Joana Marcús, the Psychology student who is sweeping the world: “I have everything to be criticized”

In front of a huge cup of coffee, Joana Marcus (Mallorca, 2000) waits for us in the morning, apologizing for not having the best face or the best conversation because of the jet lag. «I have been at the Guadalajara Book Fair these days and I am exhausted. “I promise you that I will cheer up,” he excuses himself. Despite her youth, Marcús is, indeed, a woman of many words. Proof of this is his work, which includes the best-selling trilogies months at your side y Fuego and now, the first installment of the saga Ethereal (Montena), where it timidly moves away from teenage romance to delve into urban fantasy with two enigmatic protagonists, Victoria and Caleb.

«It is a genre that I really like because it allows me to try new things. Not all fantasy is medieval, as Game of Thrones. As a writer I feel that it would limit me a lot; I prefer to play with a world that we already know and add touches that I find interesting. I don’t see myself capable of having to create a world from scratchwith their beings and their rules,” he explains.

The change of course is due both to the impulse of Marcús and his agent when deciding which book is more suitable present at all times, as well as the need to approach new audiences. «I know the demographics of my books. And I think that men are more accepting of liking a romantic novel when it is not sold as a standard romance because it has more of a fantasy or science fiction component. This way they are not so embarrassed to come to the firms,” says Marcús. «The funny thing is that, in Guadalajara, although many boys were accompanying their girlfriends, they also They brought a copy for him to sign because they had ended up getting hooked».

It is impossible to avoid the issue of prejudices and labels when faced with a young author whose talent came to light in a massive internet forum: Wattpad, the international platform for readers and writers. “I have everything to be criticized, wow,” she jokes, when asked about the reluctance of some literary circles towards youth phenomena like the one she represents. «I have not been expressly banned from sites, as far as I know, it is more a matter of one-on-one with certain people in the sector. There is usually a paternalistic tonealmost pejorative, when you talk to adults. Has anything changed since you started in the publishing world, still in your teens? «I haven’t noticed the transition for the better yet. When there is, I will let you know,” he says.

Marcús admits that he has suffered from imposter syndrome several times during these years, and that there are times when he feels that he has had “good luck and bad luck at the same time” because he could not find people his age with whom he could share a similar experience. At 15 years old, the Mallorcan woman already had six stories published on Wattpad. Irresistible proposal It was the most viral; With it he got more than 300,000 visits.

The suddenness of his success generated an adverse reaction in some of his high school classmates. To put it bluntly, Joana Marcús was a victim of bullying for two and a half years, in which he stopped publishing and disappeared from all social networks in an attempt to stop all those ridicules and humiliations. Luckily, one of her teachers encouraged her to continue writing.

«I would tell 15-year-old Joana not to think so much about the opinions of others, because What made her strange is what makes her now able to dedicate herself to what she wants.. And I would tell the Joana of 10 years from now to not forget about that dreamy girl and keep her feet on the ground, because those who fly very high end up crashing.

Almost a decade later, Marcús can boast of having sold more than a million copies and that thousands of people from all over Europe and Latin America are waiting. more than 10 hours in line to get his signature. «During the tour of Before December Many grandmothers came to tell me that they loved my stories. Apparently, they stole their granddaughters’ books to find out what they were reading. If I have conquered a grandmother, I can die in peace now. There is nothing like the approval of an older lady who knows a lot about life,” he recalls after the umpteenth sip of coffee.

In the midst of the battle between quality and impact of cultural products… how important are numbers on social networks for publishers to notice a new author? «When the Wattpad boom began, I imagine it was a filtering issue. It is normal that they look for the 20 people who generate the most visits to ensure that they will have readers in the long term, because it is utopian to think that hundreds of manuscripts can be read to see which one has the greatest potential,” acknowledges the Mallorcan. «First you have to create the movement, and you are not going to do it from scratch. Now I think there has come a time when the publishing market really believes in what can work.

For a few years now, Marcús has reconciled her role as a writer with that of Psychology studenta career that she is passionate about and that has helped her give greater depth to her characters. Characters who, in the first drafts, “were much flatter.” He assures that his university training has allowed him to draw a portrait of Generation Z that is less simplistic and stereotypical, more intricate than the classic “party, sex and drugs” scheme seasoned with mental health disorders.

«In general, I think that justice is not done to young people. That they are not treated as full-fledged characters, as if they do not yet deserve their own story. What youth literature does is give them that voice and that story and That is why young people prefer to read themselves than to read that distorted image of reality.», he claims.

Thus, in Ethereal It addresses social issues such as job insecurity or the need to get away from toxic family members out of self-love. «Writing is a very intimate act, you are going to reveal your moral code, you are going to reveal your ideology in one way or another, even if it is tangential. It is impossible not to do it,” he says. “When I was talking about labor exploitation in 2017it was still not such a recurring debate among young people, but it is something that worried me because I saw it in my environment.

Like other famous Wattpad authors – from Anna Todd to Mercedes Ron -, Joana Marcús has also received countless offers from the audiovisual industry to bring her books to the small or big screen. However, its objectives are different. «For me, writing is therapy, not an obsession with hitting the big time. I don’t need that; If I can live off my books, then perfect. I am a writer, not a producer. I want my novels to have a run in bookstores, nothing more. “I think people are too aware of making adaptations when it should be a complement, not the ultimate goal of your career,” he says. «If one day a person comes with a proposal that fits exactly with what I have in my head to give a second life to my story, then I will think about it. But that moment has not yet arrived.”