Lightning_Stryker Presents: How to Build Your Readership

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Hi everyone! My name is Jay and I am so happy to be participating in my third Wattpad Block Party! It's crazy to think that just a few years back, I had dreamt of being featured in this event and now I get to say I've participated three times! How crazy is that?

With that being said, this year I decided to switch things up a bit. If you're familiar with my past two Wattpad Block Party posts, you know that I introduced you to some of my stories and their silly characters. However, this year I decided to switch things up a bit because I'd love to share some tips and tricks I've learned while being an active part of the Wattpad community.

Before we dive in to all the goodies, I think it's only best that I elaborate a bit more on who I am in the Wattpad community. I joined Wattpad back in April 2015 as an upcoming writer. Previously, I had been on a much smaller writing website that was geared toward female writers named Miss Literati. January of 2014, I started writing my debut sci fi novel titled 'Broken'. At that point in my life, I was very young and only dreamt of somehow gaining an audience who would enjoy the stories and messages that I had to put out there. A few months later, my book was voted as Miss Literati's Story of the Summer. As a young writer who had started just a few months ago, winning this meant the entire world to me. It showed me that I was capable of doing anything that I wanted to put my mind to and also gave me a push forward to continue writing.

In April of 2015, I migrated over to the Wattpad community. Many users on Miss Literati would always fantasize about having their work displayed over on Wattpad because of the endless opportunities it seemed to offer creators. With that being said, my curiosity got the best of me and I began another journey here on Wattpad.

Since 2015, I can say that much has happened that I would never have even imagined. First, I managed to create a short story series based around Peter Pan which helped me find my true home in the short story genre. Secondly, I was inducted into the top 25 in the #OnceUponNow contest. For those of you who don't know what that is, @Target hosted a contest back in 2016 to pick 10 short stories to publish in the Once Upon Now anthology. As a newbie writer, I miraculously made it into the Top 25. I was and still am beyond thrilled! That was literally such an amazing experience and I'm so happy I was able to go through it. It really helped boost my confidence as a writer because it showed me that I really had potential to do something great with the stories I created.

Third, over the past few years I've gotten to connect with all of you! I'm nearing 4,000 Wattpad followers. My book 'Heartbreak Hotline' has reached over 280,000 reads in less than a year. My Twitter and Instagram feeds are always filled with so much love, inspiration, and support. And for all of this, I thank you all. None of this would've been possible without you all by my side! 

And while it may seem like I achieved these accomplishments in a pretty short amount of time, I can honestly say that all of this came bundled with oodles of hard work

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And while it may seem like I achieved these accomplishments in a pretty short amount of time, I can honestly say that all of this came bundled with oodles of hard work. Promoting, networking, and getting yourself out there is a really hard thing to do- especially when you're brand spankin' new to the writing community. And I'm not going to candy coat it- finding a dedicated audience can not only be time consuming, but can get overwhelming at times. So as someone who has had some experience with building an audience, I think this would be the perfect opportunity to share some tips for the new (and growing!) writers out there. Here's what I have learned the past three years on building your readership.

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