Frequently Asked Questions

Social activity is the key to success on Wattpad. Even if your stories aren’t getting much traction yet, you can always sell yourself and get engaged with the community. Making friends is one of the best ways to gain readership because friends read friends’ stories. It also helps you forge connections that can be beneficial in a business sense. You might receive valuable advice or become connected with members of broad communities who can give you their support.

• Update regularly to encourage buzz from a newly engaged audience, plus get feedback as you write.
• Follow, comment, vote, and respond to your readers to encourage engagement.
• Take advantage of Wattpad’s multimedia capabilities to make your stories stand out.
• Add a cover to your story (stories with covers get an average of 23x more reads).
• Include links to your website or other social networks in your Wattpad profile.
• Share your Wattpad profile and updates across your other social channels.
• Use descriptive tags to help new kinds of people find your story.
• Host a contest to entice new readers.
• Broadcast messages to your Wattpad audience to get the word out about upcoming tours, books, etc.

It's not uncommon for writers on Wattpad to be contacted by external publishers or third-party platforms as their stories continue to grow and develop a strong readership.

We always encourage writers to conduct thorough research when contacted by someone claiming to be an agent, editor, or publisher.

Tips on researching a publisher or agent

1. Check in Wattpad's Industry Insiders Club. Post your inquiry and knowledgeable Wattpad community members can help advise about legitimate publishing houses, how to source an agent and other industry relevant questions.
2. Many Wattpad authors who have gotten professional publishing deals have worked out deals that allow them to keep the full work on Wattpad. There are benefits to keeping a full work on Wattpad, even when a book deal has been reached, so be sure to discuss this with any possible publishers. Part of the excitement that surrounds a particular story is the huge (and growing) following that surrounds it. By removing your work in any capacity limits the potential growth you may have during the time you are shopping it around to potential publishers, agents and the like. In the end whatever system works best for you is what you should continue to do but we are always happy to help answer your questions or concerns.
3. Do an Internet search of the publishing house/agency and see if it returns any results that may look suspicious.
4. Visit the the official site of the publishing house or literary agent. Most professional literary agents and all publishing houses should have websites that writers can visit and browse.
5. Look to see if the agent/house has any affiliations or partnerships with major companies. If they do, call or email the partners and ask if they feel confident recommending the company.
6. Be wary if a literary agent asks for any money upfront or offers an incentive such as advanced royalties or the promise to become "rich" if you give them your works.
7. Make sure you fully understand an agent or publishing house's process and their terms of agreement. This includes, but is not limited to, copyrights, distribution rights, etc. If necessary, seek legal advice. Always read the fine print so you are aware of what rights you may retain and what you are giving to a publisher.
8. Never be afraid of asking too many questions. If the publisher is credible and genuinely interested in working with you, they should have no problem fielding all of your questions.
9. If you are approached by someone whose vision does not align with your own or who is making you an offer that seems unjust, do not feel pressured to sign anything. Understand that there are a number of publishers and agents using Wattpad to source new talent. Do not sell yourself short.
10. Do not hesitate to contact us if you are unsure of the credibility of a publishing agent or house. We can confirm if they are legitimate and work with you (and your publisher or agent) on marketing your Wattpad story to your readers.

• Leverage existing content: If you’ve written something but aren’t sure what to do with it, Wattpad is great place to post it.
• Post your first book in a series: A great way to introduce new readers to your series, and drive sales for subsequent books. Many authors serialize the first book in a series, and time it with a new release to create buzz.
• Post exclusive content to Wattpad: When you invite existing fans to check out your exclusive Wattpad content, you bump up your story’s ranking on the site, and increase the odds of appearing on the hotlist - which gets you even more fans. Plus, it makes your audience feel special.
• Share a book from your deep backlist: Post older and previously published writing to Wattpad. Our primary demographic is under 30, so you’ll introduce your work to a whole new generation of readers.
• Crowdsource new content: Working on something brand new? When you post story parts as you write, you give fans a sneak peek into the creative process, and allow them to make suggestions along the way. It’s also a great way to build buzz early on in the life cycle of a new work or series.

Connect with readers

When you post your work on Wattpad, it opens the door to an intimacy between writer and reader you can’t get anywhere else. It’s why everyday, publishers and writers from all over the world use Wattpad to connect with fans and story enthusiasts. Whatever your genre of choice, there’s a built-in community waiting for you.

Promote your work to a wide audience

Our audience is connected and eager to share content that resonates with them. Plus, readers make up 90% of the Wattpad community - which means for every writer, there are ten readers. We like those odds.

Highly engaged readers

Wattpad’s community of story-lovers is global, and spends over 15 billion minutes a month engaged with content found exclusively on Wattpad. That’s a lot of potential minutes for people to get hooked on your story, and a huge opportunity to expand your reach.

Continuous feedback

When you release your work on Wattpad one chapter at a time, you’re rewarded with continual encouragement and real-time feedback from a growing audience, excited to join you for the ride.

Write and edit on-the-go

You can write and edit your work on Wattpad any time, anywhere, and on any device. Which means any spur-of-the-moment edits and ideas can be implemented ASAP.