’s kind of nice!
Guerrero: On the topic of stories being published, what is the process of that like?
Ferreri: Our publishing imprint–we have two, a young adult imprint and an adult imprint. They function like a normal, regular publisher. So, they have acquisition meetings, they have publishing cycles, they have seasons that they look at.
Usually they will come to us to ask whether they’re looking for this and this and this, can you see what you have in your catalogue. We will take a look at what we’ve been tracking, what we are interested in, if we’ve talked to any writers that we know who have aspirations for writing that fit that bill. Then we will present those stories. We will pitch them, get in touch with the writers to see what they are interested in. Whether they’re open to having a publishing conversation, and then it behaves almost exactly like any other publishing acquisition.
So, sometimes you work with agents directly, sometimes you will work with the creators directly, it really just depends. So from that point on it’s quite traditional as a publishing company.
Guerrero: As head of content how does it feel to see those stories that get published or pitched become successful and grow into something more?
Ferreri: Amazing! So amazing! Since i’ve been here for so long, i’ve seen so many of these success cases happen and I remember when they were first posting on the platform. Where they first started, where we first saw it and then now it is suddenly a franchise. We have a series right now called Sidelined, which is on Tubi.
Sidelined 2, the sequel, it’s a film, is coming out very soon. But, it is based on a Wattpad story called The QB and Me, and I actually remember being at my desk, sitting there, seeing this story appear on the platform and do numbers. Like go get super popular so quickly and we’re all like, “Whoa! This story is going to become something cool!”
And now, not only it’s a published book, but it’s a movie franchise. Not only is it a movie franchise, but it is also Tubi’s #1 original move that they have ever done. So, seeing that kind of success story is so amazing. It makes me feel very proud of all these writers who just, you know, opened their apps and made a story one day, and suddenly have this amazing career.
Guerrero: It’s so cool that you have been in a way a part of these writer’s lives and journeys through all this.
Ferreri: Yeah, I know that I am in a few acknowledgements in some books. Some of them are like, “Thank you for finding my story!” and that is always such a warm and fuzzy feeling that I am always proud of. Sometimes I even get a thank you card, or something. It’s a really great way to spend my day that’s for sure.
I think that the industries, whether it’s entertainment or publishing, is unfortunately full of “No’s”. It’s a lot of “No” people. Like, “No, We don’t want this.” or, “No, we are just not interested.” I really love that I will, at Wattpad, be a Yes person. And it’s really such a nice way to wake up in the day and go to work, and see amazing content being created and get to be an encouraging part. That is what Wattpad is in general. It’s motivating. It’s nice!
Guerrero: As we near the end of this interview, where do you see Wattpad in the next twenty or so years after this upcoming anniversary?
Ferreri: I think that there are so many storytellers in the world. Like I mentioned, I think that Wattpad is such a flexible tool for storytellers. How we create content is constantly shifting. It constantly shifts with the technology that we have access to. If you think about ten years ago, instagram, visual stuff, BookTok, that kind of stuff wasn’t really around. But, storytelling was.
So, how storytellers will evolve, will really depend on the technology that is available to them. But Wattpad is that mainstay space where you ca always go to your roots. You can always look at long-form fiction and tell your stories, and engage with your fanbase, and have that community-driven aspect of storytelling. I don’t think that’s ever going to change. What we should be doing and what we’re always actively trying to do is how do we make it easier for writers to write? How do we make it easier for readers to read? and How do we make it easier for them to find each other? That is really going to be the priority across the board and as head of content, that is what I want to look for. I want all writers to feel like they have access to their readers, their fans, inspiration, and motivation.
All that stuff is what Wattpad has built into the platform. So, we want to continue to do that and make sure that it is always a positive space to be in.
Guerrero: Do you think in the future there will be any significant challenges to Wattpad? such as the earlier mention of AI-generated content, and how there is now a focus on short-form content online.
Ferreri: I’m not going to lie, there was a time when people were like, “Nobody reads anymore.” and, “Books are going to die!” that kind of stuff. But that never actually happened. I think that there is always a draw for storytelling. Storytelling can take so many forms and Wattpad is the place that is very open and flexible by nature of how it exists to accommodate the different types of storytelling that you want to do.
I think that it’s pretty flexible in of itself. There is always that fear that, you know, that new technology will ruin everything. But, people just love stories. They love engaging with others who love stories. Fandom in general isn’t going anywhere, and Wattpad is the place for fandom. Maybe the style of storytelling will change? Maybe the flair or whatever. Or the tropes that we see will change. But, I don’t see the desire for storytelling as a whole to change. So I think that will definitely stay.
Thank you once again to Alessandra Ferreri for the opportunity and the time during NYCC ’25 to sit down and have this lovely chat and interview.
Now I switch the questions to you, dear reader. Are you by any chance a writer or user on Wattpad? Does this interview make you all the more curious to sign up there? Let us know down in the comments.
Until next time my adorable nerd birbs <3
