7 Hot Platforms for Indie Authors
Fiction is getting serialized and far more interactive—opening up new ways to reach young readers.
The Kindle was just the beginning for indie authors.
A new wave of publishing platforms now allow self-published authors even more ways to reach their readers exactly where they are these days—on their phones. Smartphone apps like Tap by Wattpad, Radish, KISS and Chapters now let authors publish their stories and expand their reach—mainly to younger readers who’ve grown up on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.
In fact, there are dozens of new apps let authors publish bite-sized digital stories that can be read in shorter amounts of time, and entire novels in chunks over a longer period of time. Some of them also publish stories in interactive and gamified ways. Think: Choose your own adventure and “chat fiction”—which web fiction written solely in the form of text-message or instant messaging conversations, and it’s hugely popular with teens.
The demand for short form fiction has attracted the big daddy of self-publishing: Amazon. In April, Amazon announced the Kindle Vella, it’s new serialized fiction app that lets readers buy “tokens” to unlock content.
“We live in an age of distraction, and do we have to work a little harder to keep people hooked? Yes,” says Kilby Blades, a bestselling romance author who has researched these budding tech platforms for authors. She also has her own work on KISS and SCREAM, two platforms outlined below.
Here’s 7 platforms you should know about:
Vella is Amazon’s response to the success of Wattpad, which has amassed 90 million readers over the last 14 years and made serialized fiction on smartphones a “thing.” Authors submit “episodes” that range from 600 to 5,000 words for a serialized fiction novel, and they create tags of genres or micro genres to help readers find them.
Anyone can upload a story
It’s only available in the U.S.
Authors receive 50% of the royalties
Readers can follow you, they can “fave” the stories they like most, and they can give “thumbs up” for episodes.
Stories with the most faves will be added to a leaderboard and top stories get more visibility.
You can publish, delete or edit an episode at any time.Readers can buy 200 tokens for $1.99 or a bulk package of 1700 tokens for $14.99, and a A full, 5000-word story could cost 50 tokens, and a 2000-word story costing 20, according to Kindlepreneur.com.
2. Crazy Maple Studio
Crazy Maple Studio has various smartphone apps that cater to different genres. Among them are:
Chapters: Interactive or gamified stories in several genres including romance, fantasy, sci-fi, young adult, comedy, and drama. Think: Choose your own adventure. Readers decide if or how they’ll fall in love, discover secrets, or unravel deep mysteries.
KISS: Serialized romance novels in chapter format.
Spotlight: Romance choose-your-own adventures.
SCREAM: Chills and Thrills horror/paranormal.
The company has an open submission process (so un-agented authors can apply) but authors must be accepted.
Authors in the general pool are compensated on a royalties share based on reads.
Premium authors and authors who write exclusives negotiate separately and are paid advances and/or under a different model.
The site allegedly will also be doing audiobooks read by artificial intelligence algorithms.
3. Radish Fiction
A close competitor to Crazy Maple Studio, Radish raised $63 million in venture capital to spur its growth. The company has an app that’s focused on serialized fiction and “bingeable” stories.
Offers the same author model as Crazy Maple Studio
Features curated, premium, and original stories that are published and read in bite-sized installments, with some stories adding new episodes up to 5 times a day.
Has published more than 10,000 stories so far from more than 2,000 authors.
Apply to be a writer on the site, and they alert you within two weeks if you’re accepted.
4. Choice of Games
This app creates games in-house but it pulls in writers to help them create sticky stories that lure in readers/users. Like the other apps, Choice of Games offers choose-your-own adventure, using multiple-choice games and high-quality graphics.
Seeking writers for paranormal, LGBT, and historical stories. You can apply online here.
Uses a traditional publishing model, with an advance + royalties.
Submission process is competitive submission and they outline their contract process transparently here.
5. Hooked
Hooked is a freemium app that has been downloaded more than 20 million times with 70% of those readers under age 25. With big-name investors, like Jamie Foxx, LeBron James and Mariah Carey, the app uses predictive algorithms to discover trends and create relevant content.
While the app used to pay $1,000 for 1,000 for authors, it’s become very competitive.
And unfortunately, there are no open author submissions.
6. Wattpad
The pioneer of today’s serialized mobile fiction is Wattpad, which started way back in 2005. In January, the company agreed to be acquired by South Korea’s Naver, which owns WEBTOON, a similar app for graphic novel and comic reader. The company is worth an estimated $600 million, and there’s good reason: An estimated 90 million people spend 23 billion minutes monthly on Wattpad.
Anyone can upload their story, which is great for authors trying to get in front of readers.
The app offers an opportunity for new indie authors to get noticed by major book publishers and film and TV executives seeking new content. For instance: the fiction series After racked up a billion reads on Wattpad and was later picked up by Paramount Studios. It debuted on the big screen in 2019.
Wattpad’s growth and popularity has made it very saturated, so it’s hard for authors to get noticed. If you’ve got a good story and you love self promotion on social, then Wattpad could be a good choice.
Writers who apply for the “Wattpad stars” and are selected can then be evaluated to be part of the “paid story” section, which compensates authors.
At least 40% of the stories that Wattpad wound up selecting and turning into published books were authored by black, indigenous and people of color—a marked contrast from traditional publishing houses, which still lag behind in diversity. (This is good news since at least 90% of books are written by white people, according to research from McGill University.)
Wattpad Studios, the company’s TV, film, and publishing division, now has 90 TV and film projects in the works for its authors.
7. Tap by Wattpad
In 2017, Wattpad started Tap, the “chat fiction” app that lets you upload your own stories that integrate video, sound, images, voice notes, and even a “choose-your-own-ending” feature using twine, an open source software tool. Since then, the app has had 1 billion uploads of content, most of which is free.
Completely open access, so authors can upload their own stories.
Visibility is heavily curated
No compensation for everyday authors
Changing Face of Self Publishing
The rise of serialized fiction marks the start of what could be Self Publishing 2.0. For decades self-publishing was dismissed as the refuge of authors rejected by publishing houses. But today, that’s changed, thanks to ebooks and Amazon (AMZN). Self-publishing is a global phenomenon—an independent route intentionally chosen by more and more authors. It has spawned not only bestsellers like Fifty Shades of Grey, but has also been the prime scouting ground for Hollywood studios: Think: The Martian, Still Alice, and more.
Amazon opened launched the industry in 2007 with its first e-reader and Kindle Direct Publishing, which allows anyone to upload, publish, and sell their own ebooks for free. Now there’s Apple’s iBook, Google Play, Canadian-based Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Ingram Spark, which allows indie publishers to get their books into 39,000 book stores. Not only do writers retain creative control, but they also keep 50% to 70% of book sales, compared to 15% to 25% royalties for traditionally published books.
Bite-sized stories have become a big thing. If it’s a good fit with how you write or what you enjoy, it can be yet another could be another way to reach new readers, and maybe even launch your career.
