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IMPORTANT UPDATE:
WATTPAD HAVE RECENTLY CHANGED THE WAY THEY RANK STORIES. IT IS NOW BASED ON TAGS, NOT CATEGORIES - MAKING TAGS IMPORTANT, AND CATEGORIES LESS SO (OR POTENTIALLY EVEN REDUNDANT).
IT'S A VERY NEW METHOD, AND I THINK THEY'RE HAVING A FEW ISSUES IN OPTIMIZING IT - SO I WON'T UPDATE THIS TIP UNTIL I KNOW WHETHER IT WILL REMAIN THE WAY IT IS, OR CHANGE AGAIN. BUT PAY MORE ATTENTION TO TAGGING THAN CATEGORIES! AND I'LL UPDATE TIPS 9 & 10 WHEN I KNOW MORE!
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10. Categorise correctly (and tactically)!
When you first publish your story, you need to assign it a category. The category is essentially the genre of your story. It's important to do this correctly so that your book will sit in the right place.
I also say categorise tactically. It's worth bearing in mind that some genres are much bigger than others - romance and teen on Wattpad are HUGE – which means that the potential audience is bigger than for a smaller category (e.g. Paranormal, Action) BUT it means your book has more books to compete against to be seen.
With a smaller genre you may have a smaller potential audience, but a higher likelihood of getting onto the top 100 hotlist (which makes you more visible).
If your book fits into two categories you have a choice to make based on the above - weighing the pros and cons of both. I personally found the smaller category approach worked for me.
As a YA Paranormal Romance, Cupid's Match could technically fit within Teen, Romance, or Paranormal. As an unknown writer, I originally went for the big category (Teen fiction). After a month or so of making very little progress up the ranks, I decided to move it to the smaller category (Paranormal) where I thought it would fit better – soon after it made its way into the top twenty, then the top ten, and then number 1!
If you're going to choose tactically - make sure the category is relevant though! If not your audience aren't as likely to see your book, and so less likely to read it!
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