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

The Tyranny of the Tyrant Book

Warning: this chapter will make me unpopular with Wattpad Management, so I apologize in advance, LOL! :D

Ok, so I've gotten countless PMs from many of you, and this confims one thing and one thing alone - there's been a rather lovely change in YuenRank yet again! :D

Now, I'm always been a big fan of change, and I've always been a believer in the Wattpad team's aim to "make things right" and fair. I don't understand enough of this latest change to make an outright claim, but certain PMs from other authors is now leading me to a new hypothesis, one that is a little disturbing, because it appears to be anti-competitive. However, I won't write about it until I am fairly certain this is indeed occurring.

I have been fortunate enough to still be benefitting and doing well on YuenRank's current iteration. But there is just one thing that bothers me still that I feel YuenRank has not addressed.

Let's use my current book Kuro as an example. Let's say I were to update Kuro and create a Book 2. I would create a brand new cover, tell all my fans about it, and then hope they make a crazy frenzied march to Book 2 and that hopefully Book 2 shoots up the Hot List right? Well, that is totally and completely true in theory.

In practice however, on the new algorithm, it's not always true. In fact, it rather seems like popular authors are being penalized for being "too popular" and there is a negative weight being applied. I can't guarantee this yet, as it is hearsay, but I've seen way too many examples for it to be a fluke. Rumors abound of books from popular authors who are struggling to land on the Hot List despite all the obvious signs that the new book should, in fact do well. [EDIT: They fixed the problem! This is no longer an issue. Good for you Wattpad!]

For one, I know for a fact, that "Cracking the Wattpad Code" is being negatively weighted. I've known it for a very long time. You can see books that are doing far worse than it, with far less reads, votes, and comments per day that just hang in there despite the fact that CTWC kicks their arses in everything else. Remember, an algorithm is logical. It can't do one thing and another in a different case unless it is programmed specifically to do so.

Now, I can understand completely why Wattpad would weight this book negatively. It's not exactly what I would call "mainstream", and some of the ideas here are a little out there, and in my mind, probably more than just a bit bothersome for Wattpad. So I get it completely, and I don't mind it in the least. At least I understand the "why".

But negatively weighting authors' works just because they are popular seems rather odd. There's no motivation for it, and there's certainly no advantages to it that I can see for either Wattpad or the author. And yet, that seems to be what's going on with this new algorithm. And maybe I'm just imagining it at this time, and there's something else at work that I don't understand. As I've said, I cannot confidently say at this time.

Now, I get it. Wattpad wants equal opportunity for all, not just popularity for a select few. But if that's the case, Wattpad should start by correcting the "Tyrant Book" flaw.

What is the "Tyrant Book", exactly? Put simply, it is a book that continues to capitalize on the success of an older, more established book. Are you a popular author with 500K to a million reads on one of your stories? Are you struggling to get Book 2 noticed?

Boy do I have the ultimate tactic for you!

Take Book 2, and put it right into Book 1! Better yet, take Books, 2,3,4,5,6,etc and put them ALL into the same damn book! No, seriously, for those of you who don't believe this works right now, take a long hard look at the current Hot List! You're gonna see books that say "Hey, I know this looks like Book 1, but trust me, it's Book 4 now, keep reading!", which is absolutely Ruh-Dic-Uh-Lous.

How the Tyrant Book exploit works

Here's why it works. How many people do you think are following my book Kuro right now? Several thousand? That's probably fair. Now, what would happen if I started a brand new one? Maybe a few would follow and see that? But not all of them would notice.

HOWEVER, if I updated Book 1, how many do you think would notice?

That's right.

100%.

Every single reader who has it in their library would know. Now, imagine the snowball effect of that over one, two, three, four, five books in a row. How would you like to get the power and credit of four books in a single book? Imagine how many votes and comments and reads you'd get on that versus a single book. Staggering isn't it? Enough to catapult you into the #1 slot by default? In many cases, yes it is.

Now, you don't have to get into an academic argument with me on this. Let's use common sense. If the trick DIDN'T work, why the hell else would an author want to stick Book 2 into Book 1? I mean, has that ever been done before? Lord of the Rings was one giant book that was chopped into a trilogy, so I can see that being the case, but why would you just call it Book2 and be done with it? Why does it have to be a part of Book 1?

Because it works as a massive ranking booster right now. Getting 3X, 4X, 5X times as many votes and comments versus other books is pretty darn amazing, isn't it?

The exploit works like a charm in the current environment.

In fact, it works so well right now, it's like sprinkling fairy gold dust on a unicorn horn with a four-leaf clover thrown in for good measure. 

Why the Tyrant Book is a bad idea

Well, think about it. Only a few astute authors know about the exploit at this time. But what if more knew about it? Can you imagine what would happen? You would get Star Wars Episode Six, but wait, it looks suspiciously like Book 1. "No, young padawan, trust me, it's book six, but this is the only way I can rank well on the Hot List right now", winks George Lucas. "Lord of the Rings the Desolation of Smaug", but hey the cover looks like the "Fellowship of the Ring". "No it doesn't," says Peter Jackson and JRR Tolkien together. "Uhh...yes it does, guys."

If Wattpad doesn't reverse course and stop penalizing new stories from popular authors, we are going to see a massive influx of Tyrant Books hitting the Hot List and the disturbing trend isn't going to stop.

So this new algorithm needs a little fine tuning, in my humble opinion. And since we're focusing on making things fair, why not start with Tyrannosaurus Rex? :D

Hey, I think it's time for me to create my own Tyrant Book on Wattpad. :D 

Cracking the Wattpad Code Book SEVEN: The complete regurgitated, redone, reinvented, remodelled, and renovated, rehash. Anyone up for it?