The return of the social author

Abstract

The rise in self-publishing, digital folk culture and social media participation, have revolutionized reading and writing practices. Readers can directly contact their favourite authors, and publishers, through social media and become authors, and publishers, themselves. One of the outcomes of digital reading and writing is that writing is now becoming more democratic: traditional publishers are no longer the sole gatekeepers of culture. The popularity of social writing platform Wattpad is a recent example of how a new generation of influential and innovative writers is entering the publishing arena. This also demonstrates that there is a demand for authorship without the intervention from publishers. Despite this, traditional notions of authorship, ownership and control are prevalent in contemporary publishing hindering the true potential of creativity. The disharmony between the rise of the amateur author and the control of the traditional publisher is confronted in the digital public sphere. Consequently, issues such as authority and influence are mediated during the activities and interactions that take place on social media and other online platforms. Established authority figures, such as famous authors or well-known publishers, that exert authority and influence in the traditional sphere, can shift this authority and influence to the digital world; however, this sphere is also occupied by emerging networks of influencers, such as emerging authors or micro-celebrities, who gain popularity as a result of specific trends, in specific domains, at specific times. This article will examine how new and established authors are using social platforms, and social media, to publish their writing, build communities and extend their dialogue with readers and other writers. A netnographic study of Wattpad will identify which authors are the influencers and innovators in social publishing. Consequently, this article will underscore the increasing importance of social networks and social relationships in 21st century publishing.

Reading and Writing Experiences of Middle School Students in the Digital Age: Wattpad Sample

“…In addition, the main reason for the participants' positive views on out-of-school reading and writing is the desire to become popular. Other studies (Bello, 2012;Ramdarshan Bold, 2018;Güran Yiğitbaşı, 2018) support this result. According to Wenger (1998), people communicate with close and distant people to enhance their sense of belonging.…”

Jóvenes / Medios y cultura colaborativa

“…En el caso del sector editorial, el auge de la autopublicación (Furtado, 2012;Laquintano, 2010) constituye un síntoma visible de estas mutaciones. Los agentes y las casas editoriales, como apunta Romarshan Bold (2018), todavía detentan gran parte del capital cultural de la industria literaria, estableciendo las listas de autores y libros relevantes del momento, pero han visto disminuido su capital social por la expansión de plataformas de escritura colaborativa y autopublicación como Wattpad. Fundada en 2006 por Allen Lau y Ivan Yuen en Toronto (Canadá), Wattpad es actualmente la plataforma de escritura colaborativa más grande del mundo, con más de 65 millones de usuarios y 400 millones de historias subidas (Lunden, 2018).…”

Sheltering the dream and protecting the dreamer

“…The concept of 'Author' as creator, as we understand it today, did not exist prior to the development of the printing press. As books became increasingly mass produced, commercial products, the contemporary conception was developed to enable appropriate direction of profit [5], and later copyright [8]. Prior to this, the delineation between author and reader was somewhat more blurred, as texts, e.g.…”

“…social manuscripts, were often co-produced, in collaboration between author and reader [6]. As the book became a commercial artefact and the 'Author' concept was developed, a boundary line was effectively constructed, serving to separate author and reader by role and status [5,6]. This changed their relationship from one of social collaboration to one of social distance.…”