Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

How do I get reads on Wattpad?

You can't think of it as the gains from a single day or a single week. It's the compilation of everything you've done over months or even years... that will ultimately shape your success. For some of you, that delay gratification might not be there yet. However, if you want to see success, that is the key. These kinds of things are going to take time. The more consistent, reliable, and persistent you are, the more luck you'll have.

This original list made self-promotion its own thing separate from certain other Wattpad features. I felt like they were all similar, so I grouped them all. However, it still can be noted that two features of Wattpad, dedicating chapters and tagging people, are also ways of getting promoting yourself.

It's all about spreading your network. If you were running your website, it'd be called SEO optimization. It fits in the same vein as properly selecting the tags for your book. I'm introducing a lot of different concepts right there, but they all serve the same purpose. They link people to your book and give them another means of reaching you and your work. The more places your book is linked, the more likely someone is to find your book, and ultimately, the more likely they are to read it.

Tag others when you make mentions of your story. Dedicate others when you feel they helped you with a chapter. Link others when you're talking about your book. Every time you interact with the site, with Facebook, with friends, throw another link out there. When you talk on forums, make it part of your signature. If it's seemingly automatic, then most people won't even find it as intrusive. This website used to have forums, which I guess don't exist anymore, invalidating several chapters of this book, but there are plenty of other places for you to talk, engage, and sell yourself.

And I should add, promotion isn't purely just about advertising yourself, it's about making your work as easy to reach as possible, not just so someone sees it, but they see it exactly during that time when they're most motivated to read it. Sadly, this isn't a time you'd ever be able to predict. That's why you need to put out as many breadcrumb trails as you can, hoping that if you do enough you can bring as many people to you as possible. That's when you use your work to shine.

6) Involve Your Audience

I mentioned above that it's always a good idea to ask a question at the end of your story. That's only a single idea to try to get your audience involved. There are many other options to try to make them a part of your story. This may come off as juvenile to established authors, but acknowledging that most people on here are more on the social aspect of writing and in their teens with a small or non-existent fanbase, involving your audience in your stories is a potentially great way to drive up readership.

You can have little contests... offering prizes like a dedication, a follow, or their work critiqued. These will attract people who might otherwise not have been interested, driving up comments, participation, and thus the potential to collect more fans.

However, it can go more than this. You can involve fans in the writing process. You can offer fans the chance to create a character, select a direction, or just ask them which they'd prefer when you come to a choice you can't quite make. Being involved with your fans will give the fans a feeling of excitement too. Many love the chance to see the inside workings of a story.

If you take all of my advice together, take one of those readers who start microediting all of your work. Instead of getting angry, upset, or ignoring them as I would do... you can try making them feel like they're an important part of the team. Not just thanking them for all of their help, but implying that you're looking forward to them continuing to help you improve your grammar and spelling. Make them feel important like they are a part of your community or even a needed part of your community.

7) Realize it takes time.

The final piece of advice isn't so much advice as it is a reality check. I've already mentioned this, but I feel it cannot be stressed enough. If you've done all these things... and in two months you haven't seen success... you haven't given it enough time. Keep working at it. And those of you who have been doing it for a year, and haven't seen success? I'd say the same thing. 10 years? Same.

Keep your enthusiasm at a reasonable amount. If you explode with a 1000 followers overnight? Great. However, more than likely, it'll be a battle to gain a few followers every day. I started writing for money 3 years ago. For six months, I only made $30 a month. It slowly started to grow from there. I didn't one day wake up and I was making six figures. It happened slowly month after month, a steady increase as I build up myself, my brand, and my IPs. That's not even mentioning the six years before that I wrote for completely free without asking for anything. 

No matter how long you've been working at it, keep working at it. It takes time. Do better. Do more. Keep trying. I was listening to a podcast recently and a certain wealthy podcaster stated that there is one consistent thing they've found when it's come to everyone who has made it. That thing was that they kept doing it persistently and never gave up.

You will get there. It may take longer than you hoped, but you will eventually be able to build something. It just requires consistent and perseverant work. Getting fans, getting popular, getting successful... it's all just a matter of continually producing. If you fail? Try again. If something doesn't work? Try something else.

Grow. Try things. Write. Fail. Try Again. Write. Keep Writing. Always Writing. You have it in you to create whatever you can imagine, so go for it.