How many Wattpad refugees?

[spelunkadunk]

Hey, I am also from Wattpad and also writing a M/M romantic fantasy! https://tapas.io/series/The-Claimed-A-Clash-of-Copper-and-Gold

Totally agree with all of your assessments there. And I personally love reading M/M romantic fantasy (in addition to writing it), so I'm going to subscribe to your story.

[domisotto]

Welcome to Tapas & good luck with your story here.

[Prisim]

On the downside, IF you made it on Wattpad to the tune of over 100K reads, they will likely keep accumulating long after you finish the book. Here, I am told, once the book is done, the reads dry up.

I can say that's not entirely true for some books. I have several books over 100K on Wattpad. A couple did continue to do well after hitting the 100k threshold, others died. Especially after they changed to the tag ranking system. That basically killed my reads over there. Before the tag system I was fairly consistently ranking in the smaller genres and getting a good amount of steady reads. Nothing amazingly spectacular, but steady. Then they switched to that system and everything went mostly poof. I probably have no right to really complain since I still had a small but loyal fanbase, but it really was night and day between the ranking systems for me.

The trick I think is in the engagement. I've never been the writer that gets a ton of comments, in fact my readers are typically silent readers but I did notice a difference in the books that had decent engagement vs the ones that had nothing. The ones that had nothing were the ones that died a lot faster upon completion regardless of them making it to 100K reads. I had one that hit 100K reads 2 years ago and it was only at 106k with no comments when I removed the chapters from Wattpad earlier this year while I try to decide if I'm going to stay there or leave completely.

It's hard to decide to leave there because I do have a fan base. They're just not a fan base who will follow me off Wattpad LOL so with a series still pending a third book, I do kinda want to hang on so I don't leave those readers hanging if/when I finally write it.

I just wanna know if you have an opinion of posting the same story here and on wattpad? Is that a bad thing? Because that's what I was about to do.

I don't see why it's a bad thing. The 2 books I have on here are both on Wattpad. Granted they're doing much better on Wattpad, but I'm also more established there and haven't really done what I need to do to get a steady fan base over here. But there's really nothing wrong with cross promoting. Unless like Domi said you wanted to enter the Watty's, but since it appears you don't then go wild!

[domisotto]

I can say that's not entirely true for some books. I have several books over 100K on Wattpad. A couple did continue to do well after hitting the 100k threshold, others died.

Hence, 'likely'. I don't think my expected lifespan is enough to see any of my books to hit 100K reads on Wattpad, I gave up even on 50K I coveted so much. Fingers crossed you get a lot of engagement here and on the Wattpad.

[Prisim]

I don't think my expected lifespan is enough to see any of my books to hit 100K reads on Wattpad, I gave up even on 50K I coveted so much.

I won't lie, only reason I hit that 100k threshold over there is luck. Lots and lots of luck LOL When I first started I was doing the same shameful read for read and getting little results until I finally gave up on them after getting screwed big time doing a massive read and getting nothing in return. I met a like-minded friend on the forums and at some point I must've said something about my book that peaked her interest because she decided to read it after being very adamant it wouldn't be her cup of tea. Well she apparently fell in love with it and submitted it to be featured (back when that was still allowed and getting featured actually did something for a person. Now it seems like it's a mixed bag there) and that's how the first book exploded.

I really don't think I'd have the fan base I have today without her. But each newer book did get fewer and fewer reads, especially if I branched outside of my usual fantasy genre.

[RDBurger]

Wattpad’s nuking the forums

Wow. That is a bummer. No more Wattpad Forums?

[NellieVP318]

I have been on Wattpad for a while but never used it much until now.

So I never got to the experience the Wattpad forums other than I lurked over there. I just posted my story over there while ago. It's a shame I never got the full experience.

[cherrystark]

Don't feel bad. I did get the opportunity to befriend some great people who were tons of help with my work, but over time it became a popularity contest. A lot of good writers got their stuff buried or had to barter with know-it-alls to only get a handful of reads and some not so helpful comments.

[Leverance]

I second that @cherrystark. I've been on Wattpad for years and the increasing competition between writers isn't looking good. Instead of helping one another up like they did more before, it's more a popularity contest. And only after you break a certain threshold you can consider yourself having a stable reader base.

It's rough -- one of the reasons I decided to move platforms.

[cherrystark]

Same @Leverance. I wanted to write and share my work. I don't have many writing buddies IRL so the chance to get good feedback was too good to pass up. I was fine marketing my stories but after a while, I felt like I was in a lose/lose situation. The people who were getting tons of reads were posting unedited stuff and using most maybe 55% of what they posted was essentially their diary sprinkled in with tags and their actual story.

[Leverance]

I feel you @cherrystark. It was easier to gain reads, votes, and reading lists years earlier, now? Unless you get promoted by Wattpad or someone well-known it's almost nothing you get. Plus the forums were one of the only ways for new writers to gain traction on the site. They might remove the Newsfeed because of 'lack of privacy' which is yet another nail in the coffin. Some only get interested in that.

Yes, also that the same books with only minor variations get promoted on that site. So if you don't write in it, Wattpad will ignore you.

[cherrystark]

Yes, also that the same books with only minor variations get promoted on that site. So if you don't write in it, Wattpad will ignore you.

Yup @Leverance and when your series is about a team of adults (not teens) working for a magical museum, people weren't a big fan on that site.

[Leverance]

Exactly @cherrystark. I've noticed my Vampire and Fanfics does pretty well, everything else? Not at all.

[cherrystark]

Before I deleted by WP account, my Marvel fanfiction was the ONLY story that was still picking up the occasional read.

[Leverance]

@cherrystark Yeah ... Marvel and other big fandoms usually gain traction, I tend to write the somewhat more obscure or ships people don't normally think about. But I'm leaning mostly in BL in my fiction since it's a preferance of mine. I do plan to dip my feet in GL, though.

[Wocalich]

I'm here from Wattpad as well. I must say, the achievements I had here came much more quickly than on Wattpad.
I was starting to believe my story was really bad before I came here.

[domisotto]

Unless you get promoted by Wattpad or someone well-known it's almost nothing you get.

My biggest problem is that even that doesn't work any longer. I've just had my completed story added to the Romance(!) curated list with 500K subscribers. In two weeks since, it gained... 10 reads. There is no accessible way up any longer on Wattpad, with the exception of the ways that will take you up elsewhere easier/faster (i.e. becoming a social media star).

This one just made me cry, because I wanted to be on the Romance list for 2 years. Wattpad made me feel that I can't get reads no matter what I wrote or how good i've become because I am bad with social media.

Here, on Tapas, I get what's most important to me: the organic reads from people who stumbled upon my story and gave it a chance. And that's all I want, a bit of visibility.

[cherrystark]

This one just made me cry, because I wanted to be on the Romance list for 2 years. Wattpad made me feel that I can't get reads no matter what I wrote or how good i've become because I am bad with social media.

Here, on Tapas, I get what's most important to me: the organic reads from people who stumbled upon my story and gave it a chance. And that's all I want, a bit of visibility.

I'm right there with you. While I still have my SM accounts, I don't use them anymore for the sake of my mental health and I got so sick of people when I was using social media who ONLY promoted something. The people here are really nice and want to celebrate with you.

[cherrystark]

I will say that Wattpad has made me grateful for the good reviews. One of the first reviews I got when I posted my story to another site was top ratings and while they acknowledged it wasn't perfect, they could see walking into a bookstore and finding Cherry Stark books.

[domisotto]

I love my Wattpad friends, and happy to keep reading their books there. I like it. But I just don’t want to keep posting new stuff there.