Self-Publishing Websites Like Wattpad

ConnieJ

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Hi, all! I queried my first novel on and off for a couple years and got some nibbles, but that was it. I finally decided to try Wattpad in July. Since then, I've gotten a lot of good feedback and have almost 55K reads and over 4K unique reads. I've submitted for their publishing and other opportunities but haven't heard anything. I want to start posting my second novel, but I don't know if I should post it on WP or elsewhere. Or, try Amazon, but with teaching and having kids, I don't have a ton of time to build a platform. Do you have any suggestions?
 

Polenth

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There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of point just putting the books on Wattpad unless you're looking at this as a hobby and you don't want to sell anything. Putting the books on Wattpad and also having them for sale on Amazon is something I've seen people do (though I've not tried it). So perhaps consider trying Amazon with that first book and seeing if you get any boost in sales from people who liked it on Wattpad.

Once you've done that, you'll know if it's worth putting the second book on Wattpad or whether to go straight to Amazon.
 

ConnieJ

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Thank you, Polenth! There seems to be authors who come out of Wattpad with book deals, and they have Paid Stories, too, but they have to accept you. Where would you suggest starting to read up on how to publish on Amazon? Is that CreateSpace? I read some on here. It seems like you'd have to spend a lot of time on your platform.
 

veinglory

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People who get a deal of Wattpad are very much a small minority, you should research what numbers it takes to even get a sniff. Don't put any more eggs in that basket until/unless it started paying off.
 

Al X.

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I am not familiar with Wattpad so I don't know its functionality, but for independent publishing, there is Amazon and then there is everyone else. They are the big dog. Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon's self publishing arm. KDP handles both ebooks, and KDP Print, which is Amazon's print service. Createspace does not exist anymore, but it used to do what KDP Print does now.

I use KDP for my ebook and print books on Amazon, and an aggregator (Draft2Digital) for everyone else, e.g. Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and a few others. Just read up on KDP's style guidelines for formatting information and how to publish, it's a resource available to you after you create your KDP author account. Or maybe even before. Don't bother with other outlets until you get things dialed in with KDP, as for most people outside sales are a small fraction of Amazon sales. At least that is my case. Smashwords is another aggregator that is an alternative to D2D, however I get so few sales through them I don't bother porting books to them anymore.
 

VeryBigBeard

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It depends on what you want. As Polenth mentioned, if this is a hobby, Wattpad's great. If you want to develop a paying readership, it's not.

It seems from what context I can glean, that you should probably at least try querying/subbing this new book. If you tried before and didn't get anything, that's frustrating, but it doesn't mean you're a terrible writer or that this new project won't get anything. Indeed, many people find that second MSs fare much better because the writer is that much more experienced.

Self-publishing can absolutely be rewarding, but it's also a lot of work. If time is tight, maybe querying agents would be best? Don't let a few rejections get you down.

The one good thing about Wattpad is you get pretty instantaneous feedback, so in your case, you know you're doing something right. But if you plan to query, it's probably a good idea not to post the material on Wattpad first.

This is a good thread on Wattpad and whether to post there while querying. The official Bewares & Background Checks thread for it is fairly old, but here.
 

BLAlley

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I recommend avoiding sites like Wattpad. They have become enabling sites full of fan fiction where everyone praises one another in hopes of receiving praise in return. With so little constructive criticism being given no one improves their writing. Seek out forums with members willing to give honest feedback, even if it seems harsh. Praise tells us we got it right, but criticism teaches us how to get it right.
 

ConnieJ

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Thanks. Yeah, I can see they are few and far between! But honestly 80% of what's there is really, really bad. 15% is pretty bad. So I'd like to think I'm part of the 5%. LOL I can at least write a complete sentence!
 

ConnieJ

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I recommend avoiding sites like Wattpad. They have become enabling sites full of fan fiction where everyone praises one another in hopes of receiving praise in return. With so little constructive criticism being given no one improves their writing. Seek out forums with members willing to give honest feedback, even if it seems harsh. Praise tells us we got it right, but criticism teaches us how to get it right.

BLAlley, you're so right. I've been asked to beta read a bunch of writers. As much as I'd love to (and have done), I just can't dedicate the time they deserve. I have gotten a lot of good feedback on mine, though. It's been really inspiring to see so many finish the book and make comments. I average about 35 new readers per day. I guess I should requery. Sigh. I would love to try Amazon, but being a teacher and having a family, I don't know how I could make the time. Maybe I'll read up on it a bit.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate your input. <3
 

c.m.n.

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I have experience with Wattpad. It "can" equate to good sales from Amazon later but it takes A LOT of work.

Wattpad for me never garnered as many reads as you've had, though. Congrats!

In truth, you really have to decide what you want to do as an author. Do you want to make it a career or is it more of a hobby?

If it's more a hobby, I'd say keep trying Wattpad and other online platforms. I've seen the most reads from Scribble Hub, myself. You can set up a donation thing through Ko-fi and post the Ko-fi link on your "about me" on Wattpad.

If you also have a blog or website, or even a Twitter for people to follow you, do weekly shoutouts about your Ko-fi. It takes time to get fans but if you're writing is clean and engaging, they come.

That's just a little way for your Wattpad stories to be profitable without much more work on your part. *winks*

However, if you'd like to make it more profitable, definitely think about self-publishing through Amazon. There are tons of tutorials out there, and maybe so much info it's confusing. It is super easy, though you would need good editing and good cover art to make an impression.

If you want to self-publish your 1st novel on Amazon, I would suggest adding to it some how so it's not the same thing you have available for free on Wattpad.

Add a side story, or re-edit the novel. Something to make it different and worth it to fans who've already read the novel.

Or you could leave the first one free on Wattpad
and self-publish the 2nd novel on Amazon. It's all up to you.

Both methods require work on your part, but with that many reads on Wattpad, you need to keep your fans wherever you go next.
 

MaryLennox

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I am kind of in a similar position. I have a little "pet project". It's a sci-fi/romance novella (new adult), which I plan to have part of an on-going series, with a bunch of little books. There is no specific number of books, it's more an episodic project, which is partly why I want to be in control (and why I think no one would be interested in publishing it - it's hard to find people who publish novellas/series with no set number of books). I've had books published by indie publishers and one bigger publish, and feel like I want to be in control with this project.

I was looking into serial sites, like Radish. My understanding is you can post it in chapters and then after a year you get your rights back and you can then publish the whole thing as a book on Amazon. I do really want to have little paperbacks available at some point, but I am open to exploring these other options and it's the kind of project that I won't be approaching agents/publishers with.

I found another writing site called Tapas. Has anyone used Radish or Tapas? And then there's Wattpad, but it seems like there's a lot of fanfic on there? I haven't used any of these and self-publishing is new to me. The ms is currently in the beta reading and revision stage, so it's not ready yet, but I'm trying to research what my options are. At least with Radish you have to apply, you can't just automatically post anything. But I am still very uncertain about everything.
 

veinglory

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The platform bells and whistles, IMHO, are less important than how many people are on there reading and interacting. Wattpad is the biggee for western style fiction.