The 2026 Watty Awards celebrate Wattpad's storytellers and the readers who champion them. Whether you're aiming for a Grand Prize win or looking to join a reading event, this guide is your essential toolkit for success.

Your roadmap to Wattpad's biggest contest starts here! Road to The Wattys is designed to prepare you for The 2026 Watty Awards with fresh updates very single week! While the official rules aren't released until April 20th, this is your go-to hub for community engagement, writer prep, and reader activities. Whether you're polishing your novel-length story or looking to find one to celebrate, we've got you covered! Don't just wait for the submission deadline - master the writing journey and get involved today.

In Beijing's gilded elite, Emma Walker, heiress to the formidable Walker Group (global investments, covert intelligence), and Lily Zhu, brilliant scion of the allied Zhu Corporation (AI, cybernetics), are destined for power. But their world shatters under Professor Meng. Veiled in mystery, and scarred by the devastating personal tragedy of the "Dragonfly Breach," Meng is no ordinary academic. He's a master strategist, a puppet master, and his law seminar isn't just a class; it's a brutal proving ground, a recruitment drive for a shadow war where legal boundaries bleed into covert operations. For the select few, his private tuition offers a glimpse into a world far beyond textbooks-a world where the lines between professor and operative blur. As Emma and Lily's families-and Michael, Emma's sharp-witted brother-uncover a coordinated economic counter-offensive, the duo forms a strategic alliance. Their partnership is immediately tested by the arrival of Valeria Shaw, heiress to the critical resource empire, Shaw Industries, whose elusive sister, Anya, whispers of a top operative. With a shared apartment needing a third, and strategic alliances blurring into personal rivalries, they navigate a world where loyalty is fluid and ambition knows no bounds. Whose war are they fighting? Can they outmaneuver a mentor driven by personal vengeance, outwit their rivals, and carve their own future in a game where algorithms, assets, and audacious ambition are the deadliest weapons? ---

For Centuries Grim has been collecting souls. It's what he does, it's his purpose. One day, while collecting a soul in the park, he comes across a lost puppy. For reasons he can't explain, the urge to return the small dog to his owner is overwhelming. He soon finds the animal's owner, a woman in her mid-twenties named Maria. He is struck down by her beauty and realizes that he had once claimed the soul of someone she loved. He becomes even more conflicted when he realizes he has just one year to claim her soul.

When Ebun disappears during a trip abroad, the lives of those she leaves behind begin to quietly unravel. Temi is left grappling with grief without closure. In Manchester, she tries to hold herself together-navigating a strained relationship, therapy sessions, and an unexpected pull toward spirituality that challenges everything she thought she believed about love, faith, and herself. Lawrence, meanwhile, is struggling to stay afloat. A young father with a complicated past, he balances work, co-parenting, and the weight of loss while trying to be a good friend, a good partner, and a good man. As new relationships form and old wounds resurface, Lawrence is forced to confront who he is becoming-and who he's already lost. Set against the backdrop of Manchester's festivals and flats, The Distance Between Us, is a contemporary novel about friendship, diaspora and grief. #2 spirituality 17/01/2026 🌟

Calypso wanted Odysseus. Antinous wanted Penelope. They didn't get what they wanted. But then, their paths crossed. What will happen? Sparks will definitely fly between them.

Lex, a mundane office drone, met an untimely end at the hands of a trigger-happy robber. But death wasn't the end. He awakens reincarnated as a lowly palace servant in the city of Greyl. Lex has only one goal: survive in a world of magic, monsters, and deadly political twists. The problem? He's non-essential. No destiny. No skills. Just a faceless cog in a story that doesn't care if he lives-or dies.

It's the day I've feared for most of my young life. It's my fourteenth birthday. Why have I feared today? You ask. Today, I am being drafted into the International Army Coalition. My name is Sage Turner, and today, I am going to war. In 2080, the Earth is at war with an alien race known as the Galanala. Most able adults had either died in the war or were too disabled to fight. Millions of teenagers are now fighting in this war. It is now on us to win this war for the sake of humanity.