Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial and Wattpad Team Up to Bring Spanish-Language Wattpad Stories to Bookstores Everywhere

• A global first, the new Spanish-language imprint will be known as Wattpad, publishing Spanish-language stories from Wattpad 

• Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial will also receive translation rights to English-language Wattpad Books titles 

• The new Wattpad imprint will publish four books in 2020 

BARCELONA - 27th August 2020 - Wattpad, the global multiplatform entertainment company for original stories, today announced a first-of-its-kind partnership and imprint with Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial to publish popular Spanish-language Wattpad stories in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries. The deal will also see Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial receive translation rights to English-language titles from Wattpad Books, Wattpad’s publishing division. The imprint, known as Wattpad, will be the exclusive Spanish-language publishing destination for Wattpad stories. 

On 17th September, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial will publish the first part of Alex Mírez’ Perfectos mentirosos (45 million reads) and E.M. Molleja’s She is One of the Boys (48 million reads) as the inaugural books from the new imprint. The Wattpad smash hits Mi estúpido niñero (68 million reads) by Valentina Barsotti and Perfectos mentirosos (Book 2) will follow, hitting bookshelves in November. 

"We’re thrilled to work with Wattpad on this new imprint and strategic partnership. Wattpad is the world’s leading social storytelling platform, and partnering with them gives us access to a strong pool of diverse new voices in the Spanish language.” - Gemma Xiol, Literary Director. Kids, Youth & Comic at Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial

“Spanish-language readers and writers are among the most passionate and engaged on Wattpad. We’re thrilled to work with Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial to bring the creativity and diversity we see in the Spanish-language Wattpad community to new readers everywhere.” - Aron Levitz, Head of Wattpad Studios

The Spanish-language Wattpad community is the second largest on the platform and Spanish writers have found international success. Spanish Wattpad writers like Mercedes Ron and her stories in The Culpables saga, with over 100,000 in book sales, are prime examples of how Wattpad fans follow their favorite authors to book stories.  Wattpad has more than 11 million users across Spanish-speaking countries, who spend over 1.2 billion minutes on Wattpad each month reading millions of stories written in Spanish.

The new Spanish-language Wattpad imprint follows a 2019 partnership between Penguin Random House UK and Wattpad Books. In that deal, Wattpad Books’ lists are published by Penguin Random House Children’s in the UK. Penguin Random House always strives for innovation and aims to bring the very best stories to every reader. 

Wattpad connects a global community of 80 million readers and writers through their love for incredible stories from diverse writers. Wattpad’s Story DNA Machine Learning technology allows the company to discover stand-out stories, trends and voices that are defining the future of publishing and entertainment. Wattpad has seen enormous success adapting popular stories for new formats. To date, nearly a thousand Wattpad stories have been turned into books, TV shows, and films.

###

About Wattpad

Wattpad’s vision is to entertain and connect the world through stories. Wattpad’s flagship app is the world’s leading social storytelling platform, home to a community of more than 80 million people who spend over 23 billion minutes a month engaged in original stories. Wattpad’s Story DNA Machine Learning technology allows the company to discover stand-out stories among the nearly one billion uploads that have been written on the platform. Wattpad Studios and Wattpad Books are transforming entertainment and publishing, using data-backed insights to turn Wattpad stories into books, films and TV shows. Wattpad Brand Partnerships help brands build deep engagement with Gen Z consumers. In 2020, Wattpad was recognized as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. The company is proudly based in Toronto, Canada. Learn more at company.wattpad.com

About Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial

Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, a leading company in the Spanish-language editing industry, is a part of the multinational conglomerate publishing company Penguin Random House, formed on 1st July 2013 from a deal between Bertelsmann and Pearson. The goal of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial is to publish books for every type of reader, no matter the age-range or their favourite format (physical, eBook or audiobook) in every country they work with: Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and the United States. Furthermore, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial export and distribute their books to more than 45 countries in Latin America, Asia, Europe and North America. They have over 1200 employees and 41 creatively and editorially independent imprints that publish about 1700 new books every year. Their catalogue features more than 38 Nobel prizes and hundreds of award-winning authors and best-selling books.