Wattpad - it's worked for some authors.

[Ken]

I popped a chapter of The Black Conspiracy on Wattpad. It looks like a really professional site, but is it worth the effort?

[Nikks]

I haven't heard of it.

[Ken]

I think Wattpad is more geared for the younger reader/writer (13-18)... I've seen it described as an online teen magazine. I think there are some older folk milling around too, but they are the minority.

[Paul]

In a weird coincidence, I joined Wattpad a few days ago. I've tried to be active there, mostly to give it a fair try out and measure how useful it is. So far I seem to have spent most of my time there giving advice to teenagers. I posted one of my short stories there, but I'm not too hopeful that the site is worthwhile for the older author. I hadn't considered posting a chapter or too of a novel - that might be worth a go.

Like all these things, you have to give it some time to find out how it works best, and what features are worthwhile, so we'll see. I am interested to hear how anyone else has got on with it.

[Ken]

Paul, you've now got your first fan (on Wattpad, that is)!

[Ken]

I had a few nice comments about The Black Conspiracy on Wattpad but I think most of the readers there only read the free stuff i.e. if the whole book isn't posted, they move on.

[Ken]

I've been told that the most successful use of Wattpad is to publish a book chapter by chapter and attract a following that builds - a sort of digital version of the way Dickens published his stories.

So I'm giving this a go. I'm posting a couple of chapters a week of my first novel, Dark Tidings and I'll see how that goes.

Wattpad is such an easy site to use that posting takes very little time, so it won't be time consuming to find out if it's worth it... and I've got one really keen follower already who comments enthusiastically on each chapter.

Here's the chapter by chapter link for anyone who's interested... Dark Tidings on Wattpad

[Ken]

I still can't decide if it was a good idea to post Dark Tidings on Wattpad. It's had over 5,000 reads, nearly 300 votes and 100 positive comments.

The question is do people who use Wattpad buy any books?