Eighteen million readers and writers around the world spend 4.5-billion minutes a month publishing, collaborating and skimming text on Wattpad, the biggest under-the-radar e-literature community on the web.
The Toronto-based startup is a free publishing and reading platform allowing wordsmiths to share and collaborate on stories. It's probably the most active social site you've never heard of.
Writers can upload their work, build fans and receive instant feedback. Readers can comment, follow, interact and even create new chapters or spin-offs from original text. Scribes typically publish serial fiction. Readers get updates via mobile push notifications when new chapters are added.
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The service, available on desktop, iOS, Android and via Kindle, hosts about 2 million writers, both amateur and professional (including Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale). Writers retain all rights, and upload anything from short stories to full e-books. A story is uploaded every second, with users from 200 countries posting in 30 languages. 
Fan fiction is the fastest growing genre, with more than 7.5 million stories uploaded.
Wattpad is positioning itself as a new storytelling and consumption platform for readers who want deeper interaction. Reading is shifting more and more to e-readers, with at least one in five Americans read an e-book in the last year, according to a 2012 report by the Pew Research Center. Much of that consumption is on mobile devices; 80% of activity on Wattpad is mobile.
In August, the service saw more than 1 billion story reads, prompting it's founders to launch a Kickstarter-style crowdfunding service for authors to raise capital to self-publish. So far three projects have been funded.

Relativity Media is now using Wattpad to promote the upcoming release of the film Romeo & Juliet, serializing script excerpts online. Publisher Harlequin is using Wattpad to host a new adult genre writing contest. Boy band Emblem3 is even using the platform to connect with fans through stories about teenage issues.
The idea for the company was hatched by self-professed bookworm Allen Lau. Back in 2006 Lau wanted a way to read on his mobile phone, way before the proliferation of e-readers and smart devices. Lau started building the solution himself, and linked up with Ivan Yuen, who was working on a mobile app for sharing and reading stories.
In 2011 the duo raised $3.5 million from Union Square Ventures. A year later Khosla Ventures invested $17.5 million. The company makes money from advertising, but there's a minimal amount right now — Lau says he wants to focus first on building users before ramping up the program furher. With coffers full, the duo are confident about continuing to grow. Despite wide industry malaise, Lau says he believes in the power of publishing.
"Storytelling has been a social experience from the get go," he says. "Think of a town square where everyone would congregate to share ideas and news, or even stories told around the campfire. Look at Charles Dickens and the way he hooked people by serializing his stories, a trend that’s re-emerging on Wattpad today. Great stories bring people together."
Dougal Cameron, the COO of the digital publishing software maker Pubsoft, agrees that Wattpad is a powerful tool. He says the challenge could be getting publishers to encourage authors to engage with readers.
"Ultimately this means trusting authors more and empowering them to assist in marketing," he says.
Harper Collins author Mark Jeffrey is a regular user of Wattpad, and says he's not worried about pressure from his publisher. He posts to reach new audiences.
"I still need free samples out there to attract new readers," Jeffrey explains. "My hope is people read it, love it, buy my other for-pay novels on the Kindle or hardcover."
Lau says established writers often share exclusive content on Wattpad, sometimes even before books are released in print.
"Why," he asks. "Because it exposes their work to millions of readers around the world and givesthem a chance to build their fan base and generate social buzz."
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Image: Wattpad, Flickr, Adikos