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Wattpad?

C

Chessie

Guest
Hello my fellow Scribes. Question here: has anyone used Wattpad, what did you think of it, and is it worth it for professional writers?

I have been on other writer forums and Wattpad has been praised by many, saying that although it didn't translate into a lot of direct sales, it did help a little.

I downloaded the app, set up an account, and began to do some research. These reasons have kept me from going further:

-YA audience mostly, and my stories are definitely not that. Although fantasy is popular on the site and supposedly 35% of the users are over 18 which is good.

-Giving out work for free. I believe that authors should be compensated monetarily for their work. However, I was considering putting up short stories that wouldn't be meant for publication elsewhere.

-An overwhelming amount of stories, many of them don't even have proper grammar or editing. Don't know if I want my work next to that (not saying this in a mean way but I do take pride in my work).


Still, considering that its a social media site I've been thinking of giving it a try. I'm still setting up an author website and I've tried blogging in the past which I hated. What I have been wanting to do though is set up a series of flash fiction tales set in my world that I can link my books to. I still suck at twitter and FB I only use for personal purposes, so I'm looking for some way to connect socially online.

The problem is that (from what I have read so far) the audience doesn't normally go outside of Wattpad to purchase stories, since they get entire novels for free on the site. So...what would be the point, is what I'm asking myself.

So I guess my second question is: would it be better to put these stories up on my own website or actually hit an audience on Wattpad in the hopes that it might generate sales? Curious to see what others think since I'm totally on the fence here. Any and all comments/thoughts welcome. Thank you!
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Chesterama:

I haven't used it, but I did see a post by anauthor just yesterday who self-published three books under a pen name as an experiment, and has done rather well with them. She said Wattpad wasn't entirely a waste of time, but was pretty close to it. At least in terms of promoting her work and getting books sales. That's just one person's experience, of course. There may be people who have had better results there.

Pen Name Launch: First Month Earnings $3043 (what worked and didn’t for marketing) | Lindsay Buroker
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Hi, Steerpike thanks for the link. It was a very interesting article (written by one of my favorite authors btw). It seems the authors that I've been researching say the experience at Wattpad was positive but didn't help with sales...so that's steering me in the direction against it.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I have been visiting Wattpad on and off for couple years now. I find the sheer volume of works in their fantasy section to be staggering - into the six digit range, though the actual number is much less because these tend to be serials, and mostly unfinished ones at that. Like MS, the writers there struggle with promotional issues, finding critique partners, and pretty much everything else we deal with here. I refrain from going further because to me Wattpad is redundant.
 

PaulineMRoss

Inkling
This is something that crops up quite regularly. The thing to remember about Wattpad is that it's a social site. If you want (and have the time) to put in the effort, you can build a following and enjoy the interaction. BUT it doesn't translate to sales. Wattpadders like free books - end of story. I think it can be a good place for beginning writers, just getting their feet wet, especially teens who are excluded from some other sites, or for people who don't intend to publish for money. But for anyone who's serious about writing as a potential career, it's really not going to help much.

I posted the whole of 'The Plains of Kallanash' on Wattpad at one time, and posted my thoughts on the process on my blog. Sorry I can't post the links, but I'm travelling at the moment with just a tablet for connectivity. I found it an interesting experience, but not worthwhile as a marketing exercise.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Thanks for the feedback. :) I've actually decided not to go through with it. There are some other social network/marketing options I'm looking into that seem more...worthy of time. If I wasn't serious about my writing career I'd probably go for Wattpad but so far, I haven't seen or read anything that convinces me it would help out in selling my stories.
 

PaulineMRoss

Inkling
If I wasn't serious about my writing career I'd probably go for Wattpad but so far, I haven't seen or read anything that convinces me it would help out in selling my stories.

To be honest, I'm not convinced that *any* social networking site is particularly brilliant for selling fiction, unless you already have a huge following for some other reason. At best, you're connecting with potential purchasers one by one, and it's a time-sink. Probably better off writing the next book/novella/whatever. The only thing that seems to work for finding large numbers of readers is paid marketing.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
That's absolutely a good point, Pauline. Thanks for the reminder.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
So it's been nearly 5 months since I posted this thread/explored Wattpad and wanted to give my review of it. Now, to start let me say that I'm a very impatient person, something that I must work on as I progress towards self-publishing. Second, I write about adventure with fantasy elements mixed in and weird romances. Most of the time I write about adults but considering that Wattpad mainly has teen users, I wrote about an 18 year old girl. My goal was to receive feedback on the story, didn't care so much about votes or ranking.

I participated in the way that's recommended by Wattpad staff: active in the clubs, read people's works and left comments, generally tried to make myself helpful with writers in my genre. I also found a club of over 30 women (like me!).

Wattpad was just mostly not for me. I love the layout of the site. It's easy to use, navigate, and the staff was super helpful whenever I had a problem or question. I found my major gripe just had to do with the fact that my story dropped off at 366 reads in 5 months and didn't move. I did post a short Skyrim fan fic on there that did okay (topped out at 213 reads). I got maybe 3 comments total, so my goal of feedback wasn't met.

I did promote my work and link to it but in closing, I think that the type of fiction I write just doesn't fit well with the vibe of Wattpad. Some would say that I should have given it longer but after being pretty active for 5 months and not meeting any goals, I've decided that Wattpad just isn't worth it for me as a writer working to being a full time author. Granted, I don't have any work to sell yet but I don't think that sales generate strongly from this site.

There were stories up less time than mine which had more reads, comments, etc and they totes fit the vibe of the site. So if you write YA then Wattpad would probably be an avenue to explore.
 
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Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
This kind of matches my impression as well.

My testing hasn't been as extensive as yours, but I've got the same feeling as you about the content of the site. I will probably still use it for putting up things I need feedback on, as the format makes it easily accessible for friends. That way I can just send them a link and ask them to check it out, instead of mailing files back and forth.
I don't think I'll be using the site for promotion or to try and expand my readership though. It just doesn't seem to be my thing.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Well, none of the friends that asked to read my work ever did, even though it was easy to just send them the link. Ended up closing my account there today with a thorough explanation of why.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
Aye, the friend who did read it there was someone I specifically asked to (and then she got her mom to read it as well). I didn't get any comments from anyone other than that though.
 
My experience with Wattpad was identical. I never heard of it before so wasn't sure what to expect, but eventually found out the site was more geared towards a certain group of readers. That's not to say there were not adult reads to be found, but they were drowned in a mire of teen books. Also, didn't realize it was for actual publishing, and not of my works are completed :p
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Well, I did read on the site that they encourage writers to serialize their work because supposedly readers like that best. Somewhat like waiting on an episode of their favorite tv show. That's what I tried but can't say if that works better than posting an entire work.
 
Now that you bring that up, that was another problem I had. My first ever submission was the entire first chapter of my story and received zero reads. Considering a lot of teens are incapable of reading more than ten paragraphs (pardon my pessimism), I should have known better. I then had to break it up, but quickly deleted the parts because it just didn't work. It was only after looking at more submissions did I realize that even novel type books were broken up into serializations. That just...rubbed me the wrong way.
 

Ben

Troubadour
Well I was wondering about wattpad and found this useful thread with a great link at the beginning, and thought it might be worth resurrecting. Rise, Lazarus!

Just wondering if anyone has any more recent experiences with Wattpad that are different in the 9+ or so months since this thread.

Thanks for your input!
 

AndrewLowe

Troubadour
My ex-girlfriend used Wattpad, so I'm entirely and utterly opposed to it. She didn't have much success with it though... Then again she never proofread her stories, so that might have played into it.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Well I was wondering about wattpad and found this useful thread with a great link at the beginning, and thought it might be worth resurrecting. Rise, Lazarus!

Just wondering if anyone has any more recent experiences with Wattpad that are different in the 9+ or so months since this thread.

Thanks for your input!
My experience wasn't a terrific one. I had a few hundred reads on my piece until the midpoint when things got real for MC and then the reads dropped from like 300 to six...it was crazy. Honestly, a good learning experience because I'm pretty sure I know why it happened. I won't be using that particular tactic in my stories ever again so in that way, Wattpad gave me something I wouldn't have figured out on my own prior.

However, I only had a couple of comments and although I was grateful for those, so very much so, I wasn't able to engage with readers the way I thought I would be. It's also recommended to get in groups and post in those forums, which I did, but it was truly a waste of my time.

Wattpad has its place. What I like about it is that young people read and write. They're being creative and making friends that way. I encourage it for younger people and if my son ever wants to start writing (he's only 8 so it's going to be a while lol) then I would steer him in Wattpad's direction. BUT if you have different goals for your writing, like publishing goals, it can be a good place to engage while you learn craft and what readers want but not for sales. The majority there are young and I don't think they buy much. I've heard from other authors that it didn't make a difference in their sales.

Another thing is the type of work you write. If you write YA or fan fiction then your chances of getting plenty of reads and comments are higher than with original fiction. I found this to be the case with my work that featured a girl of around 17 but it was an adult story. So all just food for thought. :)
 

Ben

Troubadour
Thanks Chesterama,
All useful info.
But now I'm dying to know the plot twist that turned off 98% of your audience...
 
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