Wattpad.com is a website that claims 15,000,00 monthly users and has a tag line that calls itself – The Future of Reading. If you already know about Wattpad, please share your experience, thoughts, opinions. But I didn’t know about them, so I did some reading and am summarizing my findings here.
My headline is a bold statement that sounds as if I’m endorsing WattPad, but no, not endorsing, but I got curious. And if you already know all about it – and have experience with it, positive or negative, or found it wasn’t quite ready for authors – please comment below – because WATTPAD has potential as a place to find romance readers IMHO.
True to my last-to-know world, I was introduced to Wattpad at RWA National Conference 2013 at a workshop called Marketing Outside the Box with Darynda Jones, Angie Fox and Kieran Kramer and Stephanie Dray. It was an excellent panel, got smart insights on street teams, super fans, etc. But there was also a rep from Wattpad (sitting next to me) who was introduced by one of the panelists (Stephanie, I believe) and I was like – what?
So since Nationals, I spent a few minutes looking around the site, joined, and here’s what I discovered:
- Its dominated by young people reading and or submitting fiction
- Its global (seriously global)
- It is a site where the author UPLOADs their own work or excerpts from an upcoming novel (promotion), so FREE reads means the reads the author wants the reader to have are the words posted (Wattpad is so NOT a pirating site in other words). It’s smart and reminds me of the some of the old fanfiction sites, completely driven by an author who chooses what to upload, when to update, and what keywords to select to attract readers to their work.
- It doesn’t have a huge number of romance authors that I can find. But here are the links to names I did find! Stephanie Dray and Meg Cabot (check out what she did, including create a book club).
- Lots of FanFiction (LOTS of real person fan fiction, which scares me:, although I used to write it in my fanfiction days:)
With 15,000,000 monthly users (that number sounds a bit fantastic – and doesn’t really say unique users, repeat users, or any of the other good stuff stats tell you about a website), I think Wattpad visited RWA13 because they are looking for more authors to use them as a vehicle for finding readers/promote their books.
Drawbacks? Is it worth checking out?
In my humble opinion, you bet its worth checking out! The set-up is easy, no different than uploading to a WordPress website. So if you have a book to promote, why not check it out? And if you manage to sell 10 books via Wattpad (or 10,000:), the folks who are reading on wattpad now are READERS…as well as writers, authors, and more, so no harm no foul. I know when I get published – I’ll be on Wattpad:)! So yeah, maybe this was kind of an endorsement:)…
Wow – this is really interesting, Denny-Mermaid. I’ll have to go check it out. And I can’t wait to read your stuff on WATTPAD when you get published! 😉
Hey, sounds like a plan, and when you get published, I’ll help you set up your WATTPAD:)! Thanks for stopping by.
Wattpad is great!.. thanks for the post!
Hey Mermaid Masha! I see you’re already testing the waters over at WATTPAD. And yeah, I think it is cool – and I definitely want to keep an eye on it to see if it can become a way for romance authors to generate excitement (new readers) for their books. I also think – like the old fanfiction sites – it can be a place for authors to share their work (like you’re doing:) and get out there to a vast audience that may find you. I’m following you though, and may take your example and post one of the Mermaid stories I’ve written and see what happens…:)…
I joined Wattpad in May 2013. I’m a published romance author who has not been offered a contract since 2009 – my old romance novels were recently re-released as e-books. I wanted to find new readers, so, my sister turned me onto the fan fiction world. I created a fan fiction for the movie Titanic – hoping to attract people who were mesmerized by the Titanic romance theme. In my fan fic, Jack Dawson lives and I “finish/complete” the romance the way I thought it should’ve been completed in the movie!
So far, I’ve gotten tons of great responses, but, not sure if these people will read my romance novels? I’ve mentioned my novels in my profile, hoping people who like my fan fic will download my romance novels, too. It’s still kinda soon to tell if my marketing tactic has helped my book sales!
If you want to read my fan fic, you can find it here, I start my fan fic where Jack’s about to die in the movie:
http://www.wattpad.com/story/5753078-titanic-jack-and-rose-both-are-alive
Hi Cecelia, I just followed you on WATTPAD! I love your fanfic idea, and also am interested in whether or not your strategy helps your book sales. It’s a good idea. And you have gotten great read numbers! Congrats. But mostly, I hope it pans out in terms a few more sales. Thanks for sharing!
This sounds really cool. Are there costs associated with it for the author or the reader?
No costs at all.
Oh you know how I love the free.
Yeah, how could I keep that fact out of the body of the post, huh?
I’m on WATTPAD! I’ve posted my very first novel attempt in the 7th grade (complete with teacher comments — it was a daily in-class journal assignment), and I am currently posting the revision of that same novel I made in High School.
It’s a ton of fun!
(Also, you can read Amanda Havard’s book THE SURVIVORS on Wattpad in its entirety…I highly recommend it.)
Adding link: http://www.wattpad.com/user/AletheaKontis
I’m following you now, too!
Re: 15,000,000 monthly users
What we meant was “15 million monthly unique visitors”. Hope it helps clarify.
BTW, we grew to 16 million now ….. 😉
Allen Lau
Co-founder, Wattpad
Hey Allen, thanks so much for stopping by, and for clearing up my confusion on the 15 million visitors, make that “unique” visitors – now 16 million. I like your site and if it can help romance authors find more readers – it’s not just a good site its a blessing! -:), so keep us in mind as you add new features!
Thanks for your kind words. Please feel free to let us know if there is anything we can help.
I’m glad you found it useful. And when you do post there, don’t forget to let us know!
Thanks for the info!
Very interesting, Denny! Thanks for telling us all about it!
Fingers crossed, we’ll all have some use for it soon:)…have a great weekend!
Denny,
If I ever get published, I’ll be sure to keep this in mind. You’re so great with this stuff, so I’ll be showing up on your doorstep with alcohol and my laptop and sporting big puppy dog eyes… 🙂
Thanks for the info!
And I too hope to be able to use some of this stuff I find when I, too, get published. You always make me smile:)! Have a great weekend!