Penguin Random House India Partners with Wattpad to Showcase Exclusive Content and Innovative Promotions
New Delhi/Mumbai, 9 July 2019: Penguin Random House India announces a new collaboration with Wattpad, the world’s largest social storytelling platform. In this partnership, authors of the publishing house will be featured on the storytelling platform, interacting with a global community of 70 million readers and writers.
Wattpad’s massive community of story-lovers will now have the opportunity to preview exclusive content from Penguin authors about their upcoming books. The publishing house will also bring their authors and editors for ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) sessions on Wattpad, where they will interact and answer questions posed by Wattpad followers.
Commenting on the association, Penguin Random House India spokesperson said, ‘This is a symbiotic relationship where we join forces to inspire, inform and entertain. Wattpad is an excellent platform for our authors and editors to connect with a large and relevant audience base. We are looking forward to engaging with readers and writers; sharing exciting content and helping people discover new books.’
Devashish Sharma, India Country Manager, Wattpad said, ‘All over the world, writers have built a massive community of followers on Wattpad. We are working every day to create opportunities for Indian writers, so it’s amazing to see prestigious names like star fantasy fiction writer Krishna Udayasankar, bestselling authors Durjoy Datta and Sudeep Nagarkar and debut writer Roshan Ali joining the Wattpad community.’
Viral Jani, Sr VP, Operations, Times Bridge added, ‘We are happy to see Wattpad welcoming writers from one of the world’s biggest publishing houses. By joining Wattpad, Penguin’s roster of literary trailblazers will be able to inspire and encourage published authors, budding writers and enthusiastic readers to interact and create a more vibrant literary community. Penguin’s enviable list of authors and content and Wattpad’s worldwide audience of literary enthusiasts makes for a perfect match. We are confident this will be a success and aim to bring more unique collaborations on the table for Wattpad this year.’
Times Bridge, India’s leading investments firm that brings global companies with bold ambitions to India, recently invested in Wattpad. Times Bridge is working alongside Wattpad to forge new publishing and entertainment partnerships that will increase Wattpad’s market footprint.
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About Penguin Random House India
Penguin Random House India is the largest English-language trade publisher in the subcontinent, publishing over 250 new titles every year and with an active backlist of over 3000 titles. With a strong fiction and non-fiction list, it publishes across every segment including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, visual books and children’s books. The children’s titles are published under the Puffin imprint.
Penguin Random House India's illustrious list includes Booker Prize-winning novels and winners of virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema. Several of PRHI’s authors are also recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honours.
Penguin Random House India is also the exclusive distribution partner for several leading local and international publishing houses in India and the subcontinent.
About Wattpad
Wattpad’s vision is to entertain and connect the world through stories. Using the power of community and technology, the global multiplatform entertainment company is unleashing the full potential of stories to the world -- in any format. Wattpad’s flagship app is the world’s leading social storytelling platform, home to a community of more than 70 million people who spend over 22 billion minutes a month engaged in original stories. Wattpad’s Story DNA Machine Learning technology allows the company to understand and discover stories among the more than 565 million uploads that have been shared on the platform. Wattpad Studios and Wattpad Books are transforming entertainment and publishing, using data-backed insights to turn Wattpad stories into books, films, TV shows, and digital projects. Wattpad Brand Partnerships offers a full suite of advertising products to help brands build deep engagement with Millennial and Gen Z consumers. Tap by Wattpad, the company’s second storytelling product, offers immersive interactive entertainment experiences in over a dozen languages. The company is proudly based in Toronto, Canada.
About Times Bridge
Times Bridge is a leading investment firm with a mission to bring the world’s best ideas to India and share India’s best insights with the world. Its current portfolio includes Airbnb, Smule, SCMP, Coursera, Houzz, Uber, Thrive, and MUBI, among others. By providing unmatched market leadership to its select partners and by harnessing the assets of The Times Group, India’s largest media company, Times Bridge accelerates growth and immersion across the Indian subcontinent for leaders who believe in winning in and learning from India.
For more information, visit http://timesbridge.com and follow @timesbridge on Twitter.