So Wattpad is cracking down on Mature stories recently, and basically dishing out mature ratings all over the place. If you didn't know, when your book is marked mature there are restrictions on how accessible your book is to people which means that Mature writers basically aren't given the same opportunities to showcase their work.
I completely understand why books should have ratings on them, but don't suddenly make it ten times harder for mature writers to get noticed on Wattpad. Mature writers still write amazing books, it's just that their books may include scenes that some people wouldn't enjoy.
This is borderline censorship, why shouldn't people write about normal, ordinary things like sex? Why should sex become this whole taboo topic, where books get shunned away if they contain it? As much as I love Wattpad, this is something that annoys me deeply.
And why I am making this rant now? Because one of my books on a different account was placed under the Mature rating, which I would have been ok with if it didn't mean that my book was suddenly at a disadvantage now. The whole concept of my book revolves around a dark theme which, yes, does involve sex. But so what? It's just sex.
This website is supposedly 13+ (although let's be real, it's not) so what's the big deal? Everyone I know that is above thirteen knows about sex, and most of them don't have a problem with that. Sure, I understand if some people don't want to read a book with sexual scenes in it, and that is what a rating is supposed to be for. But don't make my book inaccessible to people just because some people may not want to read it.
This doesn't happen with films, movies rated 18+ aren't shoved to the bottom of the pile because they contain violence or sex! If they were, movies like Deadpool (which is rated R) wouldn't have done so well.
Here is what the Wattpad guidelines say:
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
First off, my book wasn't aimed at 17+, it contained two sexual scenes that were vital to the plot and secondly, I wouldn't have had an issue rating my book Mature if it weren't for these 'restrictions'. It's ridiculous and I honestly think Wattpad is making a huge mistake. Mature stories are still stories, and should still get the same treatment as other books.
Update: Just thought you should know that I tried to test out these restrictions by typing in the exact title of my book that got rated mature (it's a long and specific title) and surprise surprise, my book didn't come up. So then I put the username of my other account next to the book title and still it didn't come up. So I guess these 'restrictions' basically mean that people can't even find your book when they type in the exact title and your username. Wow. Just wow.
Update Update: Turns out that only people who have put that their age is 17+ can find my books, ok that's more reasonable. Still not perfect but more reasonable.
