Literature is the way in which humanity is found to express itself, recording what it thinks, believes, and feels through the use of symbols; printing its mind into the physical world so that it can collectively share its thoughts and creativity. Writing changed a lot throughout history. At first, in antiquity, written texts were read out loud for the public. According to the article, “Fundação Maurício Sirotsky Sobrinho, Leitura no Século 21”, in many African civilizations, the people gathered around the gigantic baobá tree and told stories to each other. By the middle ages, silent reading became a common practice in monasteries. As centuries passed, literature and storytelling changed greatly. By the twenty-first century, the accessibility and support for written registers became very different, which was mainly an impact of the development of new technologies. Today, people who aspire to be writers have much more opportunities in the online world; reading platforms have been essential to the ascension of great modern writers.
As a modern reader, or even if you do not have reading as a habit, you must still probably know the names of some famous online platforms, which can be used for either reading other works or publishing your own. Some examples are Wattpad, which has a global community of over 90 million users according to a site made by the company itself, Webtoon, Kindle, Draft2Digital, and etc. The accessibility that these sites provide to the works of aspiring writers or even of those who just write for fun creates an enormous online community of readers and writers, where new genres and ideas are spread. Many famous modern authors started their careers by publishing their works online. Some examples are:
Anna Todd is an American author and screenwriter, who is best known for creating the After series. Anna started publishing her work on the social storytelling platform Wattpad; the printed edition of her series was published in 2014 by Gallery Books and has been translated into several languages. There are currently two film adaptations of her book, the first was released on April 12, 2019, by Avron Pictures, and the second was soon launched in September 2020.
Another great example is Beth Reekles, who is known for being the author of the famous Kissing Booth, a young adult novel. Beth published the Kissing Booth, writing chapter by chapter on Wattpad when she was only 15. The series became extremely popular on the reading platform, winning the Wattpad 2011 prize for Most Popular Teen Fiction. The Kissing Booth was published by Penguin Random House in 2012, followed by other of her books, such as Rolling Dice and Out of Tune. A year later, she was named by Time magazine as one of “The 16 Most Influential Teens of 2013”, and was later on named by The Times as one of the “Top 25 under 20, The New Icons of a Generation”. The Kissing Booth, was later on adapted into three films, The Kissing Booth, The Kissing Booth 2, and The Kissing Booth 3: One Last Time. The first two films premiered on Netflix by 2018. The third film, accompanied by a book, was released recently on August 11, 2021.
Finally, last but not least, is Katarina E. Tonks (one of my personal favorites!). This Wattpad star started writing the series Death Is My BFF when she was only 15. The writer is now in college has grown to have a totally different writing style. She is now rewriting the series, one of the winners of the 2014 Watty Awards, in a much better version for her fans and possible new readers. DIMBFF is becoming even more famous by the day. According to an article from the site Cosmopolitan, “Death Is My BFF is not a show just yet, but after its Wattpad series was read more than 92 million times, it has been optioned by Sony Pictures”.
On her last post in Wattpad, Katrocks247 announced that things have changed with her writing career. She now has an agent in her all-time favorite agency, The Knight Agency, where some of her favorite authors are. Katarina is growing in her writing career, and I wish her all the luck, as I am a fan of her writing myself.
Literature is changing drastically now. According to the “Literature in the 21st Century Report”, by the Arts Council, the price of a literary fiction book has significantly decreased over the last 15 years. Not only are the book sales down in volume, but publishers are receiving less money for every copy sold. On the other hand, the eBook market is constantly growing, especially in the genre of fiction. Long ago, many people doubted that the ebook market could actually be successful; however, by the years after 2010, ebooks gradually became a larger and larger proportion of the market. For instance, according to this same article, “when we look at print sales figures in the period 2010–2016 therefore, part of the reason numbers have remained so depressed appears to be because readers have migrated to ebooks”. As you can see, people are gradually turning their preference to online books, which may create several opportunities for people who aspire to write their own books, especially because of the extremely low budget of publishing their works online.
In conclusion, our modern technology has revolutionized writing. Today, anyone with a wish to start a story can simply open their computers and get to work, being able to publish their writing from its very first page on any online platform without having to pay a single cent. The competition is bigger than ever, but the rise in opportunities has been huge. Several authors are now becoming famous through the use of online platforms; their works are gaining more importance by the day as the number of people who read ebooks increases. It is important to reflect about this new way of publishing, how this characterizes our modern literature, and maybe about how we can contribute to this change.
Resources:
https://www.revistabula.com/4968-as-12-melhores-plataformas-para-publicacao-de-livros/
http://www.projetosfmss.org.br/novidade/leitura-no-seculo-21/
https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/portugues/o-que-e-leitura-digital.htm.https://company.wattpad.com/blog/p7qymwnq1yr0d8ohf9w2wss0sbxqzg-3QD5Y https://saba-akhtar.medium.com/9-online-platforms-to-showcase-your-creative-writing-talent-b51a929eab08
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Reekles
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a26800461/wattpad-stories-tv-shows-movies/
EAC PRESS 