Feilding author cracks US market
When global storytelling platform Wattpad decided to launch a new publishing division, Feilding author Tayler Marley was shocked to find out her book would be their flagship publication.
Marley uploaded her teen and young adult fiction book, The QB
Bad Boy & Me onto the Torontobased social platform last year and has since accumulated more than 26.5 million reads on Wattpad’s online site. She wrote the book entirely on her phone with an American audience in mind.
‘‘It just took off as soon as I started to put chapters up. The story is a love story between a cheerleader and a quarter back but I have told it a bit differently, I wanted her personality to be the winning trait and for it not to just be the same old story. The title seems cliche but it’s actually not what people think. That’s what people have liked about it.’’
Marley said she was surprised to see how fast her readers grew but was even more surprised when she heard that her book had been picked to be the first on the press for the new venture.
‘‘I actually didn’t realise how big of a deal it was going to be until they made the announcement and articles started coming out. There was one from Forbes. Wattpad looks at the algorithms of what people are really into and it seems they like my book.’’
Macmillan will be the official sales and distribution partner for Wattpad Books in the US, and Raincoast Books will distribute in Canada. The 2019 list features six young adult titles, spanning fantasy, romance, mystery, and other genres. Marley said she felt ‘‘totally honoured’’ to be the first author in line.
One of the first people Marley told was her grandmother who wrote for Mills and Boon in the 1970s. ‘‘We talk about writing for hours and she is so proud of me which is really, really cool. She is so over the moon about it and was in tears when I told her.’’
Marley said she has been writing since she was a child and has ideas in her head that ‘‘just have to come out’’. She hasn’t visited the US but conducted online research and spoke to her online fans who also gave her tips. She has written other books and been chipping away at her fan base for two years, responding to messages from readers daily.
‘‘And now to have it making some money is amazing. I think because the stories are a bit more real than others out there that people are connecting.’’ Marley’s book is now in its final edit stage and will be available in the US and Canada from August and online in New Zealand via Amazon.