Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

How do I get reads on Wattpad?

The vast majority of the chapters I've put in this book have always been focused on improving specifically as a writer. In general, I've dedicated a sparingly few chapters to purely Wattpad help, despite this book being called Wattpad 101. There are a few reasons for this. One reason is that Wattpad is always changing. Half of my advice in this very book no longer applies, as it referred to conditions and features that did not exist when I wrote it. 

The other reason is that although my start was on Wattpad... I never really got very far with it. I've never moved from that lowkey popularity of 1000 followers to the 5-, 6- or dare I hope 7-digit varieties (1 million fans).

I've tried a hand full of books, and while I know what essentially must be done to get a book popular, I've already built a fanbase elsewhere, and haven't felt like it would be worth the cost/reward ratio that I've had to start factoring in as all of the work I could do piles up.

However, a commenter recently gave their opinion on some of the things someone must do to grow a fanbase on Wattpad, and I realized that while I've written chapters like this in the past, I've never flat-out made a list focusing purely on how to get reads as a starting author.

I believe a LOT of readers who look at my book were looking for this answer, and it's probably a good idea to explore what it takes to start to build a fanbase on Wattpad. I'm going to move this chapter near the front of my book because I think 9/10 Wattpaders want to know this over any writing advice. It's about time this book earns the name Wattpad 101.

So, the question? How do you get your story to grow from 0 readers on up? These are seven points that were suggested by another writer. I've dedicated them in this chapter, as I will be using their points and expanding on them with my own experience. Some of these points I've made before, but I've never put them all together quite like this.

1) Make a Good Cover and a good summary.

I have a chapter on illustrators and book covers that you're welcome to read, but one of the main points I tried to get across is that a good cover matters. I've had to argue with some people on this point, as they will insist that as long as the story is good, covers don't matter. After all, take fanfiction.net, which doesn't have any covers, yet some works can still get thousands of views.

First off, fanfiction.net writes fanfiction. By very nature, that is copyrighted material. That's why they avoid covers. Furthermore, the people attracted to those writings are almost certainly being called by the IP (intellectual property) the story is based on, which likely do have tons of covers.

A good book cover will go a long way toward selling your book. I've always strongly felt that my support of covers and willingness to spend money to make them is part of what has elevated me from a generic web novel writer to the "popularity" I currently have.

I will also add a second point, the summary matters too. This is something I fail in a lot. I will often just depend on my story to be good to attract people, and I'm pretty sure this causes a lot of people to miss the stories I write. Personally, when I look through stories, I will often pass stories that don't have a complete summary or whose summary is vague and generic. Why would I assume anyone else does anything different?

The first thing anyone sees about your book, and the only thing that will get them to click on that first chapter, is the book cover and the summary. This is your shot to get them to click on yours out of a long list of stories they are glancing through. The better and more eye-catching it is, the more people you'll catch.

As to how to make a book cover that looks great, or how to write a summary... I've had some chapters on this, and I also think your best bet is to use the community here and ask. Do surveys comparing 3-4 summaries and have people pick the one that they like the most. Try out different summaries and see if your readership picks up. I'm going to say more about this later, but this is going to take time. Nothing will give you instantaneous success.