The hardest part of starting a oneshot book is definitely drawing people in.
There is one common mistake I see people make consistently, and that is uploading the first chapter (and by that I mean the authors note or introduction) without having other chapters behind it. This is a common way to get people to stop reading fast or just blantantly ignoring your book. I recommend having at least 3 or more chapters but it doesn't matter if you have less! This makes readers more likely to interact because there's more stuff.
Another common mistake is having a lot of author notes. While it is good to have an author note I recommend keeping it on one page or when you need to urgently make it its own chapter. However though, if you are going to do an authors note please signal its an authors note because readers can and will mistake it for a chapter (my personal technique is putting an emotional signal for what chapter is like fluff 🌞, angst ☹, etc. You can use whatever emotion though I use these so you can use whatever you want.). Remember to not feel bad for posting an authors note, I literally posted an authors not from a hospital in the emergency room on my deathbed (/srs) telling people I might not be able to upload for a while (it's deleted now for unwanted attention-), so remember author notes are good just not flooding the book!
DO NOT forget trigger warnings. I cannot stress this enough DO NOT ignore these, people can have genuine breakdowns from these, though don't overdo the trigger warnings and add too many people will get the gist of it and you don't need a million different ones (I'm a victim of adding too many). There is a difference from an action happening and mentioning it, mentions may still be triggering but less than actually describing in detail of what happened.
Use a lot of tags!!! This will make sure people see it opening a larger audience, especially if you get specific, people love specific tags! Though people do say what to expect in the description looking through the tags can reveal a lot more!
If it's discontinued, just leave the book alone. If your book is discontinued or finished unless it is about the book don't update it, especially with discontinued books as this will get readers to think new content came out.
Use good grammar and make it look like it came from a book, not a play! I've been victim to reading this a lot. I personally recommend checking over the things you write in a Google doc or anything else that will help correct your writing and make recommendations. Personally for me to make myself more fancy I'll go onto the Google dictionary and insert a word and look for synonyms that sound more accurate to what in trying to say and sounds more fancy, just a little trick! :]
These are all for now, happy writing! Have fun drawing in your readers! I know nobody is going to want more advice but if you have any more questions for advice then just ask or pm me! If you hate my advice PM me- I'm still learning new stuff everyday about writing so this is just small advice from a small creator!
YOU ARE READING
Tips for starting your oneshot book from an (un)professional!
RandomTips on how to wrote your oneshot book for beginners from someone who's been writing on wattpad for almost 2 years! While I will do my best to give great advice please beware I am still a child who is learning to write, however though I do have expe...
