I've been gone for a while. Approximately twenty months. The past year and a half has been the best time of my life, and I'm ready at last to share my story. There's nothing dramatic. A lot of you already know, or you figured it out, but while this account has lain dormant since April 2016, I've been more active than ever.
When I left this account, I didn't go far. I created a new account, somewhere to start fresh, and the following is the write-up that HQ asked me to write about my experience of upping sticks and starting over. This essay is verbatim what I wrote in December 2016, so some facts are now out of date.
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My Experiment Experience
At the end of 2015, I was beginning to feel a little bit disenchanted with my Wattpad experience, and I wasn't sure if it was my writing, my account, or the site in general. Overnight, I had gone from gaining 60+ followers a day, to hardly getting one new follower each day, despite being a member of the stars program. Stories I updated were getting a handful of comments, if any: one update had a solitary comment after a week up, despite having 30,000 followers.
Over three years on Wattpad (I think I created my new account, dipthewick, a month after my 3 year wattpad anniversary), my writing has changed a lot. I don't feel like the stories I have on my main account, justlyd, represent me as a writer and it got to the point that being on that account made me feel kind of sad. I had all these story ideas, but I knew that if I posted them, they wouldn't receive the kind of feedback I used to get and it would only upset me more. As much as I tell other people that numbers don't matter, it's hard to believe that myself after experiencing such a massive drop. The work I am proudest of on my main account, Shrinking Violet, has lingered around the 90,000 reads mark for months, despite being featured, while stories that I don't like have hundreds of thousands of reads each.
I am a writer at heart, and Wattpad is my favourite place to be, so I decided to try something out. Rather than rage-quit, I decided to make a new account and not announce it to my followers. I theorised that the majority of my original followers were probably no longer active on the site, and the majority of my new followers were new users who only followed me because of my fanbase, and the fact that several other big authors follow me. I know that when I joined Wattpad, I initially followed the "famous" authors, and checked out the people they followed too.
The way I saw it was this: I am a far better writer now than I was when I began on Wattpad. I have an extra three years of writing under my belt, and I cannot imagine my life without the site. After all, I have my sights set on working for the company one day! I believe I am a good writer and that my stories are worth reading so the last thing I wanted to do was to give up, but I also didn't want to slave over an account that has had its time, pandering to followers who either followed me for my old works, or for no reason at all.
Turning twenty - leaving my teens - proved to be something of a seminal moment, and a few days later I created my new account, dipthewick. I wanted somewhere I could write what I wanted to write without having to worry about getting feedback: I had no followers, and no-one knew about the account, so I expected nothing. I thought that if the story went well, or if I even completed it, I might move it over to my main account. Initially, I just wanted to be able to write without constantly worrying about stats.
I mentioned to a couple of friends that I had made this account: Leigh (leigh_) and Noelle (hepburnettes). I also told them that I was keeping this account anonymous: I didn't want it to be associated with my main account in any way, as I wanted to see how different people's reactions would be to a "new" writer, as opposed to one who has been around. I am of the opinion that without Noelle, the account wouldn't have had the initial success. After mentioning it to her, she added the book I had posted to one of her public reading lists, therefore giving it visibility to around 160,000 followers, and commented on the first few chapters.
From that, I experienced a burst of activity in the first few days. I figured it was something that would die down, and that it was simply Noelle's followers reacting to her reading something. Within 2 days of posting the first part of my first novel, I had 1,100 reads and every single day, it was gaining 1,000 new reads, despite having just a handful of followers. By the 29th of April, approximately a week after posting the story (Twenty-One Night Stand), it had 10,000 reads. On the 2nd of May, it had 20,000. On the 9th of May, it hit 32,000 reads.
I hasten to point out that I have not been keeping an eye on daily read counts: I am accessing this information through messages people posted on my board, and updates I posted.
After starting the story on the 22nd of April, by the 4th of June I had posted 10 chapters despite having my university exams, a week in Prague, and preparation to go to camp in America. By this point, I had 300 followers and approximately 60,000 reads.
From the 10th of June until the 4th of August, I was at camp and I only updated once. That didn't seem to matter though - by mid-July, the story hit 100,000 reads. Around this time, I think in June, a segment of 21NS was featured on the Cosmopolitan website, after I was asked by Jennifer and promptly forgot once I had said I'd love to be featured there. I don't know if this had much impact on the story, but it is worth mentioning.
Upon finishing camp, I dedicated much of my 2 weeks of travel to writing, updating chapters as soon as I was writing them. I have never held onto an update for longer than the time it takes me to access wifi and post it: I have always been told that it is good to have an update schedule, to keep it to one or two posts a week, but I have been blessed with an incredible group of dedicated readers who read everything I post on that account. Many of them keep up to track with the updates, even if there are two in one night.
At no point have I ever mentioned or hinted that I am justlyd. A handful more people know now, some close friends that I have made through Wattpad and a couple I met through being dipthewick. At the start, I had a few questions on asking if I (as Lydia) was dipthewick, or if I was aware of her. Some people had picked up on similar writing style (Well, identical, I suppose) and the vector covers I make. I never answered these questions.
On the 27th of August, I had 450 followers and 150,000 reads. One week later, that was up to 492 followers and 165,000 reads. Those numbers only continued to climb as I updated and interacted with my fans: I respond to every single comment on the latest chapter I have written, and any questions my users have, or kind comments they leave. Many users have thanked me for being so active and responding to their comments. I also spend a lot of time making my covers, another thing users have praised me for: I'm a firm believer that interaction and aesthetics are two of the most important factors on Wattpad, and good writing is a bonus.
On the 20th of October (one day under six months later) I finished writing 21NS with just over 112,000 words and I think about 250,000 reads, and around 5,500 comments. Now, the 4th of December, I have 1,182 followers and 21NS has 393,000 reads and 5,900 comments.
I had thought that the initial burst of activity would stop soon after I began posting the book. After all, Noelle had only commented on the first few chapters, and I had attributed the book's success to her. But the success only continued, and the book was added to the featured list at the end of October after I reached out to Jennifer (as she had contacted me about being featured in cosmopolitan). Since then, the story has received 2,000 - 4,000 new reads a day with a minimum of 300 unique readers per day - sometimes up to 2,000 unique readers. As I'm sure is obvious by now, I'm a bit of a stats fan so I am very excited about potential additions to the stats page.
On the 22nd of October, 2 days after finishing 21NS, I posted my second novel: The Night Watch. I steeled myself for this to be a "flop" in comparison, as often authors experience massive success on one book that just doesn't translate. With having relatively few followers on dipthewick, I knew that a new story would reach much fewer people than updates of 21NS had.
However, five weeks later (during which time I wrote the entire 153,000 words of The Night Watch), the story has 50,000 reads and surprisingly, 6,600 comments. That's 700 more than 21NS! An incredible group of dedicated readers have travelled with me from book to book, building up a really strong community of friends and readers of my works.
Upon finishing The Night Watch last week, I posted the summary / cast / playlist / epigraph for my next work, a Christmas novella, that already has 2,000 reads despite no actual story content. My follower count is continuing to climb, faster than I had expected. Both of those things would be unheard of on my main account now.
I realise this is probably far more than you wanted to know, but as a stats fan (and recently having undertaken a module in data research and analysis), I have been constantly fascinated by this experiment. While my initial plan was to "come out" as it were once I had finished my first novel, I no longer intend for that to be the case. I am a thousand times happier on this account. I am logged in 24/7; I use the app for hours every single day, whereas I rarely ever used it with justlyd. I am engaged with my followers, and they are engaged with me. I can't wait to post every night. One thing I have found is that no matter what time I post, whether it is 3pm GMT or 3am GMT, and everything in between, I experience little to no dip in feedback. My readers across the world seem to have as erratic a schedule and sleeping pattern as I do!
Ok, so the part you're most interested in, I suppose. These are the reasons I believe this account has been such an overwhelming success.
1: Readers are inherently nicer to users they perceive to be new. They are more inclined to comment, as they feel new writers more deserving, especially if they think they are underrated. Many users have told me (as dipthewick) that I am way underrated on the site, and they wish I had more reads and followers. Therefore, they are more inclined to comment, and to show their support.
2: Readers are less intimidated by "small" writers. I have had many users tell me on justlyd that they have been scared to approach because of my follower count, assuming I wouldn't have the time for them. There is definitely a trend that bigger authors have less time/patience to interract with followers, and I fell victim to this. Despite no change in my behaviour (making covers for people; responding to every comment; chatting with readers) on justlyd, users were less inclined to interact with me as I got more "famous". This is not a problem on dipthewick: with 1182 followers, I am seen more as an equal, and someone they can talk to.
3: I am writing what I want to write. I think this must be more evident in my writing. I believe it is the best my writing has been, and many users have commented on the quality of my writing - despite daily updates!
4: The stories are mature. This is counterintuitive, as mature stories are a lot harder to find, but I believe my works fall into a more niche category. A lot of mature works are "steamy" romances, very adult in nature, but with my works on dipthewick, I have tapped into something that a lot of readers say they wish they saw more of: realistic young/new adults in relatable scenarios, representing a range of ages/genders/sexualities and showing sex in a positive, normal light. It is not necessarily the highlight of the story but it adds an element that readers seem to have been missing.
5: I have good covers. I work hard on my covers, to create images that represent the characters and the storylines. By vectorising images, I have a lot more freedom to create an image I want, and to ensure characters on the cover match characters in the books (race/gender/actions). By looking at the covers, readers know what they're in for.
6: Readers know what to expect. They know that I will update as soon as I have written a chapter, and they know that I write my chapters very fast. Many have told me that they find themselves constantly updating their newsfeeds to see if I have updated, going to show that they are dedicated to my stories and to me.
7: I am genuine. Although I write under a pen name - and my readers know that it is a pen name, and many know that it is not my first account on Wattpad, but they know no specifics - I give readers as much honesty as I can. I interact with them in my author's notes, providing snapshots of my life and what I am up to. I just have to be careful that I don't share the same anecdotes on any of my "main" social media!
8: I involve my readers. I engage them with their theories about where the story is going, and I occasionally incorporate their ideas into the story, showing just how important and influential they are!
9: The account is in its honeymoon phase. It is still new and exciting and users see it as such, and many want to be a part of something if they think it may be "big" in the future.
10: My account is aesthetically pleasing. My covers are clear, easy to read, and my bio clearly lays out information about my stories and a little about myself.
For now, that is all I can think of, though I'm sure you're wishing I'd said that 2,000 words ago! I hope this helps.
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I have been incredibly lucky. After teetering on the verge of leaving Wattpad, I instead found a new lease on life. I owe major thanks to hepburnettes for supporting me back then and giving me a boost, and to all of my friends who supported me when I told them about my move. I'm sorry to those of you I abandoned - I needed to do this for me, and rest assured, I am still here.
My new - my main - account, hennwick, has come on in leaps and bounds since I first started. Since April 2016, I have completed seven full novels and two short stories, totalling over 1.3 million words and a stunning 7,000 followers in 20 months, and I couldn't be happier. My Wattpad obsession has only grown - I finally got to visit the Toronto HQ a couple of times in 2017 while at university in Ontario - and I am so thankful to everyone.
Along the way, there have been people who guessed that I am Henn. Some politely questioned; some went behind my back; some were aggressively accusatory. It's always sad to see that kind of negativity, but the vast majority of people have been incredibly supportive and kind when they find out - whether through meeting me at the fantastic Wattpad Convention in October, or me telling them.
My biggest thanks my far go out to my best friend, Sophie Magicallycursed. Without her, I don't know where I'd be. She has been my rock for over a year now, and I can't thank her enough for everything she does for me: she is everything and everyone a best friend should be, and it is with her endless support and encouragement that I finally feel able to open up to all of you. Thank you so much, Soph, as if those words can ever sum up my gratitude for you and our friendship.