Where do I even start with this one?  Shit happens, glitches occur, some readers are mean, and characters die.  What can I say, it's a perfect world?  Nope, this world is very imperfect and it's out of our control.

Glitches

I was shocked over the last few weeks about the behavior of some readers.  Wattpad had some glitches and guess what?  It happens to every single internet site out there, Wattpad works hard to provide a great site, but shit happens. 

As writers, we have no control over Wattpad glitches.  If a chapter doesn't show up for you and it's showing up for others, we can do nothing.  It's out of our control.  We don't have a magic button that fixes anything.  We can't go in and fix that glitch for you.  If a chapter is doubled, paragraphs are doubled, chapters or books won't open, Wattpad is down or you can't vote, it's not us.  We have the same amount of control as you.  Actually, maybe even less because if the glitch is on your end we can't even fill out a ticket.  I had a reader recently that was missing a chapter in one of my stories, but it was fine on my end.  I wanted to help but it was out of my control.  She told me I needed to take better care of my readers and put in a little more effort for them.  Really?  I have forty books that are free for you to read, but I need to do more?  I told her to refresh the app, restart her device, submit a ticket, or go to the help center, but that wasn't enough.  She now refuses to read my work because I wouldn't resolve the issue for her.  I couldn't even submit the ticket because it would do no good, the glitch wasn't on my end.  I apologized, was kind, and tried everything to help, but it wasn't enough.  I can't stress it enough, it's not our fault and we cannot fix the issue for you.  She wasn't the only one having the problem and a few others got upset as well.  I'll leave it at that, shit happens and it's out of our control. 

Abusive Readers

*sigh*

What can I say?  They happen, and there are a few reasons why.  Some I don't understand but others I have some idea why they act the way they do.  I can only give a few examples of things that have happened to me and what I view as an abusive reader.  You might be surprised that it's not always readers but writers too.

Negative Reading Lists

So cruel, instead of leaving a review or a comment they add our books to reading lists that are quite literally mean.  Here are a few examples:

Blah
Writer Should Give Up
???
Didn't Finish
Stupid
Don't Waste Your Time
🤢🤢🤢

I have even had mine filed under "More Stupid White People"

If you take a moment to look at these profiles you'll see a few things. 

1. They rarely have followers.
2. It's all negative.
3. Some are writers themselves.

Jealousy is what I guess comes from other writers but many of these profiles are dummy profiles created to hurt feelings.  Please just ignore them and don't judge books that are placed on these reading lists. 

Constant Negativity

We love our characters, especially our main characters.  If you don't like an MC it doesn't take consistent negative comments to make your point.  Keep in mind the character is a part of the writer so you aren't just putting the character down but the writer too.  More times than not loyal readers will want to argue with your opinion over the character so be prepared for backlash. 

Jealous Writer's

Yes, it happens.  I had a man try to rewrite my story in a way that better suited him.  In the comments he tried to trick my readers and confuse them, saying things that never happened in the book and the readers got confused.  He also treated my readers badly, jumping all over them and literally being abusive.  He was muted and reported. 

Spoiler

Please don't ruin the story for others by either predicting the outcome or going back from the end of the book to the beginning and saying what happened.  It's just rude to the other readers. 

Please Update Soon

If only writing was our full-time careers.  We love the encouragement but if you update the way I do, it might get annoying to get this comment.  I may upload 20 chapters in one day, but it never fails.  I get the "please update soon" comment.  Ugh, just don't do it, please.

Writers want to update and many have a schedule.  Asking them to update doesn't make them work faster. Some of us have families to care for, jobs, and other commitments.  Sometimes things happen that keep us from writing or maybe we just need a break.  If the writer has several completed works, I'm sure they have no intention to forget writing.  They'll get to it when they can get to it.  Just be patient with them.

Entitlement

Readers are indeed the very backbone of our success on Wattpad, but that doesn't mean we have to put up with abuse.  We all have the right to run our profiles and monitor comments the way we wish.  If we feel a reader is becoming abusive we have a right to mute them. I muted someone once for being abusive and she started a brand new profile just to send me horrible messages. I do hope other writers do not feel like they owe abusive readers anything. 

Our Imaginations

One of the great things about Wattpad is that we can write the way we want to write.  We may not see success, but we are free to let our imaginations fly and take our loyal readers on a great adventure.  Sometimes there's laughter and even tears of joy but to get there our characters face hardships and they learn lessons along the way. 

There are also other kinds of content in stories.  Some that children and sensitive people probably shouldn't be reading.

Mature Content

Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language.

Let's start with a few more definitions from Wikipedia.

Erotica is any literary or artistic work that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotically stimulating or sexually arousing but is not generally considered to be pornographic. Erotic art may use any artistic form to depict erotic content, including painting, sculpture, drama, film , or music. Erotic literature and erotic photography have become genres in their own right.

Pornography (often shortened to porn) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal.[1] Pornography may be presented in a variety of media, including magazines, animation, writing, film, video, and video games. The term does not include live exhibitions like sex shows and striptease. The primary subjects of present-day pornographic depictions are pornographic models, who pose for still photographs, and pornographic actors who engage in filmed sex acts.

There is a huge difference and stories on Wattpad are supposed to be able to survive without sexual content.  Meaning the steamy chapters can be removed and it's still a good story.  Some writers love to write sex scenes while others just use it as a tool to emotionally engage the readers to the characters. 

Just because a book has sexual content doesn't mean it's pornography.  It also doesn't mean the writer wants to sexually stimulate the reader.  Its sole purpose is to give the writer a way of communicating how much love may exist between two characters.  It's not meant to be educational or stimulating, it's meant to form a bond between the readers and the characters.  Not all writers who create sexual scenes consider themselves erotic writers or the stories as erotica.

That doesn't mean some writers have the same goal and that's okay.  As long as the writer follows Wattpad guidelines they can do as they please. 

In the forums, there was some criticism from writers against other writers that include sex in their stories.  That's their right to have that opinion, but don't feel dirty or wrong for enjoying these kinds of stories.  Sex is a part of life and in my opinion, it just adds to the emotions.  When a book is marked as mature just remember the definition I gave above.  Don't rely on the writer to spell it out for you. 

I will admit I've come across writers that have lost their way.  Maybe they started out being able to put emotion into their writing but along the way somewhere it became all about sex.  That's when the story is really an erotica in my opinion.

Reads

Another good reason not to allow the number of reads a book has to determine it's quality would be because of the genre.  One genre may have more fans than other genres.  Romance happens to have the larger fan base, so of course, it'll have more reads than a historical non-fiction. 

A book might be new or the writer is completely unknown and hasn't been found yet.  This would result in lower reads, give it a chance and you might be surprised by its quality.

Reads are counted per chapter.  When a book has 1000 reads it doesn't mean it's been read 1000 times.  It's the combined reads of each chapter.  So a story with 100 chapters will easily get more reads than a book with 50 chapters. 

Number Of Chapters

The length of the chapters determines how many chapters are in a book.  My books have around 1k words while other peoples may have 5k words.  Don't judge a book-length by the number of chapters, to know this you would need to know each chapter length. 

Engagement

My app says I get 1600 notifications per day.  If you're commenting and the writer doesn't respond, it's likely not the writer's fault.  Either your comment didn't make it to the writer or the writer was overwhelmed with notifications.  Please be patient and it's likely not done on purpose. 

Keep it respectful toward the writer and other readers.  Don't say anything you wouldn't say to someone's face.  Consistent disrespectful remarks can result in being muted.  It is the writer's right to do so and it's perfectly within Wattpad's guidelines.