15 Million Reads Before Her Book Was Even Published

Since the publication of aspiring young adult novelist Brittany Geragotelis  first book, “Life’s a Witch,” the Oak Harbor native has been enjoying the magical feeling of success.  She wrote her first book at age 15 after getting the idea from a dream. “Life’s a Witch” is the seventh book she’s written but the first that she has shared with the public.

The key to her success came from stepping away from traditional publishing methods and transfering parts of her manuscript on Wattpad.com, which earned her 15 million “reads” before she started to self-publish her book.

Writers can post what they’re working on and readers can explore and give feedback, all for free. While she wrote and published her book on Wattpad, Geragotelis got feedback from readers, a huge help for finding out if she was pulling off what she was trying to do, Geragotelis said. Their favorite parts were the spells and the witty popular culture references.

Whether you have already self-published your own book or are looking to grow your readership before you publish, Wattpad is a supportive, viral community of readers to reach out to and expand awareness of your work. It is the world’s most popular e-book community. Wattpad has revolutionized the way people read written works by creating a unique social networking and digital entertainment platform for readers and writers to discover, share and connect. Content is easily accessible through Wattpad’s website (www.wattpad.com), mobile site (m.wattpad.com) or Wattpad app.

Wattpad has experienced explosive growth since its inception and has become the world’s most popular destination to publish and read e-books. Wattpad delivers billions of pages from its library of works created and published by the Wattpad community.

Wattpad in Numbers

• 5M Monthly Unique Visitors
• Users spend 300M minutes on Wattpad.com per month
• Wattpad is a great platform to reach readers on the Smart phones and iPods.
• Users spend an average of 30 minutes per session on Wattpad, twice a day
• Wattpad is available on over 1,000+ mobile devices and is downloaded over 1M times per Month.

Tips for authors from Wattpad:

Using social media to connect with readers is crucial for authors who are trying to promote their work. As part of your social media marketing activities, use this great place to meet readers, grow your fan base and promote your work to a targeted reading audience.

Be Personable. Readers love to know the ‘behind the scenes’ details of what they are reading. Respond to comments and thank readers for becoming your fan.

Connect With Other Authors and Readers. This is critical to all social media efforts. You must give to other authors and readers what you expect in return.

Provide Content and Be Social. Content is King online, but socialized content rules the kingdom. Readers won’t remember you with just one chapter and no comments or voice. Provide a variety of work for readers to get a good idea of the kind of writer you are.

Be Patient and Start Early. Self-publishing can mean connecting with writers on a one-by-one basis. It may take a few months to see a large uptake in traffic. If you have a book coming out, give yourself time to create a fan base; don’t just start two weeks before your book becomes available.

Post Often. Readers will lose interest if you only post one chapter. By exposing more of your catalogue you are reminding readers of your work and staying connected.

Get Featured. Authors who post completed works are encouraged to contact us for consideration for being Featured, which places your title higher on mobile apps and on the site.

Brag to Us. We love advertising about an author’s success. Did you reach a milestone you’d set for yourself? Have an article written about your work? Or contribute a guest blog? Let us know and we’ll make sure to use our channels to let our readers know.