A guide full of tips and tricks that hopefully doesn't recount the same old stuff in every other writing book under the sun, Wattpad and published alike. Covering everything from helpful resources like Susanna's Pacemaker to treating setting like ch...
I have thus far avoided touching on topics specific to Wattpad. The Random and Non-Fiction sections are chock full of other books (like this one, but obviously not as wonderful) that contain troves of advice on how to get reads and up stats and unravel the mysteries of the Wattpad algorithm.
I don't want to get into that too much because I really don't know that much about the black magic that is the Wattpad algorithm. We are going to talk about tags, contests, and finding your audience.
Why Contests are Always a Win
Once in awhile, I'll come across a post in the forums from a writer too nervous to enter their book in one of the many Wattpad contests and awards that periodically go on around the site.
This is ridiculous. I will tell you why: entering a contest guarantees you at least one reader. Someone from the contest account will get their eyes on your book, at the price of you filling out one measly little form. That's one more chance that someone will like what they see and keep reading and that's really all you can ask for on Wattpad anyway. Even if you don't win, you get at least one reader for practically nothing.
Even better, some contests will post a review and a rating as part of their contest or awards process. A review! Just for filling out a little form.
Another reason you might not have considered is this: maybe you don't win. Maybe there are just better stories in your category. But you know what? You might have a handful of the same tags. You'll definitely share the same #contestawardtag required by the contest for easy tracking. You probably have the basic genre tag in common if not a few other things (you were entered in the same category, after all). Maybe you didn't win the contest, but you might just get the chance to ride on the coattails of the winner. You know all those 'Because You Voted on 'I Am Badboy Trash' type recommendations you see in your feed? Yeah, that'll be your book popping up for everybody who read the contest winner.
And you know what kind of people are good at contests? People who work hard to promote their stories and be involved in the community. So you're not just riding the slipstream of people who are barely a blip on the radar, you're giving yourself a connection to people who put measurable effort into finding their audience.
And that is why you should enter every contest. Follow Award accounts, vote on them, get similar award books to pop up in your recommended list (because they have similar tags, of course). Follow writers who enter contests and pay attention to your newsfeed for what they're entering and voting on. Some people (like me, for example) keep a reading list of contests for easy access. Find those contests!
Finding Your Audience
So, entering contests is one way to connect yourself to find an audience, siphoning off other writers with similar tags (and, therefore, hopefully similar themes/stories). What if the genre of a book is unclear? How do you decide which genre to list it in so that it finds the people who want to read it and the people who want to read it find it?
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
