The Wattpad Experiment

day 2 - frustration

I woke up the next morning anxious to see what had occurred on the account. 33 followers. This was mighty good progress, and I even had follows from people I hadn't followed before. How exciting. The book was at 20 reads by this point, cracking progress for the start of day 2 already. I posted the next chapter, written the night before, and began to work on stage 3 of the hustle life. Making more friends.

Going to the 'New' section of Wattpad, a second home to me at this point, and I went in with the mindset to make friends. This was where my buddies would be. I found some books which had been recently made like my own, on 0 or very few reads, and began to read. Scratch their back and they'll scratch yours, plus it's fun to see what people are posting these days.

I actually found a book I became very invested in, and I stopped caring about whether this person would repay the favour. I found a few more people to follow, and then I logged out.

Accounts won't grow if you micromanage them all the time, you need to let them breathe for once. So far, things seemed to be going to plan. I've done this a few times before. I've grafted a debut book on three accounts, learning the tricks of the trade as I've gone through. I knew that this book wouldn't gain momentum until it started getting in the three-digits for reads, and so I would need to work fast in order to get it there.

***

I began to feel frustrated, something I hadn't expected to feel so soon. I was so proud of this book, and I wanted people to read it. I employed my next trick, looking at the comments of a much more popular book which had a similar theme to see who was reading these books.

It got to lunchtime. The book was now on 31 reads, but the situation with the votes was getting a bit desperate. I guessed I would just have to wait for more readers who were invested in the storyline. I asked for it be reviewed by a book reviewer, hoping that they would give me some pointers.

It was almost 6 pm. Gaining followers was the easy part I guess, the account had now reached 42 followers. Almost halfway to a 100! But the reads had  been stagnant. No one seemed to be interested in my book, and I was running out of creative ways to attract people. I had come off that high from initially posting a book, and now just felt despondent as I saw that my efforts hadn't paid off yet. I had to remind myself of what I preach all the time - give it time. I had 28 more days to gain reads, and things always only get better. I needed to keep grafting, keep posting. That was the key.

Statistics at the end of day two:

31 reads

42 followers

Lesson learnt: Things don't always come immediately.