When I first thought about writing this chapter, my intention was to emphasize the visible pattern revolving around Wattpad 'popularity' then also give some tips on tricks to successfully take advantage of the system.
BUT when I got the responses (thank you sm) from an announcement I made weeks ago asking whether you guys can name some famous cliches/storylines/tropes on Wattpad, it reminded me of something I forgot to take into account.
We've seen a lot of popular books that aren't diverse at all and whose plot lines are definitely overrated. It raises the question:
'Is hopping on the bandwagon the only way for your story to get noticed?'
If you scroll up to the 'trending' part I wrote at the beginning of the chapter, you'll see what I'm talking about. I took that data from my account, but to honor the privacy of the writers, I instead replaced the book title with the 'trope' their story revolved around (judging from the book blurb anyway).
There are a few diverse books as well (science fiction/historical fiction) but these teen fiction/romance books continue to dominate the trending list until today.
So you're asking me, "How can I get more reads?"
A simple answer for a simple question. WriteRomance or Teen Fiction.
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Fortunately, Wattpad has this demographic feature wherein you can get a bit of information about your readers (age, gender, geographic location, etc.) It can be found on the website, namely the 'stats' option.
If I haven't mentioned it yet, you can take note of this while setting your update schedule. For instance, let's say majority of my readers are from the Philippines and are around the age of 13-18. I can update on weekdays (afternoon; after school), or weekends (no classes) so the update notification will mostly likely not be flooded.
Moving on, I want you to take another peek of the same photo I inserted above, in which I took from this tip book (285k reads). You'll notice that even if I added the 22% private and the 5% male (equal to 27%), it is NOT EVEN HALF of the female readers.
It's also quite obvious how Wattpad is dominated by adolescents, most of them girls of course.
So now that you understand your audience on Wattpad, it's time to decide which one you should go for.
As I've mentioned, the trending tropes that are evident here are... drum roll please:
- good girl/nerd x bad boy - fake relationship for revenge or something else - harry styles fan fiction (after *ahem*) - mafia story (w/ lots of hot guys) - bully x bullied (he slapped me on the face omg it's sO hOT I'm dOwN) - CEO x secretary (they want steam eh?) - breaking the playboy's heart - enemies to lovers (c'mon this is kinda cute tho) - best friend's brother x protagonist (kissing booth duh) - slave x master (stfu this is disgusting) - rejected mate finds another - villian x superhero - billionaire x random girl - supernatural being (vampire, werewolf, etc.) x human - marrying my sister's husband (O-O) - we're roommates and we're fAlLiNG iN lOvE - girl 'tames' the bad boy with her personality (uHM) - "I'M nOt LiKe oThEr GiRLs" - stepbrother x stepsister - spin the bottle/dare = start of a relationship - i'm a bAd boy that has daddy issues and sleeps with every girl I lay my eyes on - the 'mean' girl / cheerleader captain that's only there to make the protagonist's life hell (cue facepalm)
- friends with benefits but they end up falling in love
ROMANCE almost everywhere.
One way to go trending here on Wattpad is to write a love story and that's a fact.
I used to be really big on Romance novels here on Wattpad, but the ones I stumbled upon (particularly those with millions of reads) made me lose my interest bit by bit.
I KNOW they tried their best, I KNOW they were young when they wrote it, but for me, whenever I see an author whose work has a lot of reads but is far from being well-written, I get extremely disappointed.
Especially if what they wrote was this overused plot line that wasn't executed properly (and don't forget the poorly developed characters), I admit my perception changes. I look at them differently, not necessarily in a negative light, but I somehow 'underestimate' their abilities.
I immediately get the impression that they can only write Romance, that they don't know what they're doing, and they were only lucky that they got that many readers.
I'm not sure if others thought about it too but I'm just sharing my thoughts (not to offend of course), so here's my advice:
If your first book is going to be about that famous trope, then make sure your second won't be very similar to it. That way, you can explore new things and the content you make will remain 'fresh'. And of course, EDIT and if possible, REWRITE.
Avoid overusing story lines, character backgrounds, and the like. You need to surprise your readers EVERY TIME so you can't be predictable! Unless that's your style then there's nothing we can do about that hmm?
It's either you write about the 'badboy x nerd' trope and be like the rest or you can stand out by writing something entirely different. Take the risk, because honestly, I'm tired of seeing the same kinds of books on my homepage. I want you to hit me with something different.
Something new. Something eye-opening. Something YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO WRITE ABOUT BUT DECIDED AGAINST. Screw trending, what we need is a variety of books on Wattpad.
You want to write about Romance? Sure, just make sure it doesn't follow the same pattern as everything else. I admit this is a lot to ask for, but it's not impossible.
To the readers: Dedicate some of your time to reading books that aren't clichés. Don't just limit yourselves to popular authors; there are a lot of undiscovered writers out there who deserve the recognition as much as they do.
To the writers: Writing clichés aren't bad, but we're running out of new things to read about. It's been too long, and we need SOMETHING ELSE. Let your imagination run wide and write what you want to see in a book.
I don't want to read about a girl depending on a boy for her happiness and strength. I want her to stand for her own, to fight her own demons, and to show that we don't always need a partner to get through the darkness.
(BUT Alina isn't your story 3:00 am very similar to that? Uh huh but we're not even close to the end yet are we?)
I don't want to read about a girl who STAYS in love with someone who doesn't know how to treat her well. I want her to realize her worth and know what she truly deserves. End a story without that arc and I'll hunt you myself.
I don't want to read about a boy who keeps himself from crying so he won't look weak. I want him to break that stereotype and show that ALL FEELINGS ARE VALID AND IT IS OKAY FOR BOYS TO CRY TOO.
I don't want to read about a boy who hides his true feelings from someone and acts indifferent so he won't be labelled as a 'simp' (screw you 2020). I want him to show that IT IS FREAKING NORMAL (!!)
Every writer has a responsibility and you shouldn't forget that EVER. As always, feel free to tag who you think needs to read about this! Peace out and thank you for 3k followers <3
