Sourcebooks, a leading independent book publisher, has acquired the worldwide English rights to Wattpad’s most-read story of 2016, Chasing Red. With over 126 million reads, the Wattpad community spent over 148 million minutes, the equivalent of 282 years, reading the story by Wattpad Star Isabelle Ronin. Revised and with new original content from the author, Sourcebooks will publish Chasing Red in two volumes, releasing in September and November, 2017.
Based on proprietary data and insights, Wattpad identified Chasing Red as an up-and-coming story in early 2015. Once Isabelle finished serializing the story in early 2016, the story’s popularity skyrocketed further. That week, Isabelle saw an influx of new readers—more than double the number of readers from the week prior. Since then, Chasing Red has ignited a voracious fan base that includes thousands of reviews, multiple trailers, a petition for a major motion picture, fan art, and around a million new reads each week on Wattpad.
“The numbers alone for Chasing Red are extraordinary. This story has touched millions of readers and is attracting new reads every week,” Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah says. “Once you start reading, it’s easy to see why. Readers get sucked into this world and these characters. It’s addictive. We are excited to bring this wonderful author and reader experience to published form this fall.”
Thousands of Wattpad stories have been adapted as novels around the world, while others have become blockbuster movies and television shows. “We’re excited to build on past successes with Sourcebooks and are confident Chasing Red will be as successful in bookstores as it’s been on Wattpad,” said Ashleigh Gardner, head of partnerships for Wattpad Studios. “Not only is Chasing Red a massive hit within the Wattpad community, the high levels of engagement around the story have prompted several international publishers, including Hachette Livre, HarperCollins Germany, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, and Mondadori, to acquire rights to the story.”
With Chasing Red, readers fall in love with Red and Caleb, frequently commenting on how “real” they feel. The story follows cynical straight-A college student Veronica “Red” Strafford, who gets kicked out of her apartment. When notorious basketball player Caleb Lockhart offers her a place to stay, their close quarters create a problem when he pursues her, and she is far from ready to open up about her painful past.
Isabelle Ronin is a 30 year-old writer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As part of the Wattpad Stars program, Isabelle has also been tapped by brands like E! Network to craft custom content that drives huge engagement among young people.
Wattpad and Sourcebooks first partnered in 2013 to publish Wattpad writers through the Sourcebooks Fire YA imprint as well as to market Sourcebook authors to the global Wattpad community. Since then, Sourcebooks has successfully published My Life with the Walter Boys by Ali Novak and The Cellar and The Cabin by Natasha Preston, both of which spent a combined thirty-seven weeks on the New York Times young adult paperback bestseller list. This year, Sourcebooks will publish more stories from popular Wattpad storytellers, including A. V. Geiger’s Follow Me Back, Juliet Lyons’s Dating the Undead, and Alyson McLayne’s Highland Promise.
