Target + Wattpad Writers = New Book "Once Upon Now"

If you're a Wattpad member, writer or reader, you will have likely known about the #OnceUponNow contest that closed mid-year.

The news, however, is that they just published the winners' stories in a new book and it just hit Target shelves yesterday.

Digital writing community Wattpad has teamed up with Gallery Books to publish a new anthology of fairy tales for the contemporary reader. 

The collection is called Once Upon Now and takes a 21st century perspective on classic fairy tales. To promote the collection, the companies have started the #OnceUponNow. The promotion encourages writers on the site to promote their own modern fairy tale adaptation for consideration in the collection. Target is hosting the competition and will sell the book.

Here's the official blurb:

The stories are written by winners of the #OnceUponNow contest hosted by Target, in partnership with Wattpad and Gallery Books. In the anthology, Rapunzel is homeschooled in a high-rise apartment, and Sleeping Beauty is the victim of a rare medical syndrome. Classic tales like Princess & the Pea, Pinocchio, and other favorites are reimagined in the book.

The call was for short stories between 4 000 and 9 000 words and had to include "an engaging story about modern life or modern love that somehow alludes to or uses elements of a fairy tale or a myth" as well as no trademarked characters. (More of a description of the idea and parameters HERE.) Wattpad readers were to choose the top 25 via voting and the editors chose 10 for the book from there.

Here are the winning entries, shown via their "covers" (created by the writers to help attract their readers):

          

 
          

Wattpad member CliffJoneJr kindly compiled a list of eligible stories worth browsing (that is, legitimate entries as opposed to people just using the #OnceUponNow hashtag to gain clicks), put them in alphabetical order by tale and has given a one to three sentence plot synopsis that's worth reading all by itself. It includes a surprising variety of lesser known stories, including a Ukranian tale, the Sun Princess, Little Daylight, Jorinde and Joringel and the Princess Who Never Smiled.

All of the stories are still available to browse and read for free. You just need to join Wattpad to do so, which is also free.