Randomness With Smosh_Fanfics

Wattcoins

So, Wattpad is introducing a new function called "Wattcoins", which they're currently testing in Canada, the UK, Mexico, and the Philippines. Even though it hasn't shown up on any of my accounts, despite the fact I'm Canadian and in Canada, I've read up on it and would like to explain what it is, why Wattpad is doing it, how it will effect the Smosh Fanfic community on this platform, and my personal opinion on it. Without any further ado, let's dive into it.

Part 1: What Wattcoins Are

Wattcoins are part of Wattpad's new "next beta program." They will act as a currency. For the books by authors participating in the program, you will have to pay to read their stories, either by buying each chapter one by one or by buying the entire book all at once, which will be cheaper than the one by one route.

(Image: a screenshot from the website https://nextbeta.wattpad.com/ , showing the wattcoin layout).

For now, this is how much they will cost.

(Image: a screenshot from the website https://nextbeta.wattpad.com/ that shows the prices of Wattcoins).

At this rate, one coin will cost $0.11, which means that each chapter of the previous example of Anna Todd's story would cost $0.33, and the whole story would cost $4.88; and that's only if you use the $0.99 for 9 offer. For the other ones, they'd be cheaper. So, at the most, you'd be paying around five dollars for a whole novel.

Part 2: Why Wattpad Is Doing This

Well, there's a few layers to that question. Let's start with the obvious answer; to make money.

Wattpad would be taking a split of the cash, and if this program was successful and enough people were buying coins, they'd be making a lot of money. While I'm sure this is one of the reasons, there are others as well.

I was a huge fan of an author's work a few years back, but she ended up leaving Wattpad because she found a different platform called Tapas, or something along those lines, and took most of her work down. Why? Because she wanted to start making money, and Wattpad wasn't giving her enough to keep her here. Many other authors have followed her path, or not even gone on Wattpad in the first place. Obviously, Wattpad wants to keep these authors on the platform. And this is their way of doing it.

As a lot of us knows, writing is hard and time consuming. People put their blood, sweat, and tears into their stories; it makes sense that they'd want to be paid for it.

Part 3: How It Will Affect Our Community

I'll sum it up in three words: not at all.

The Next Beta program only works with 50 writers currently, and all of them write original stories, with their own characters. No Smosh writers are on that list, and they never will be. It would be too risky for Wattpad to feature any of our fics, even if they wanted to. Smosh is a copyrighted company. There's a risk that Wattpad could get sued if they made any more money off our fanfics then they already do with ads, and I don't think that Wattpad will take that risk. (Though none of this is confirmed by Wattpad themselves and just purely speculation on my part, so take it with a grain of salt).

Also, it would be up to the writer about whether or not they'd join the program. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I get little enough reads as it is, so I wouldn't jump on the idea of getting even less. No matter what happens, everything you find on my account, and most likely on all your other favorite writer's accounts, will always be free.

In any case, you aren't going to have to pay to read Smosh fanfics anytime soon, if you ever will at all.

Part 4: My Opinion

And here we have arrived. The most controversial part of this shitty essay-like thing; my opinion.

Before I start, I'd like to say that I absolutely encourage you to disagree and argue with me. This topic isn't black and white, and I'd love to hear everyone's opinions on it, be them agreeing with me or against me. I am open to debates, as long as it's respectful. Now, let's start.

I'm for it.

Let me explain. This is an amazing opportunity for writers. With Wattcoins, people could build careers on this platform. They could get paid for writing without having to go through the hassle of finding a publisher and getting their names out there. It'll be like Youtube; people will get paid for doing what they love.

As an aspiring author myself who plans on uploading original work to this platform once I'm confident enough, the idea that I could get paid for it makes me hella excited. Does this make me biased? Maybe. But it's the truth.

I earnestly believe that this will attract writers to Wattpad, keep the ones already here, well, here, and give aspiring writers the money they deserve. And besides, with the final payimgnoption, you could buy close to 5 novels with $8.00. We aren't talking about millions of dollars here.

If you have the time, please got to https://nextbeta.wattpad.com/ and read what the writers in the program have to say. They pretty much sums up my opinion on this topic and why I think Wattcoins are a good thing for this platform.

Anyways, thanks for reading this 1002-word long monstrosity on something I know barely anything about. The video I linked in the beginning was released by Wattpad itself on the issue, and the website I plugged describes the program in even more depth of you want to have any further reading on the subject. Congrats on making it all the way through, and please, tell me what you think about Wattcoins. No opinion is wrong here.

Also, tell me if you want to see more of these essays (I'm calling them that. Just go with it) from me in the future. I have a couple other topics I could talk about (Flitz, New Smosh vs Old Smosh, how to do RPF and shipping respectfully, etc) if enough of you guys are interested and want me too. We'll see how this goes.

Thanks for reading!