The Wondrous World of Wattpad

Welcome to the wondrous world of…

Wattpad! Ta Da.

Wattpad is one of the largest amateur writing communities, ranging from fan-fiction to published stories (yes, people become published through Wattpad sometimes). To start off, here’s a little bit of history on the site.

Wattpad began on November 2006. It was originally used for the distribution of E-books, thanks to the Gutenberg project. After that, Wattpad became more based as a storytelling website, which was more accessible after a mobile application was created for it. Now there are over 45 million users, worldwide.

But why is Wattpad such a worldwide phenomenon? The answer: reading and writing. Wattpad allows users to follow accounts or add books to their personal library, which can then be read on the go from any mobile device. Each chapter ends with a comment section that can be used to let the writer know if you enjoyed their story or what could be changed. If you’re desperate to get more views or followers, you can even ask them to vote for your chapters, but that’s frowned upon so…

Don’t do it.

Getting votes or views can be tricky, but Wattpad has linked up almost every social media site for your writing to be posted to, which can then bring in new readers for you. Another great way to get noticed is to join one of the many, many--and I do mean many-- contests that are hosted. For instance, I just wrote a short story on what beauty means to me and how it relates to the new Beauty and the Beast movie.

Another benefit that Wattpad offers are the hundreds of writing groups that you can join, which allows you to post your story and a cover photo. See? Wattpad has many opportunities for an amateur writer. You just have to be diligent about keeping up with your stories, and responding to someone that comments back.

I also discovered that Wattpad has become so popular that outside sites, such as Adobe Spark and Canva, will create book covers to be posted to someone's stories on Wattpad. That's bananas. I attempted to use both of these sites last night, actually. I didn't do as well as I'd hoped. Although I believe that is due to my inability to handle technology and not because the sites had problems.

For those considering whether Wattpad is right for them, a heads up about the demographic. Most users are in their preteen and teenager years, with a small percentage in their mid-twenties. Although there are fantastic books written on Wattpad, the majority of the story content are fan faction and unfinished chapters of those trying to create a name for themselves.

If you're looking to remain in the millennial or professional age, perhaps Reddit is a better fit. I'll be getting into the back story of Reddit and how to use the site in my upcoming post.

Until then-

Keep writing!