Rowena Wiseman's Blog, page 21

How writers can build a following on Wattpad - Michael Limjoco

What kind of work do you post on Wattpad?I post works of fiction. I previously posted a Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel called Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night, which is the first in a trilogy. Lately, I have also begun serializing a made-for-Wattpad Paranormal Thriller called Death Angel.
How did you build your following on Wattpad?First, I would like to say that Wattpad is truly amazing because it has tremendous potential for building an audience. For authors looking to build a following of their own, there is no better website!
I started like everyone else did on this website: with no followers and no readers! I had about ten or fifteen reads total my first week on Wattpad, which was depressing to say the least! I had read someone else’s post on Wattpad success regarding following and commenting on works that are similar to my own. So I followed every writer I could find who fit that criteria and commented on as many similar novels as I could find. I spent more time participating and reading than I did actually writing my first month! Which was fine because I already had a completed novel and was simply looking for a chance to be noticed.  I had a stroke of luck because two authors with large followings noticed my posts immediately (I was literally everywhere with the comments back then), and began to read my work. Those two authors’ comments on my pages drew the attention of their own fans who then made their way to my book!
Within two or three weeks of my debut, I was averaging about 1,500 reads every two days, which was greatly encouraging. Unfortunately, Wattpad made big changes that first month. By the end of the month, it had stopped counting reads from non-registered members, and my book went back down to about ten reads per day. It really felt like I was back to square one. It then took me the better part of a year to get back on track, but it has definitely become much harder to get reads after the change.
The factor that’s had the biggest impact to the growth of my audience has certainly been getting featured. I submitted my story to Wattpad for consideration (more information here: http://www.wattpad.com/writers). They liked it and added my book to their Featured Stories. When Wattpad features your story, they place it on their front page for a month. Then your story goes in a ‘preferred’ queue that gets displayed to potential readers more often than other books are.
Finally, I gave up my featured status to participate in Wattpad’s Watty Awards. To ensure that featured authors don’t have an unfair advantage over regular authors in the contest, Wattpad requires the removal of featured status as one of the rules. The gamble paid off, because my book Kuro, made it as a finalist.
What is your best advice for new users on Wattpad?Don’t make the mistake of self-advertising. I see users everyday advertising their stories in the clubs or worse, on other people’s stories. It doesn’t work, and it has the added drawback of garnering negative attention towards your novels.
Instead, find ways to add value for others.  Make polite, but sincere comments on stories that are very similar to your own. Help with novel critiques and answer as many questions as you can in the clubs. Assuming you’ve got an appealing story and a nice cover that stands out, this is all the ‘Marketing’ you need to do.
Your story has to reach ‘critical mass’ on Wattpad, which in my experience I’ve found to be 1,000 reads. Your first 1k reads are largely going to come from other people reciprocating because you’ve read or commented on their work. After 1k reads, you will begin to get a small following of readers.  Past this, it really depends on how your story appeals to Wattpad’s audience.
You’ll get a steady build-up of additional readers with each succeeding milestone: 5k, 10k, 30k, and 100k. If you make it to 10k reads, congratulations! You have something on your hands. Get to 100k and you’ll get readers without even trying: about 2k a day on average, and around 5 – 6k if you are featured or make it to the ‘Hot Lists’ Top 10 in your genre.
Oh, and something important to note regarding the million-read milestone: cracking a million reads has gotten a lot harder since Wattpad stopped counting reads from non-registered members in March of 2013. This has significantly reduced the size of the readership base your book can get ‘read credit’ for.
The books you see on Wattpad with the mega-million reads were all mostly created prior to that time. Since then, I have seen a handful of books crack the million-read barrier, but it is nowhere near as easy as it was before the change.
It’s a bit unfair because it can be misleading to outsiders. A possible publisher could evaluate an older book with 16 million reads and reach the incorrect conclusion that the older book with 16 million has greater potential than a newer book sitting at 600k reads, when it really is apples to oranges!
How has using the site benefited your work and career as a writer? I have had sales on Amazon that are directly attributable to my activities on Wattpad. I won’t mention specifics, because they are hardly impressive LOL! But still, it is comforting to know it happens. There has been considerable demand for me to post the second novel in my trilogy and I have followers who have told me they will buy it outright rather than wait for me to serialize it on Wattpad, which is encouraging.
Speaking of monetizing Wattpad, I know of three methods that are working well for authors.
I’ll start with the obvious: getting picked up by a publisher. A few authors have had success because their book had a large amount of reads and it got a publisher or agent’s attention. Wattpad has also been wonderful in providing such opportunities for writers. For instance, one lucky finalist in the Watty Awards (maybe it’s me!), will get the opportunity to have their work reviewed for potential publishing.
The second and third methods are more commonplace. One method involves serializing your novel by posting bits of it at a time, in the hopes that your audience gets impatient and buys your novel outright. This has been the one that’s worked for me. The third option is to put the entire novel out on Wattpad and then modify the self-published version so that 40 to 50% of it is brand new content. I have seen this work for a few authors and I have been considering that model for my made-for-Wattpad book Death Angel.
Lastly, a word of caution regarding traditional publishing: Unfortunately, Wattpad is a double-edged sword in that respect. Many publishers will be hesitant to take on your book because it has been read for free by millions, while a handful of publishers will be interested in your book for the exact same reason! Be aware that you are giving up first publishing rights by posting your novel on Wattpad.
Visit Michael Limjoco’s page on Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/MichaelLimjoco

How writers can build a following on Wattpad - Kate Cudahy

What kind of work do you post on Wattpad?It is quite difficult to classify my work, but I'll try ;) My story is called Hal. It's fantasy/romance, but the central love affair is a lesbian one. The main character, Hal, falls in love with Meracad, the daughter of a rich merchant. Unfortunately, Meracad's father has betrothed her to another aristocrat as part of a business arrangement. The story focuses on Hal's adventures as she risks her life for the woman she loves. I'm currently writing the sequel, Hannac, which I hope to complete by the end of the spring.
How did you build your following on Wattpad?Back in November I only had about 30,000 reads for Hal. However, I applied to have my story put on Wattpad’s 'featured list,' and it was accepted. Wattpad features a certain number of books each month. Some of them come from amateur writers such as myself, and some come from professionals. They promote the story on their Facebook and Twitter feeds, and it is advertised across Wattpad itself. The end result was that I got a lot more reads. My following has greatly increased since I was featured.
However, the best way to build links with other writers is to read their work and offer encouragement and critique. Wattpad also has forums in which you can ask for and offer advice to other writers. This means that there are plenty of opportunities for connecting with people and sharing your writing.
What is your best advice for new users on Wattpad?I think the best thing new users can do is to offer respectful critique of other people's work. This is always much appreciated and good critics tend to receive useful feedback on their own stories as a result.
As far as publishing your work is concerned, I found out fairly quickly that you have to adapt writing to internet readers. That means that it is not a very good idea to publish extremely long chapters - each scene has to appear as a cohesive whole and at the same time contribute to the overall plot. I guess it's a bit like writing serials for TV - you have to grab your readers' attention with each post and at the same time keep the plot compelling.
How has using the site benefited your work and career as a writer?I was an absolute novice when I started on Wattpad (exactly a year ago!) I had written a lot of academic stuff but of course that's a completely different ball game to writing fiction. Just having the opportunity to communicate with other writers - to discuss what works and what doesn't - has had a massive impact on the way I write. I think writing on Wattpad is very much a collaborative activity - totally different to the experience of the 'lone' author, working away on their novel in isolation. That's what makes it so much fun.
To be honest, I've never thought about traditional publishing - it's a big scary world and I'm not a competitive person. So I am enormously grateful for the opportunity to publish something in this way. Otherwise, my stories would be stuffed in a drawer somewhere and forgotten.
Visit Kate Cudahy’s page on Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/katecudahy

Landing on planet Wattpad ...

A month of so back, I read an article about Wattpad on Mashable titled ‘The Most Active Social Site You’ve Never Heard Of’ http://mashable.com/2013/09/30/wattpad/.
The piece said: ‘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.’
I had to find out what this was all about. So in January this year I created an account, posted a profile image, made a few slap-dash covers for a short story, an excerpt from a novelette and 10 chapters from my half-finished YA novel that I got stuck on three years back. And I waited to hit the big time.
Nothing happened for a while. I trawled through other author pages wanting to find something interesting. Everyone seemed to be very good looking and it took me a while to work out that lots of those author pics were actually actors or One Direction band members. I found usernames like ‘brokenlove’ and ‘fallonyou’ and profiles with lots of crazy symbols and lists of favourite top 40 bands that people love hearted like this: ❤ ♡ ❤ ღ It was like I’d landed on another planet and I felt very lost.
Then I realised a lot of these readers were teenagers and a lot of the stories were fan fiction. I don’t know much about fan fiction – but it was kind of heartening to see all these kids on there reading and engaging regardless. They seem to also love romance and science fiction and I started noticing stories with over a million reads. Whatever was happening here, was really happening in a big way for some people.
I’ve found a few likeminded people on Wattpad through forum posts titled ‘are there any literary writers out there?’ or ‘anyone over 25 here?’ But I still feel as though my stories on there are a bit like being a headbanger at a rave party (and now I’m really showing my age …). My most hope on the site is my half-finished YA novel … it’s about a 16-year old girl who is forced into an arranged marriage … Australia in the future … society’s backlash to people getting married later in life, vaguely utopian, that kind of thing. Anyway, I’ve never really known if it would work for teenagers, so Wattpad seems as though it’s the perfect testing ground for that story.
I think that Wattpad has an outstanding interface compared to other writer community websites I’ve used before. It really does feel social, it’s a lot more like Facebook - there’s soundbite comments, user updates and vote/like buttons. It’s a friendly system to use, so I think I’ll persist with it for a little while longer.
I wanted to ask more experienced users how they have built their following on Wattpad. I’ve selected four really interesting authors to feature in this series on Wattpad and you can read their advice here:

Kate Cudahy: http://outofprintwriting.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/how-writers-can-build-following-on.html

Michael Limjoco: http://outofprintwriting.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/how-writers-can-build-following-on_6.html

Jenny Rosen: http://outofprintwriting.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/how-writers-can-build-following-on_10.html

Katie Tyler: http://outofprintwriting.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/how-writers-can-build-following-on_9.html
And you can check out my Wattpad page here … http://www.wattpad.com/user/outaprintwriter