Cracking the Wattpad Code: Insider Secrets the Pros don't want you to know!

Fixing Wattpad's 'Quality' Problem

When you got to the end of a chapter of a book, what did you do to move to the next chapter? That's right, you swiped to move to the next chapter. Well, what if you all of a sudden, COULDN'T get to the next chapter without voting?

Ah, now there's something interesting now isn't it? We've now required that a reader tell us what they think every time. We can even make this easy for them. 3 Stars is the default. So to move to the next chapter, all you've got to do is leave it on the 3 star setting and move on. 

Why make 3 stars the default? This one's pretty cool. Readers will often feel strongly toward your book in one of two ways. Either they love it, or they hate it. If they don't  care, they'll stay at 3 stars.

This is where we get into quality. If a reader LOVES your book, they are going to take that extra effort of clicking your score up to four or five stars. If they hated it, they are going to vote it down to one or two stars.

Well how can Wattpad motivate a reader to click up or click down? By rewarding their actions with books that match their interests.

Remember Spotify and Pandora? They work exactly the same way. Rate a song or artist  highly and you get more songs and artists that are similar. Rate something horribly and you never ever have to hear that song again.

Pretty neat huh?

Not only that, but Wattpad could actually incorporate another revenue stream here.

At the same time you ASK a reader to rate a chapter, PRESENT an ADVERTISEMENT to them. I mean, might as well right? For Fantasy readers, it can be an ad for an MMORPG. For Romance readers it can be an ad to Tinder or something. I'm sure Google Adsense/DoubleClick/RightMedia or any major Ad Exchange Platform would be more than happy to work something out with Wattpad.

Ok, how does this fix the Hot List? Well, in addition to votes, comments, reads and updates per day, you now have a quality score you can add to the mix that doesn't take 'semantic parsing' capabilities. It's amazingly simple, and now we can see happens and see if that score makes a difference.

Ok, here's  the part where a lot of you are going to hate me.

Wanna know what I really think about the new 'quality score'? I think it's going to do JACK.

That's right, it is not going to do a single thing.

Why's that?

Because writing, like music, is an art.

And art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

It's not like math or science. 1 is 1. Pi = 3.14. There is nothing you can do to the universe that will alter that fact.

But what about Beethoven versus Kurt Cobain? I mean we're pitting a classically trained musician who has spent his entire life writing music against a man who knows maybe ten chords at the most? Who's more popular? Who is gasp, the *better* musician?

How about Tupac versus Justin Bieber? Or Joshua Bell against 1D?

Get my point? It's not ABOUT skill. It never was. This isn't sports, where the fastest or tallest or most skilled makes a world of a difference. It's about having something that appeals to the widest variety of people. 

Because art is subjective.

When I first got here, my writing was extremely florid. I really tried to write in the same way most published authors would. I paid attention to my prose, perfected my syntax as much as I possibly could, and edited like crazy.

But I rapidly realized it didn't matter in this brave new world. 

Why is that?

Because the middleman has been removed

Who is the middleman? Well, another word for middleman is gatekeeper. For as long as we can remember, getting published was a long and laborious process. You had to write and slave for a number of years. And then you had to submit your manuscript to a literary agent. And then you had to suffer through numerous rejections until you finally got the art just right and an agent took you in.

Now, it you're STILL trying to get traditionally published, then by all means, please continue to do what you're still doing. 

But if you aren't, then forget it. If all you want is for your book to be noticed on Wattpad, or to have a self published story that is going to sell more than just a handful of copies, you'd best focus your energies and attention to making sure you have a GOOD STORY.

Do you know Stefan Pylarinos?

Stefan Pylarinos is a popular self-published author who makes a lot of money writing mostly non-fiction books on Amazon Kindle. Stefan has written over a hundred books and the revenue from his books have made him a millionaire. 

But there's something else you need to know about Stefan Pylarinos.

He's only really written three books in his life. And by his own admission, he is a terrible writer.

What's going on then?

Well, here's what will make you mad. Stefan isn't a writer. He's a MARKETER.

What he does is go on Amazon and search for trends. He looks at amazon's search hints and tries to locate a niche he can write a story about. When he finds that niche, he looks at the competition, and determines if he can outrank the competition. When he finds a weakness, he gets to work.

What's work, you might ask?

Well, he spends a LOT of time on coming up with the PERFECT TITLE. "How to get your Ex back in five days." or "How to lose 100 POUNDS in four months", or "Top 3 things you can do today to lose 10 pounds. Hint: It doesn't take any effort!"

Basically he writes a title that is guaranteed to SELL.

And then he writes the book right?

Nope. He then goes to fiverr.com or another freelance website, hires a writer from a third world country like the Philippines or India, and pays them $22 to WRITE THE BOOK FOR HIM.

He then takes the book, packages it up and MARKETS it.

Some books sell, some books don't. But collectively, because he has a library of well over a hundred books, and they all make money.

I'm not saying write crap

Now a lot of you are ready to flame me by now, and I have in fact, donned my flame retardant suit on.

I'm not saying write crap on Wattpad. What I'm saying is this: you've got to understand your market. You need to look at what books are selling here, and then write a book that works for this audience.

This isn't for everyone, and I will agree with that. Some of us write for ourselves. I'm lucky enough that the stuff I want to write about happened to resonate with the audience here. But if you're looking to get success on Wattpad, you do have to be cognizant of this fact.

This isn't "Field of Dreams". You are NOT Kevin Costner, and just because you build it, they aren't always going to come.

You've got to take something you've got and tailor it, so that the audience is able to understand it, and then, like Stefan Pylarinos, you have to MARKET IT. 

Now, I WILL HELP YOU FIGURE OUT THE MARKETING PIECE. That is what I do. I'm a marketer. But you still have to have a product someone's going to want to buy. And no matter how good a marketer is, there is no way they can sell a book that doesn't appeal to anyone. 

Just food for thought. :)