MY WATTPAD 101

My story : Post-publishing steps

Congratulations, you have made it! You hit publish and your story can be seen by millions of people. It's quite a bold step if you ask me - to put something out and hope for the best. It takes bravery and courage to do so and please, give yourself a pat on the back of you've published something on here - or anywhere really.

If you are anything like me, the moment the first chapter goes live, you view it as a reader and give it a vote (or maybe not, it might be just me). You are extremely excited to read something you've written and you can't wait for others to do so as well. You sit and wait for notifications, comments and messages from people who've liked the story (I know private messages don't exist on here anymore).

But also, if you are anything like me, none of those things happen. The number of reads and votes remain constant (1 by yours truly) for days, weeks or even months.

It's disheartening. Wattpad has 90 million active users and you story can't get a few hundred reads? It's either bad luck or your story ain't good - that's what you tell yourself.

Worry not darling. That's so not true. You don't have bad luck and your writing isn't the worst there is. Like any platform, it takes time to gain traction on here and as much as there a few exceptions that blow up in two months or less, that shouldn't be your goal. Don't give yourself crap because you aren't blowing up.

What should you do instead?

1) Keep writing:-
If you've read some 'how-to-wattpad' books like this one, most emphasize that you update your story at least once a week. While this could apply to some writers, it definitely doesn't apply to new writers.

What do I mean?

Since you are a new writer with  few followers and nobody is checking out your story yet, your publishing schedule doesn't matter. Even if you upload two chapters per day, a chapter daily, it's still okay. You are literally publishing for yourself at that point, there's no reason to hold back if you have completed chapters waiting in your drafts.

This helps you in two ways

- you can finish your story faster. People love completed stories, believe it or not. I don't read incomplete stories unless they are from a popular writer that I follow. And since you aren't on that level yet, keep publishing till you mark that story complete. You'll have more chances of people reading it than when it's ongoing.
- it's good for the algorithm. The algorithm ranks stories according to frequency of publishing and the amount of traction it has. As a writer, you don't have control over traction but you can definitely rely on frequency of publishing to trigger the algorithm. If your story keeps climbing in ranks, it has more chances of being discovered which will increase the traction and the increase in traction only makes it go higher and higher in ranks.

So, the trick is really to keep writing and uploading.

But again, don't publish bad chapters to beat the algorithm. Take your time, edit them and publish them only when they are ready and readable.

You can then alter your publishing schedule after you've hit some milestones and are able to interpret your Wattpad analytics and determining when your readers are active.

2) Promote yourself:-
I say this all the time and I'll say it again; please promote yourself. The Wattpad algorithm can only do so much. There's thousands of stories being uploaded daily and you have to compete with all those to be seen. If you wait for the algorithm to push you, it's gonna take a while.

How do you promote yourself?

- social media: let the world know where they can find your writing and what to expect from it. Create character art and aesthetics, playlists and cute reels or TikToks. Link your Wattpad profile in your social media bio.
- message board: utilize your message board to tell your few followers, however few they are, about new chapters and other communications about your stories
- Book clubs: there are book clubs here on Wattpad which you can search up, join and participate in. Some pair you up with someone who reads your story and you read theirs as well and both of you exchange feedback and constructive comments.
- Shout outs: remember when I said something about making friends on here in chapter one? Politely ask those to help by giving you shout-outs on their profiles, stories and social media accounts
- mini awards: there's a mini awards culture on here where individuals hold awards for different categories. Look those up, see if your story qualifies and submit it. If it wins, its gonna be shouted out, given a sticker, placed in community reading lists which will increase your exposure.
- mini communities and fandoms: occasionally, you'll find mini communities on here conducting awards, cover designs, interviews and also accepting entries to their reading lists. Submit to them and if you are eligible, you will definitely get featured

Do not:
- spam people with links to read your story / post them on people's message boards. It's very very rude
- don't leave links in another writer's story's comments. It's also rude.
- trade votes and reads. You are gonna get action block, dishonest votes and reads. As a writer, do you really want that? Be genuine.

I hope this chapter has been helpful and leave a vote if it makes sense to you. Leave a comment and lemme know if any of the above methods work for you and feel free to experiment other things as well.

I'll see you again in the next chapter: how to get more reads and votes!

Until then, stay safe. All love.

Ps: talking about promotion, I also have a YouTube channel where I talk about writing advice, motivation and self improvement. If any of those topics interest you, the link is in my bio. Thank you!

And if you get there, tell me in the comments that you are from Wattpad, so, I can give you or your story a shout-out!