Wattpad at Digital Hollywood NYC

On Thursday, we were really excited to be a part of Digital Hollywood in NYC at the McGraw Hill Building. Thursday was dedicated to publishing and transmedia and we were asked to put together a panel that spoke to some of the issues surrounding print and transmedia.

Jarrett Sherman from Smokebomb Entertainment, Lisa Holton from Fourth Story Media, Brittany Geragotelis author of “Life’s a Witch” and Bill Gourgey author of “Glide” all joined us at the front to answer questions from the audience and speak to some of the projects they have created.

What made the panel especially interesting, aside from the variety of viewpoints put forth from the panelists, was how much emphasis each put on the value of the reader’s experience. This “reader first” perspective infiltrated even the conversations about monetization, where Jarrett described how his firm could now test the audience reaction before fully launching or investing products, as well as marketing and product development.  

Both Brittany and Bill spoke about how the interactive nature of Wattpad’s commenting and voting system gave insight into how their projects were received and the need to write specifically for the audience you wish to reach. By knowing your audience, you give your audience a chance to get to know you, creating a social layer to the content that adds incredible value. 

Lisa Holton spoke about her transition from traditional publishing to the transmedia space, where she has been involved in some large projects with publishers as well as traditional transmedia producers. Putting readers first is a huge part of her strategy for appealing to her audience, which unique to our panel, often includes both parents and children. Her advice to the audience was to try to invite readers in, whatever way you can and the rest will follow. 

If you have any questions about what we discussed, please feel free to email us or reach out to us on Twitter @wattpad. 

Thanks, 

The Wattpad Team