Tapas vs. Wattpad

[alcoholandcaffeine]

Hiiii hello omg, as a Wacky mod, it makes me so proud to see our baby out in the wild lmao. Thank you for sharing!!

And as a writer whose journey started on Wattpad ten years ago, the platform definitely grew from all the teacher-student and vampire romances of 2011, to a high variety of content in 2021, but taking away the forum was a huge blow to small creators

I really like that Tapas seems to genuinely be fostering and encouraging their community to grow and help each other out! I'm still a novice, though, but I hope to get around and explore some more The past year has proven, to me at least, how important community support is

[TL_Nonoke]

Hi! I love ABO and will check yours out.

I've had the same experience with Wattpad.

Without the forums, there's no place to promote. I find that the Tapas forum community is super welcoming, friendly, and fun.

I also find that contentwise Wattpad is saturated, like someone else has already pointed out. It also has a lot more fanfic and translations of novels (probably violating copyright) and it doesn't seem like there's any monitoring which I found a little bit disappointing especially since one of my works was stolen from Wattpad by a mirror site.

Wattpad's response to me advising them in passing, (the site was even using the Wattpad name) was kinda lukewarm (I sent a DMCA takedown and it's already dealt with) so I was just disappointed by it.

I was going to post on Webnovel, but they immediately wanted my banking info to make money off me, and I wasn't sure if that meant my readers would be charged for anything...since I'm just starting out I want to build my audience a bit and provide my writing for free as it's more a hobby for me...I don't have any delusions of grandeur about it. LOL. >_< I just want to have my niche audience like my stuff.

Anyway! Good luck with your work and promotions!

[likhoradka]

The only engagement I got on Wattpad was my own, lol. I posted for a month or so, then just dropped it - mostly due to me not being able to get my normal name. Logging in and seeing the wrong name bugged me so much. So far, I have the best luck here and on Royal Road.

[LettieK]

I've been hearing a lot about Royal Road lately- I guess I should check it out!

[vapidink]

Like other have said, it's because of the forums shutting down.

I've been on WP for ages and have done really well, but I was on there back when there were forums and they were pretty active. You could get into book clubs and meet people/get feedback and readers that way. Then they changed the forums and some people didn't like the change. It was still a decent place to grow your audience. Then they shut the forums down, so now there's really no way to get traction on your story, unless you're an established writer.

With so much content being posted, and so many authors fighting for attention, it's hard to stand out. Your best bet is to catch the attention of WP staff and get featured, or win a contest like the Wattys. I still like the site, I have a good audience there, but it's though for new people.

[likhoradka]

Yeah, just be forewarned: the have an anti-plagiarism bot thing for when you initially submit, and it'll catch your work on other sites. And instead of having an option and instructions on how to notify staff within that submission, they have you open a preemptive ticket... (Or just open the ticket after you've been denied.) Because reasons?

If I have future stuff, I'll be uploading there first, so I don't have to deal with it again.

[thedude3445]

Forums are a good resource for connecting to other authors, but they do not help stories grow in most circumstances, because most authors do not read other authors' work (we're all so busy!). The Wattpad forums were one of the most toxic communities I've ever been on, ever, largely because people didn't understand that simple fact that the forums weren't going to help the stories grow. Honestly, I didn't understand that for a couple years myself, and was constantly frustrated about how my books were getting zero views.

Anyway, in general, Wattpad is not worth posting on. The site and app are poorly designed, and the insights and analytics are locked behind a paywall. There's many millions of stories, and the recommendation algorithms simply don't work, so your stories are no more likely than some Boku no Hero Academia genderswap fan fiction with 3 chapters to get recommended to a reader. If you are looking to write just for fun, and you're writing in the popular genres (hetero romance, MLM romance, erotica, or fan fiction), then Wattpad might be for you. But if it's nearly anything else, it's just not going to work.

I mean, some of my author friends on other sites, ones who genuinely make full-time income off Patreon on their stories, crossposted to Wattpad and got absolutely nothing. The quality of the story does not matter on that site.

[thedude3445]

Royal Road is a good site, and aside from romance, whatever you post on there will get more views than any of the other popular web fiction sites (Wattpad, Tapas, Scribble Hub, Webnovel (never post on Webnovel)). However, it's pretty hard for stories that aren't LitRPG or Progression Fantasy to get extremely popular; my books tend to get about 500 views per chapter on average, compared to the 5,000 or 10,000+ of the popular stuff. If the book DOES get popular, there's a large toxic community of jerk teen boys who are really mean to authors. It's not good for authors with thin skin (though it's getting better over the years).

[DesiredUsernameTaken]

there's a large toxic community of jerk teen boys who are really mean to authors.

This is the thing that's been making me extremely hesitant about Royal Road.

[Shazic]

When i had my book on wattpad I Couldn't even find my book int eh search even after typing my pen name

I decided to get rid of my Wattpad and stoped posting on there

But yeah

I also Post my book Royal Road, Commafull And tapas as well As Webnovel

Funny thing is i have the most followers on Commafull, though i don't know how many read it on there since i give them a link aswel to Read on RR(Royal road)

Tapas I find if you don't use the Commony to ask for sub like i didn't start chatting in the community until now even though i been posting here for quiet a while i go no sub until after i started subbing others

RR I gotten follows with out having to fallow other people it is nice but its yeah I post there for along time to and hardly get notice as well.

I guess every site is different...

Oh and on't get me started with Webnovel i been posting there the longest and I have the lest amount of readers on there..

I hope you take a look of my book

The Drifter Era | Tapas

[thedude3445]

For what it's worth, I've gotten barely any negativity in any of my stories over the past two years, and Royal Road has been the LEAST negative to Hands Held in the Snow for its ending. I occasionally get some pretty rude comments on that story even still, but as far as I can remember, Royal Road's been a lot more thoughtful.

I think you're safe unless you're writing in the popular genres. Not 100% certain, but maybe 75% certain.

[Shazic]

Oh they are pretty ncice over there but my ins hardly popular lol

I only have 27 follow and 6 fav

I hardly call it popular after rhaveing 60 chapters and only 1 written review

But at lest they re nice

[DesiredUsernameTaken]

I think you're safe unless you're writing in the popular genres. Not 100% certain, but maybe 75% certain.

Hmm... That gives me some hope I write Fantasy, sometimes dystopian things with some supernatural elements, but no isekai involved and no power-creeping. I've always liked how much variety there seems to be on Royal Road.

[unstablebibliophile]

There is a new-ish platfomr called ajoara the admins are pretty attentive and the platform is ok.

[djourner]

I've actually been thinking of maybe branching over there and seeing if it sticks, hearing all these comments I am a bit worried.

[alcoholandcaffeine]

If you mean on Wattpad, I'd say to go for it. It's a huge platform and sure, it's luck of the draw, but that's everywhere else as well and you've got nothing to lose 🤷‍♀️ In my ten years of online writing, I think I've tried out all the major platforms and I don't think there's one definitely better than all the rest... Pros and cons for each, and you can only see if it sticks once you try it out (like I am trying Tapas rn lol). Just my two cents

[EncryptedWriting]

I was on wp for so long and had hardly any success compared to what I've had on tapas. Tapas is an overall better platform regarding technicalities as well as audience. Wattpad is very selective and has a lot of VERY cliche repeats of stories that does well. Here, on tapas, things are unique and fresh, which gives smaller authors a chance to blossom.

[yumeryuu]

Hey... ummm.. tell me more about your friends on Patreon and how they sell their work there.

[queentrashmuffin]

For all the BL writers, I also noticed that you can't actually post on the LGBTQ+ genre on Wattpad either... So my story is probably not doing so well over there because it isn't really in the most correct category...

[thedude3445]

Mostly they just offer advance chapters from the publicly posted versions, then usually offer ebook versions of the story when each arc/book is complete, that kind of thing. The advance chapters are almost all of what gets people, though, by how I've seen it. Several of my author friends make over $1000 a month that way. (Not me, though! lol)