One of the most common questions I see in the clubs regarding the use of Wattpad is, “How do I make my story more popular?????” (And yes, there are usually that many or more question marks.)  This question is usually followed by some standard answers and maybe a little bickering over how Wattpad gauges what’s popular. Here are my thoughts on the matter, for what it’s worth.

** Know What You Seek  **

Before answering the question you first need to understand it. How are you defining popular and why is it your goal in the first place? What does popular even mean?

By Wattpad conditions, a story is popular when it has many reads, comments, votes, etc., in relevance to the amount of time in which these reads, comments and votes came in. The stories get ranked and added to several categorized lists which could effect them popping up on the front page, and all that good stuff. (We won’t discuss the “What’s Hot List” since Wattpad is moving away from using that all together.) To an individual writer, that popularity translates into a personal sense of satisfaction and acceptance.

** Is It Popular Or Is It Good? **

Does a thing’s popularity make it “good?” Not necessarily. If perfection of a craft were directly linked to popularity then we wouldn’t have Justin Bieber or the Olsen Twins. (Now now, down girls, I’m not saying Justin doesn’t deserve his popularity – I’m saying popularity doesn’t have everything to do with quality or personal talent. A thing can be popular because it is inspirational or good looking no matter how simplistic their songs or lyrics are or how much they are actually created by others and not by the popular entity.)

How many times have you seen a Wattpad Story with over a million (yea, I said MILLION) reads only to discover that the contents are cliché and horribly misspelled? There are some reasons for that – one is that the theme of the story was or is popular, the other could be that the title, cover or description were so absurd that people clicked on it just to see what the story was like (on these you will see that 90% of the reads are only on the first chapter).  Other times you will get the happy surprise that, indeed, the popular story was actually terrific! So do not get caught up in the trap of thinking that every story that looks popular automatically sucks – not true, but at least the suggestions above can give you some insight as to why a few really awkward stories become gigantic successes.

The next question those seeking popularity should ask themselves is, “What kind of popularity am I seeking?” There is a big difference in seeking to get the most fans or the most reads and seeking to find a true fan-base for your written work. True fans read and comment on everything you write, not just visit you one time in order to get something in return.

Selling Your Soul To The Devil (Or- How to do the most amount of work for the least amount of profit.)

Some of the things I see people doing in order to “get popular” is the exact definition of the term “spinning your wheels.”  And some of the practices are down right against Wattpad TOS and will land you in Wattpad-Jail.

These practices are:

Spamming the Share Your Story Club

(Posting your story over and over again, bumping the thread every hour, responding to every read for read request under the sun and building fake overly complicated “contests” in order to trick people into reading your work.) Why doesn’t this work? You are making superficial fans who will not continue to read your stuff on a regular basis and you have to do a lot of work in return for the special favor of getting someone to read your story. This can quickly take up all your time that you can (and should) be spending writing and editing your actual stories.

Begging people to read, stalking and spamming user’s profiles. This not only doesn’t work but it is annoying and against wattpad rules.

Writing cliché stories with no plots on purpose to gain popularity, sticking your story in the wrong category so that it can climb higher in the charts with less reads, and blatening riding the coat tales of other people’s success (How many “My life with the ____ boys” stories do we really need? Since one became popular, many others have tried to gleam popularity by writing stories with similar plots and titles – not cool.)

Threatening your fan base. For the love of god – why would you want to alienate your own fans? Threatening not to continue until you reach a certain level of reads or votes is ludicrous and spells out “DRAMA QUEEN” in big bold letters that only other people can see stamped onto your forehead.

** So How On Earth Do I Get People To Read My Stuff? **

First of all – write an AMAZING story. Edit your work and take pride in it.

Pull readers in with a pleasing cover and a story description that actually makes people want to read your story.

Have a SHORT and memorable title. (You can see earlier editions of Watt’s Happening to see how I feel about extra long complicated titles that are in some cases longer than the story itself.)

Make real connections with other writers. Find people you actually like and read and comment on their work. Many times these are the same people that are going to be interested in your work. It’s a harmonious relationship.

Building a true fan base does not happen over night – unless you come up with a trifecta of perfect story, title and cover that just draws people in like little zombie-readers. Hey, I’ve seen it happen.

Using the clubs correctly. Posting your newest story to the share your story club or using it to look for new fans is not going to land you in the 7th circle of author’s hell. It is made out to be a complete muck pond that should be avoided at all costs by many now prolific writers on Wattpad who have forgotten that when they were new they once used it as well. However, this is not the case. The Share Your Story Club can be fun and slightly useful if used correctly, sparingly and not obsessively.

You can also use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to draw readers to your story. This is great because it can also make more people out there into Wattpad users which is always a good thing!

If you have more tips for Wattpad Popularity please share below.

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Stories and Authors With Promise:

(Hint – I know the links don’t work and can’t be copied but I like to provide them anyway. To find these works fast use the search function and put their user name in.)

New Haven by feydoc

http://www.wattpad.com/2980367-new-haven-chapter-1-honey-i%27m-home

Watch out – it’s the plague apocalypse! What? You’ve heard this story before? Never fear! This author has put a fresh new spin on the sub genre of apocalyptic / dystopian fiction. Throw in a little paranormal abilities, some torturously realistic domestic abuse situations and you have yourself a fresh voiced author who is ready to take on the world of Wattpad!

Fangs In Space by drDevil

http://www.wattpad.com/2516209-fangs-in-space-synopsis

What’s better than sparkly love sick vampires (besides the obvious answer, anything)? Vampires – IN SPACE. The Queen of the Damned is rich, insane and bored. This is how the description starts and you can feel that this will be a sharp witted writing style that will keep you in stitches! Also, intergalactic blood feasting, bonus!