From Wattpad to Published Author - My Journey

NaNoWriMo

November was just around the corner, and I had a whole month to myself before I flew to Australia. Wattpad was at the forefront of my mind (I had thoroughly researched it as part of my assignment) but I hadn't uploaded anything yet. This was about to change.

I heard about NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month from a Facebook group I was part of a few days before it started. It challenges authors to write fifty thousand words in just one month. It seemed perfect for me. I had an idea for a book, one that combined everything I loved about fantasy into one story. It was the book I needed to write. The book I had hunted for in the shelves of dusty book stores, but couldn't find. A book that popped up in my dreams, that I found myself writing in my head with every spare moment I had.

So I sat down and wrote the first chapter and uploaded it to Wattpad, using a cover I made using Microsoft Paint. The next day, I wrote the second. It had maybe sixty reads at that point. I was amazed. I was willing to pay people to read my work and tell me what they thought, but now people would do it for free! One person, going by the name Achilles, wrote a review on every chapter in the early days. Perhaps if he had not done me that one kindness, I would not be where I am today. Every chapter was for him, just to get his thoughts on it. Then other people started commenting. Twelve days later, I had hit twenty-five thousand reads.

At this point, I knew I had something special. People were really enjoying my work, and although there were other books with millions of reads on Wattpad, their authors had been members for years. So I kept going, staying up into the early hours of the morning to make sure my promise of a chapter each day was kept. On a day I missed a chapter, my birthday, I received dozens of disappointed, even angry, messages from people all over the world. It was crazy!

At some time during all this, I hired an artist called Malgorzata Gruszka who I had worked with before to illustrate my front cover. Little did I know that the character we designed together would eventually grace the cover of my published book, which would eventually be printed and sold in every continent in the world.

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If you are enjoying reading this, please don't hesitate to vote! Feel free to comment and ask questions, I'll always try and respond when I can :). Don't forget to look out for Summoner: The Novice in your local bookstores or if you're feeling extra excited, you can preorder the book using the links on my profile, or searching for it in your usual online bookstore. 

All the best! 

Taran