The Secret to Find Readers: Wattpad

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In a former blog post we wrote about Brittany Geragotelis’ six-figure-deal offer from Simon&Schuster, which she received after being “discovered” on Wattpad by millions of their readers, who downloaded chapter after chapter of Life’s a Bitch.  Canadian-based Wattpad.com, founded in 2007, was initially providing a mobile platform for public domain works from Project Gutenberg.  Within two years, the Wattpad app had been downloaded 5 million times. Writers post work in chapters, which tend to be short, to make them suitable mobile.

Wikipedia explains: As of April 2014:

• 85 percent of its traffic and usage comes from mobile devices
• 3 million stories total, with 250,000 new stories added every month
• 1.3 Million registered users
• Over 16,9 Million unique visitors per month
• Users spend an average of an hour a day on Wattpad

The most frequently voted stories (every day) appear on the “What’s Hot List”. These stats change daily, due to reads and votes by other users. According to the profiles visible on the site, many of
these authors are young adults.
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Featured Story List and Contests
Wattpad also has a Featured Story list, which promotes content reviewed and approved by staff and an editorial review board. Many of these featured stories are written by self-published and
professional writers from different genres.
Wattpad holds several smaller contests a year and one major one. The large annual contest is called “The Watty Awards”. Contests are open to anyone who has a Wattpad account.

During the summer of 2012, Wattpad in collaboration with Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet/novelist/literary critic, held the “Attys”; the first major poetry contest offering a chance to poets on Wattpad to compete against each other in one of two categories, either as an “Enthusiast” or a “Competitor”.
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What is the Real Benefit?
With 16.9 million unique global visitors per month and an average of 30 minutes spent reading per visit, it’s easy to understand why it’s getting a lot of attention.  Authors can upload either the completed or working version of their books for readers to read. It is not possible to upload a book as one single file, it has to be done on a chapter-by-chapter basis.
Wattpad is entirely free for all of its users which means that authors are actually giving their work away for free – no sales on the Wattpad site! However if your readers ask you, send them a list with links to all your sales pages.
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Wattpad is a Social Media Site
Bronwyn Hemus gives this advice: “You have a captive audience. People who sign up to Wattpad are clearly interested in books, there are millions of engaged readers looking for their next great read. The golden rule applies:  Always actively engage with people who are reading your chapters. If someone has left a comment, make sure that you respond to their comment as soon as you can. Take the time to look at your reader’s profile so that you can engage with them on a personal level. Wattpad readers certainly seem very willing to engage with an author and provide feedback as a startling 5 million new comments are posted every month.  If you want to breed reader loyalty, spending a bit of time getting to know your audience will go  a long way to increasing sales. It will also help you better understand your readership which in turn will help you focus your marketing efforts outside of the site.”
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Serialization Keeps Readers Interested
Her second great advice:  “You have to release your content on a chapter-by-chapter basis which in turn encourages continuous engagement with readers. Loyal readers can register themselves as a “fan” and as such, will receive email alerts whenever their favorite author posts something new.  Consistency is crucial to the success of serialization so it is best not to join Wattpad if you don’t have
a completed book (even if only in the first draft) to share.

Readers like knowing that once they’ve invested in a book, they will be able to read the story to the end. And: Chapters that are posted on a Friday afternoon and a Saturday morning have the most visibility.
Dianne Greenlay wrote in Selfpublishing Advice:
Although Wattpad has a high proportion of YA users, it includes readers and writers of every age and genre, including the much-acclaimed Margaret Atwood. Several writers on Wattpad have caught the eye of literary agents and received offers based on the number of “reads” that their writing has accumulated.
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Read more how Wattpad is useful to writers:

http://outofprintwriting.blogspot.ca/2014/02/how-writers-can-build-following-on_6.html

http://www.theliteraryplatform.com/2012/10/wattpad-building-the-worlds-biggest-reader-and-writer-
community/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/15-million-readers-before-her-book-was-even
-published/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/author-brittany-geragotelis-got-a-six-figure-deal/

https://www.standoutbooks.com/6-things-every-author-needs-to-know-about-wattpad/

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,070 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

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http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/
http://www.international-ebooks.com/
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Author Brittany Geragotelis: Six-figure Publishing Deal

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Remember the blog post about Wattpad I wrote in January?  This Canadian book “forum” Wattpad has experienced explosive growth since its inception and has become the world’s most popular destination to upload and read e-books.

MacLeans Magazine now wrote about Wattpad: “Could Wattpad be the ‘killer app’ for aspiring writers? On Wattpad, anyone can write and get feedback—just ask Margaret Atwood”.

They explained that Brittany Geragotelis  was an aspiring author who had written six novels – all of them had been rejected by publishers. She worked as an editor at American Cheerleader magazine. In October of 2010, a digital venture from Toronto called Wattpad, asked her if she would promote the company in the magazine. She was a “big book nerd” and Wattpad—an interactive online forum where anyone can upload their own writing, and readers can read, comment on, and even contribute—was compelling. With nothing to lose, she wrote a novel and gave it away, one chapter at a time, for six months.

Within a week, the first chapter of “Life’s a Witch” had been read a couple of thousand times. By the time she finished writing and uploading the entire book, it had been read six million times. Half a year and 19 million reads later, Brittany Geragotelis had a new literary agent and a six-figure deal from Simon & Schuster.
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Wattpad has now 24 million visitors who spend about 2.2 billion minutes on the site each month and 6.5 million “stories”— in 24 different languages—have been uploaded. Recently bestseller author Margaret Atwood joint and published three new poems, Thriller Suite, on Wattpad.  Wattpad received more than US$17 million venture capital, some of that from Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang according to a MacLeans magazine article.  Have a look at this YouTube video to learn more about Wattpad in an interview with Ashleigh Gardner, who is the Head of Content at Wattpad.com the world’s largest platform for discovering, reading and sharing stories. Wattpad has 24 million users, the majority are readers, with only 10% authors. It’s not a publishing platform, more of a social network.
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Wattpad’s Numbers
Average session length is 30 mins, and 85% read via mobile devices. Serialization is a huge part of the platform, so you post chapters or new parts of the story. All the followers get push notifications to their phone when new parts are added, plus you can also email followers. Writers across their careers are writing on Wattpad. Established traditionally published authors, such as Margaret Atwood, as well as aspiring writers who are just expressing themselves. There have been book deals out of Wattpad, e.g. Beth Reekles, 17 year old who got a 3 book deal off her Wattpad success. It is a very popular site for teens 13-18, but 35% of the site is 18-30.  If you write YA, Young Adult or New Adult, you should be on Wattpad!  Romance and Sci-Fi communities are very large too. Urban fiction is a flourishing example. 

Calvin Reid from Publishers Weekly wrote: “YA Author with Huge Wattpad Fan Base Tries Self-Publishing” and “Swamped by Offers, Self-Pubbed YA Author Gets Agent and More”.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars  Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/ to
advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,030 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/
http://www.international-ebooks.com/
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

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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.