I'm not going to lie y'all. I had a really depressing moment yesterday. I saw a story in my feed, clicked on it and my eyes literally came out my socket with how many reads the book had. And the author literally just posted the book a day or two ago.
Now I know I say all these encouraging things, but this one specific time I seemed to forget all my advice.
I went through a laundry list of different emotions. First I was a tad bit jealous, then I got depressed and felt like giving up on writing, then I thought about my loyal readers and was like no- I have to keep going for them.
Then something magical happened later that night.
Last night as you guys know, I went to see Janelle Monae. And while she was on stage and I saw how brilliant her and the other artist on her label were, I remembered when Janelle first started.
She was different. Not many people gave her a chance. But she kept making music. She kept being different. No matter how big or small or fanbase was.
And she didn't give up and she stuck to her message of wanting to empower girls and be a positive remodel, no matter who label her weird.
And eventually the world stopped labeling her weird, actually gave her a chance and now she has more fans than ever.
She could've looked at Beyonce and gave up because she didn't have all those fans. She could've looked at Nicki Minaj and said - hey the hell with the suits let me show off my beautiful body (which she does have underneath those suits. Sistah is snatched).
But she didn't. she stuck to her original intent, and although she might've got discouraged along the way she didn't stop.
After thinking about that, I put things on wattpad into perspective.
1.) It's not life or death. IF you don't get a lot of reads you're not going to die.
2.) Wattpad, unless you have used it to make a writing career like Kainedd who actually had a top charting book on amazon it means nothing. It's essentially the equivalent to the people who are instafamous. Yeah you instafamous but what does that really mean in the real world? What bank can you go cash 3,000 votes at? Is it going to buy you a new car, a new house? Take care of your family? On top of that, who knows you outside of Wattpad? I can't walk on any red carpets like "I'm intellectual 212- I'm on the VIP list." They'll look at me like Bisssh where? 😂😂😂
3.) Wattpad is a hobby. The amount of time we spend worrying about wattpad fame, we could spend actually doing something in the real world. I had to remind myself. I'm in grad school now, I'm going to be somebody's professor one day. A woman with a real life career that will be in the business of changing my student's lives.
It's like some of these Instafamous folks. Yeah people know you on Instagram but you don't have a career nor are you working toward any real life goals that can actually translate into changing the world.
And this is also why you should be patient with Wattpad author's who don't update too frequently, usually when you don't hear from them, that's what their doing. Actually doing something with their lives.
The way my grad program is set up, I get to choose my own course work so I have more time than the usual person who has pre-set course work. And I just so happen to like to use my free time on wattpad because it relieves so much stress to live in an imaginary world. And I need that.
4. Popularity isn't always based on writing ability. I've learned that people are more popular for various reasons.
1.) if there on social media heavy and have developed a big network they will get more audience members. Especially if they are at the forefront of a fanbase.
2.) people read what's popular. If you got a million people reading one book people are going to read it. Even if they don't like it. Why? Because it's like a fad people want to read what's in. That is the absolute only reason I had so many people read the publicist. Some people were loyal yeah, but some folks just wanted to see what the hype was about.
Or folks will read a popular authors just because everybody else is doing it so they seem cool.
3. Content. Let's face it. Wattpad is made up of mostly high school students. Which means they are more apt to read stories that cater to their interest. So if you're writing about some- I don't know- something their parents would read, their not going to read. I'm not a teen, I turned 24, so my writing is not going to reflect a 19 or even 20 year old. (Yessss I'm a grandma in wattpad yrs)
4. Lastly everytime you concern yourself with more readers, you shit on the ones you have. I've been examining my chapters and it's safe to say I have about 600 loyal readers who will vote every single chapter. The rest I don't know where they come from. They cory when they want to I guess. (I've noticed that too, people come out the wood work to vote on certain chapters. Like one chapter might have 600 votes and the other 800. I still haven't figured out why that is."
I don't know who my loyal 600 are, but I thank you each and everyone of you. It's why I do it, why I will continue and I don't take your support for granted.
Hope this helps anyone feeling like I was.
Love ya,
Des
