>no calls back
>hyper woke
>pay is... lol
Yeah. Sounds about right for the writing industry. Except I didn't get the 200 bucks lmao. Sounds like that would have been a wild ride to be on. I get what you mean by not regretting it. Bet you learned a lot from it. That was me with all my submissions. Had to read up on the process for weeks, and even then, just getting started and sending emails to agents was a task in of itself. Half never replied back. Longest reply was 6 months I believe, and it was a no.
Thinking back, I didn't sink as much time into it as it might seem. I uploaded my story in early 2018; by midsummer 2020 I was out. Three years later I made my first semipro sale. I'm still laboring in the indie short story market, but I've made some connections over the last year or two that may pay off in the long run. We shall see. I'll always be writing; I just don't know if I'll ever make any real money from it.
Here are some fun excerpts from the email that made me jump ship, if that interests you.
The horrific acts of violence and racism against Black lives in the US, around the world, and in our HQ hometown of Toronto highlighted the importance of our continued dedication to lift Black voices, share Black stories, and stand up against racism, against white supremacy, and against injustice. To help us do so, and to understand how we as a program and as a platform can help serve the Black community better, we hosted a private office hours, as a starting point, for our Black writers.
Yes, they had racially segregated Zoom sessions. Or maybe they were Skype, I disremember.
Of the many things that were discussed, the most pertinent issues raised were:
- Lack of trust between Stars and Wattpad HQ due to inaction around safety, reform and support
- Inadequate promotion, visibility, and representation of marginalized Stars across Wattpad and its writer programs
- Friction between marginalized and privileged Stars
- Microaggressions and tone policing within the Stars program
- Editorial accountability across Wattpad
"Safety" was threatened because of the occasionally unacceptable things people would say in the forums, which were ultimately completely shuttered. "Stars" were Wattpad writers who had distinguished themselves with popularity or some other measure of success. Yes, I was one of them, which is why I got this email -- I'm pretty sure they knew I was a gross straight white ... er
Indian male, but if they'd known
how straight and white and male they might have refrained from the offer.
While diversity and inclusion has always been a meaningful part of Wattpad, we recognize that our past efforts were ad-hoc and not comprehensive throughout our product and business practices. To address this, we’ve created a D&I Leadership Group to ensure we address anti-oppression issues holistically - on our platform, in our community, in our content, across our brand, and company culture. The group will ensure there is dedicated investment and effort for diversity & inclusion initiatives across the business strategy. Here’s a visualization of how different parts of the organization will work together to tackle key D&I issues.
I attended exactly one of the sessions run by this D&I group -- I believe it was a couple of weeks before this email went out -- and I dipped out the moment it went from lowkey struggle session to braindead group therapy with the chirpy question, "Introduce yourself and tell us your superpower!" Yech.
- Microaggressions and tone policing within the Stars program
What we’re doing:
- CCD [the Content and Conduct Department] has worked together to revise our Writer Programs Discord guidelines to remove language that creates a culture of toxic positivity. We have also included questions to consider before posting so that the conversation can move forward in a productive way. As we continue our own mindfulness journey as people and staff, we ask that you practice mindfulness in your posts.
- The Stars team will also rework the Values Agreement to add more specificity and clarity around expectations from both Wattpad and Stars alike.
Even now I'm not 100% on what all of this gibberish meant. I can tell you the "Values Agreement" was the true final straw, as I refused to sign it and requested they drop me from the Paid and Stars programs, like, yesterday.
- Regarding the category of Urban Fiction, CCD is currently consulting with members of BLM Canada about the correct labelling nomenclature to use instead of this loaded term.
Just throwing this one in there because I forgot about it and rereading it made me laugh so hard I just snarfed iced coffee.
- Community Wellness is hiring an external consultant to help Wattpad move from a neutral platform that supports free expression to one that takes an anti-oppression stance. This work includes a re-evaluation of our Content and Conduct guidelines, as well as consultation on screening criteria and sensitivity training for Ambassadors [Ambassadors were volunteers who would run various communities and do other outreach between readers and writers]. These new guidelines will inform any changes to moderation philosophy and will be optimized for anti-oppression over free expression.
This was earlier in the email, but I wanted to close out with it because this was when I decided I would no longer participate in this madness in even the most cursory way.
I hope you all found this interesting or at least amusing. I don't have a lot more tea to spill on Wattpad, and my knowledge is five years out of date at this point anyway, and it may well be a different platform. I know they were bought out by or partnered with Webtoon at some point, but I'm not really clear on what Webtoon even is.
