How do I get more reads, votes, and comments?
If you find yourself asking that question, then I have some answers for you.
What can you do to reach out to readers and potential readers? How can you encourage readers to comment and vote? What are...
Check the title of the reading list they added it to. If it's called, 'Books I Love', they've just let you know they're one of your silent readers. Be sure to thank them for reading.
People who follow you
Sometimes it's obvious why a person has just followed you. They're already voting or commenting on your story, they've just made friends with you, or perhaps they've just followed you out of the blue. They could be a random person, or they could be one of your silent readers. In any case, you should always be sure to thank them. When you do, be sure to mention your stories by name. You never know. If it's some random person, they might be intrigued enough by a title to take a look.
Should you follow them back as part of your thank you?
I often get asked about whether you should automatically do a 'follow back', or do it if the person who has followed you asks for it. My answer is always this - Only follow those author's you admire, or friends. There are two reasons why.
1) If you follow a whole bunch of random people, your news feed becomes so cluttered, you can't see what the really important people to you are saying or reading, and that's a real loss.
2) As I said in the previous chapter, there are those who will follow and unfollow people to cheat the system. If you make it a policy to only follow those cool people you've come in contact with, you can be sure you'll never fall into this trap - and your news feed will be totally awesome!
One thing you should never do? Spam random people, begging them to read your story.
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Whether done on someone's message board or via pm, it comes across as desperate and it's really not welcome by the majority of people you're spamming. Do you really want to take a chance that you might have just permanently turned off someone who, if they were to stumble onto your story on their own, they might have decided to read it? If enough people complain about your spamming, you may get a warning from an ambassador or employee of Wattpad asking you to stop.
If someone has written on their profile that they welcome story suggestions or are open to reading requests, then it's okay, but please be polite and check first.
Most importantly, never ask people to read your story or post a link to it as a comment in another person's story. That kind of spamming is actually not allowed under Wattpad's Terms of Use.
In all my time here on Wattpad, I've never approached someone out of the blue and asked them to read my story. I've never felt I needed to. And even though I specifically state on my profile IN BIG BOLD CAP LETTERS WITH STARS ALL AROUND THAT I AM NOT OPEN FOR READING REQUESTS, I still get spammed. Believe me, it's just not a good idea.
There are enough terrific ways for you to get feedback even if you don't have very many readers without you having to resort to those methods. There are a lot of people willing to give you a critique (usually in exchange for you giving them a critique) and there are people looking for writing buddies (two people helping each other out with their writing. You can find them by searching for them using search engine since most use a Wattpad story to advertise their services.
