How to Hit the Hot List - Standing out in the World of Wattpad

Step 1: Write, and Write Well

Step 1: Write, and Write Well

This may not be what you want to hear, but the first step towards getting your work noticed on Wattpad is actually creating some. (Shocking, I know!) Write. Write a lot. Write it as well as you can, and make use of your spell checker. Then, unless you're pretty confident with your technical writing skills, have someone go over it for you. 

Do you know how many one page, "This is my idea for a book, it's going to be awesome!" stories there are on here? Thousands. Most of them aren't even very good. Even worse, some of them are very good but never get past page one. Because of this, many readers have learned to skip over anything without at least a certain number of pages. (How many pages that is varies from person to person, but I'd imagine it's at least three for most people.)

Even if it's good writing, people aren't going to want to invest in something extremely short. Imagine yourself at the store, shopping for a treat. Are you going to buy the bag with one M&M in it? Or the one with one hundred? Finding a good story here is enough work that some people won't even click in to check it out unless they think they might get more than two minutes of reading out of it. 

It's important that whatever you do write be of good quality. Bad spelling, improper grammar, misuse of punctuation and unskilled storytelling can prompt your readers to discard in two seconds something you took two days to write. I have another book called "The Writer's Clinic" (look it up) in which I have given detailed advice about the craft involved in writing a story. It may take time, but you can polish your work enough to convince your readers that you are a serious writer.

Once you have enough of your story written that you're ready to publish it, proceed to Step 2.