Success on Wattpad: Tips for Getting Reads and More

Part 4: Playing the Algorithm

OK so I apologize in advance, the title of this part is kind of clickbaity. There's not really any such thing as "playing" the algorithm, but you *can* do your best to try to understand it.

The main thing you need to know about the algorithm, about ANY social media algorithm, is the sole purpose is to make the platform money. When you drill down that's all there is to it. It's not to push the "best" content forward, it's to bring in and circulate as much traffic on the platform as possible so as to create as much ad revenue as possible. So you need to think about what you can do to show the algorithm that you can draw a crowd. 

The simple, yet frustrating answer to this is...you have to draw a crowd. 

I know, I know. But think of it like a snowball. It will likely be tough at first—maybe the snow you're using is too slushy and won't stick together (a.k.a your writing...isn't that good yet), that's OK, you're still learning. You're allowed to suck at things when you're first starting out, you know. Most of us do. But just know that the first thing you need is the right type of snow—a.k.a a story that people want to read. 

Once you have a nicely-packed snowball you need to find more snow to roll it in to make it bigger—this would be avenues where readers congregate like critique clubs, similar writers to you who have communities a little bigger than yours, Reddit etc. (NOTE: DO NOT ADVERTISE YOUR SLUSHY, MALFORMED STORY ON OTHER PEOPLE'S PROFILES AND STORIES. IT MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE A CLOWN AND IT WILL JUST GET DELETED.)Instead offer insightful comments about someone's story. If it sounds like you know what you're talking about there's a good chance the author, and some of their readers, will check out your stuff. 

This is where a dope cover and description come in. When people finally DO come to check you out, there needs to be something that draws them in. And in this case people absolutely can and will judge a book by it's cover. 

So, you continue collecting snow (readers) like this. If you're lucky you'll run into a nice big patch of snow—an editor or content scout of some kind—who will highlight your story on the main page and get more eyes on it. But again, this can only happen if your story is not a pile of dirty slush. Study what makes a story addictive. That could be reading books and websites about writing or even studying the stories right here on Wattpad you love and analyzing what makes you like them. 

Now comes the fun part. You keep uploading, you have more and more chapters for readers to vote on, and as you collect reads and votes the snowball gets bigger and heavier and starts to gain it's own momentum. This is the algorithm finally acknowledging your existence—showing your story in people's suggested pages and on the search results for your story tags. 

Oh, and that's another important part of enticing Madam algorithm. Go to the site and see which tags and trending and which apply to your book, and make sure to use all the tags you have space for. 

Learning to work with the algorithm is a HUGE part of getting your book in front of readers, but it's not the end all be all of success, especially if your goal is to get published/make money. There's one final move that's vitally important for any creative looking to one day stand out in the crowd. More on this soon!

Fun fact: I'm applying all these strategies to my baby YouTube channel RIGHT NOW. I'm at 60 subscribers and it feels so nostalgic, like my early days on Wattpad. I also have a couple Q&A videos up where I talk about all this stuff. So head over to the link in my Wattpad profile and subscribe to see a content creator battling it out with the algorithm in real time. How long do you think it will take me to hit 1000 subscribers? ;)