Publishing vs. feedback on drafts from the Wattpad readers

I was just contacted by an editor to send her my MS. She asked me to take the draft off Wattpad - it was only on for 10 days - because she said that she wouldn't touch it if it was published on Wattpad. She said her marketing department needs to make sure that works can be submitted for industry contests and reviews as a "debut author."

I definitely took my chapters down and submitted. But I was putting up my chapters so I could get invaluable feedback from the Wattpad community. I thought they could make it better since the series is teen romance. The romance writers groups are all women, which is great feedback but not my target audience. Wattpad readers seem to be teens so I thought it would be a great place to help me make my story better. She urged me to put up something I didn't intend to publish on Wattpad, but not anything I wrote from my series.

My question: is this really how it's done? Please teach me.

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I just read a similar post and learned a ton. Thank you all.

Okay, so the publisher was telling me the truth. The MS has already been at a publisher for the last 3 months in the slush pile. Now I sit and wait...again. But I can use Wattpad to get a reaction from the teens to my prose, flow, and approach to plot on a teaser I don't intend to publish. I could do that...

I have not sent out tons of queries yet. I sent four, got four form-mail rejections. What are your thoughts on sending queries?

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@CarlaJHanna If you got four form rejections and no personal ones, I'd take that as a sign you need to do more work. Sometimes an editor will like your story or your writing style, but reject because it's not what they are looking for, but they will usually put in a short note if that is the case.

How closely are you targeting your publisher? Are you sending a query letter on its own, or three chapters and a synopsis?

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@Ctyolene I haven't even started to target a publisher. The four queries I sent were agents that a fellow romance writer suggested I query. I'm teen romance and she is paranormal teen romance so I figured I wouldn't be a fit. But she thought my series would be. I went to a pitch conference in New York and submitted my requested manuscript to an editor this past January. Then I sent the four queries. Then I wanted to work more on the ms with my target audience, get teen feedback so I joined Wattpad. I now took the story down and submitted the manuscript to the editor that read it on Wattpad. That's the extent of my efforts with hooking traditional publishers. Honestly, for a teen audience who is mostly on-line, I figured that self-publishing would be a more direct route for getting my novels read. But I am absolutely new to this market and want to learn. Please.

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@CarlaJHanna Do you have any samples of your work I can read?

I can say that it's not a good idea to pitch a series. Agents would rather get the one great novel that will sell out, and if so, they want to know that you can write another one, but they get very wary when someone tells them it's part of a six book series.

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@Ctyolene Interesting. Thanks for the info about what agents are looking for. I'd be happy to post the first chapter of Loved In Pieces so you can see what both editors requested. Thanks so much for your insight and guidance. The editor that saw it off of Wattpad was from a major publishing house. The editor in January was too, but I assume he passed because that was 3 months ago.

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@Ctyolene I posted a sample: http://www.wattpad.com/4203800-loved-in-pieces-sample-pages-introduction?d=ud. Again, thanks for your guidance in helping me figure out what path I should take toward publication.

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I would definitely be an advocate for the self-published route. I started up a site for it that may be of some help: indieaisle.com. Promoting as an indie author can be overwhelming, but like anything, taking it a step at a time can get you to where you want to go with it. You may eventually learn that you could do more than what the publishers would have offered you!

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@ovidem Thanks! I'll check out your site for sure!

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Thank you everyone. I've learned a ton!

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While you should always do what an agent and publisher tell you. As someone who works in the business, I can tell you that publishing a novel on Wattpad or self-publishing an eBook or print edition does not automatically exclude you from getting a publishing deal for your book or series. Authors David Wellington and Cherie Priest, who now have numerous novels out from major presses, both broke into the biz by serializing their first novels online (which subsequently got picked up for print editions by big name publishers) and Amanda Hocking sold I-don't-know-how-many eBooks herself before a major came courting and picked up those same stories for reprints that she'd already done so well with on her own.

Of course, each publisher has different guidelines, but I've heard from several (including a top agent) that building a brand/fan base around you and your work before shopping a book/series can only help you in this day and age of reduced publicity budgets and massive sea changes in the business. A lot of publishers are looking for more than just a good story nowadays, they also want an author who is web/social media/promotion savvy and is more or less a package deal.

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@deathofcool Thank you so much for your post!

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