Chasing Wattpad

I'm just a boy, standing in front of a girl, asking her to love his book.

It's hard to get someone to read your book. That is the truth of Wattpad (and everywhere else). It's mostly just luck really. You can do everything all those cool "how to" books say and still end up looking like a guy on a street corner with a cup in his hand just waiting for someone to notice. Of course if you stand there long enough eventually your cup will fill up. There is a lot of waiting involved. 

The usual suggestions are good. Get involved with other writers and readers. Go read and like the hell out of everything you can and people will read back and then maybe like back. Talk to writers and they might talk back. Well, most of them. Some of them are snobby little bastards who will not give you the time of day. I don't often respond to comments but I do try. By the time I get to the computer (I hate writing on the phone) the comments have disappeared somewhere down the line into oblivion. Sometimes they just disappear altogether. 

Join groups they say. I don't know about that really. I tried talking in a group once and my comments were just pushed to the back of the line minutes later. Nobody was really talking to anyone else. Just people blabbering away. 

Make exciting covers and fancy titles and people will be drawn to your stories they say. They are liars. Well it really only works for the children on here really, and I don't usually write for children so that is that. Plus I don't know how to make good covers. The good ones I have were made by other people. The only cover I am really proud of is the one on this series. It has Batman and Robin running with the title "Chasing Wattpad". I honestly thought that was the coolest thing ever.

And to be honest I don't know about the unique title thing. Most of the most read and voted on stories have the most boring and over used titles on the planet. But they work. Surely the most overused words on Wattpad planet are "Finding", "Losing", "Taking", "Loving", and "Chasing" (I'm guilty too). But I feel bad for all those poor people in those romance stories who are always loved, then lost, then chased, then found, then taken (I don't know where).  But those books are some of the best read on Wattpad.  So don't get too creative with your title. It just may just be a turn off. 

At least once a week I will go through the News Feed part on the Wattpad app and see what people following me are reading so I can find new writers. Most of the time I see what you guys are reading and wonder what the hell drug you guys might be on. But every once in a while I see you guys reading a real gem. A little story here or there that has only a few reads. I don't know why but when I see people commenting on a story that has a billion reads it kind of turns me off. I kind of think that everything there is to say about it probably already has been said. Move on. Find the next million read story of the future. Reading should be about discovering new writing often. 

Getting reads on Wattpad should not be a full time job. You shouldn't have to work that hard to get your stuff in front of your possible audience. I think Wattpad is making it easier though. It has contests, features writers or their stories, and creates recommendation lists. It even has a list of "undiscovered writers". Though I once saw a writer on there with a 50,000 followers so yeah, who knows what Wattpad is up to. But they are trying. 

Now don't get me wrong, there may be other reasons you are not getting reads or votes. It is entirely possible that you suck as a writer. It happens. Maybe people start reading your story and get nauseous with all the misspellings, lack of a plot, or any evidence that you know what grammar is.  I've been there. I am not an expert on anything writery (see? I just make up words whenever I want) I get nauseous when I write that way too. 

Many things have happened to me that got me reads and followers that were just plain luck. Once a person who had 30,000 followers commented on my one of my series (this one). On that day I showed up on the News Feed (because she commented on my story)  and that makes me visible to her followers. On that day I gained 100 followers in just one hour. And on it went like that for about a week as I kept showing up on the News Feed. So what does that mean? Make friends. Preferably friends with lots of friends. Don't hate. They got there that way too. So you know what you can do if you have a million followers and like a story from a writer who is just starting out? Give them a shout out. Give back. Don't be jerk. 

Another time one of my stories (The Body) got featured in non-fiction. Someone recommended it (I have no idea who) to someone in Wattpad and up it went. The story went from 2,000 reads to nearly 60,000 reads in a month. And I went from about 1100 followers to over 2000 in the same time frame now gain about 5 readers a day every day. Featuring is cool.  

Do I try real hard to get reads and votes? Not really. I just got a bit lucky. Will it last? No, it won't. I don't write the popular stuff on Wattpad. I don't do the young adult stuff and I don't write much fiction. Wattpad doesn't like nonfiction much because it won't sell much advertising space. Wattpad readers don't like nonfiction much, unless it's crazy people ranting about crazy stuff.

In the end we are all just writers. Not all of us will find our audience, but if you are really serious about writing you should keep trying anyway. They say the difference between a writer and an author is that one of them quit trying and the other didn't.  Maybe, just maybe. 

Me? Well, I'm just a boy, standing in front of a girl, asking her to love his book. Sometimes they say yes, other times no, and once in a while I get slapped in the face. It's okay. I'll be fine. It's a writer thing. 

P.S.  Here are some cool undiscovered writers you should check out.

RobertAllen13

eliseanton

seechelle