The life of a Secret "Ultimate Fan-Girl"

Wattpad writer or Self-Published Author? The pros and cons!

Note before I get into the chapter: I ordered a Chiaki cosplay and it's just come today, just waiting for staff to bring it up, so follow my danganronpa Instagram, @ its_cinnamono_kuma if you want to see photos of that!

So since I'm both a wattpad writer and a self published author, I thought it was only right I answer this question! A lot of people who start off on wattpad, then begin publishing paperbacks or kindles leave wattpad completely. But I came back. In a way, as I'm not posting my mainstream works here anymore.

Let's start out with wattpad!
Wattpad is where I started publishing my stories, it was the first ever taste of having a community around your stories that I ever got! It took about a year of writing stories upon stories (most unfinished) to build a genuine community, but I got there! Due to not having to meet any requirements before publishing, wattpad is forgiving and it's where I found my preferred writing style and genres to write in! There was also a big community of writers to read works for free! (There didn't even used to be adverts!) And one thing is for sure, if you write fan-fiction, you're absolutely in the right place! (I think fanfiction.net died a long time ago..)

That being said, wattpad is not somewhere to learn from if you want to pursue a career as a writer! I used to think I was pathetic at writing for not winning watty's awards, but upon actually reading wattys award books, I realised that these books are nothing like books you will find in a store- many breaking 'novel rules.' If you want to learn how to write proper novels, I highly recommend Jenna Moreci on you tube! And reading paperbacks so that you can clearly see formatting.

Another problem with wattpad is that you're probably not going to earn any money, so it's not really a career- trust me, I got a reply from wattpad after they asked me if I wanted to be a part of the coins programme before it released, and they said I would be,  but I never was (other acc.)

I do believe they have a novel service now, but you have to basically have a million reads to even be considered and it's kind of a pointless battle because even then, I don't think being a wattpad novel is something most readers look out for- in fact, most people just associate wattpad with cringe.

Pros:
-Great place to experiment.
-You will build a community faster than publishing.
-No need to learn advertising.
-Nothing on wattpad has to be perfect.
-Meeting other authors/aspiring authors.

Cons
-Reading on wattpad isn't the best way to learn.
-You probably won't make a career out of being a wattpad writer.
-Only certain types of books tend to get a lot of reads.

Who I would recommend wattpad to:
-Young authors
-Authors experimenting with new ideas
-Fanfiction writers
-People who want to write for fun!

Now self publishing:
My god, is self publishing a journey. And I do not recommend doing what I did- which was spontaneously publish my manuscript one day, after doing no research.

The thing with self publishing is that there's such a emphasis from other self published authors to make sure your book is flawlessly edited. And I did not succeed this with my first poetry collection (which I still need to re-edit.)

Advertising is something you need to learn to be outstanding at as well if you want to make sales (and I'm not)

Personally I don't know if I want to continue being a self published author or if I'd rather go down the traditional route.

That being said, self publishing is definitely something.... Holding your own book for the first time in your hands, professionally printed, is just a feeling I can't even explain.

If you go with a print on demand site that doesn't have an upfront cost as well, you aren't going to lose any money, either- even if you don't sell any copies! And buying author copies is a lot cheaper as you're only paying for printing.

Pros:
-You can make money!
-People will finally take you seriously when you tell them you're an author!
-.... The feeling when you publish your first........

Cons:
-If you want your book to do really well, you have to be very good at advertisement.
-You have to learn how to format and edit properly.
-You will be taken the piss out of if you publish something shitty and people find out about it(*cough* Gabbie Hanna's poetry books)
-Your book may be hard to find at first, and you might have to give people a code or link to buy it because new books often don't come up when you search for their title and author name.
-If you're taking it seriously, it will become your life.
-Fanfiction does not sell well from what I've heard. (Other than mangas)

Who I recommend self publishing to:
-Authors who have been writing a long time and know their style and genre.
-Authors who want to be taken seriously.
-People who want writing to be their career (even if you end up switching to traditional publishing)

I hoped this helped someone! There is tons more to learn about self publishing if you're considering, I'm happy to help but you should do research on it!