The vast majority of the chapters I've put in this book have always been focused on improving specifically as a writer. In general, I've dedicated a sparingly few chapters to purely Wattpad help, despite this book being called Wattpad 101. There are a few reasons for this. One reason is that Wattpad is always changing. Half of my advice in this very book no longer applies, as it referred to conditions and features that did not exist when I wrote it.

The other reason is that although my start was on Wattpad... I never really got very far with it. I've never moved from that lowkey popularity of 1000 followers to the 5-, 6- or dare I hope 7-digit varieties (1 million fans).

I've tried a hand full of books, and while I know what essentially must be done to get a book popular, I've already built a fanbase elsewhere, and haven't felt like it would be worth the cost/reward ratio that I've had to start factoring in as all of the work I could do piles up.

However, a commenter recently gave their opinion on some of the things someone must do to grow a fanbase on Wattpad, and I realized that while I've written chapters like this in the past, I've never flat-out made a list focusing purely on how to get reads as a starting author.

I believe a LOT of readers who look at my book were looking for this answer, and it's probably a good idea to explore what it takes to start to build a fanbase on Wattpad. I'm going to move this chapter near the front of my book because I think 9/10 Wattpaders want to know this over any writing advice. It's about time this book earns the name Wattpad 101.

So, the question? How do you get your story to grow from 0 readers on up? These are seven points that were suggested by another writer. I've dedicated them in this chapter, as I will be using their points and expanding on them with my own experience. Some of these points I've made before, but I've never put them all together quite like this.

I have a chapter on illustrators and book covers that you're welcome to read, but one of the main points I tried to get across is that a good cover matters. I've had to argue with some people on this point, as they will insist that as long as the story is good, covers don't matter. After all, take fanfiction.net, which doesn't have any covers, yet some works can still get thousands of views.

First off, fanfiction.net writes fanfiction. By very nature, that is copyrighted material. That's why they avoid covers. Furthermore, the people attracted to those writings are almost certainly being called by the IP (intellectual property) the story is based on, which likely do have tons of covers.

A good book cover will go a long way toward selling your book. I've always strongly felt that my support of covers and willingness to spend money to make them is part of what has elevated me from a generic web novel writer to the "popularity" I currently have.

I will also add a second point, the summary matters too. This is something I fail in a lot. I will often just depend on my story to be good to attract people, and I'm pretty sure this causes a lot of people to miss the stories I write. Personally, when I look through stories, I will often pass stories that don't have a complete summary or whose summary is vague and generic. Why would I assume anyone else does anything different?

The first thing anyone sees about your book, and the only thing that will get them to click on that first chapter, is the book cover and the summary. This is your shot to get them to click on yours out of a long list of stories they are glancing through. The better and more eye-catching it is, the more people you'll catch.

As to how to make a book cover that looks great, or how to write a summary... I've had some chapters on this, and I also think your best bet is to use the community here and ask. Do surveys comparing 3-4 summaries and have people pick the one that they like the most. Try out different summaries and see if your readership picks up. I'm going to say more about this later, but this is going to take time. Nothing will give you instantaneous success.

I can not tell you enough how much having a reliable release schedule makes a difference. Indeed, 9/10 readers will never notice that you release exactly on Sundays... but anyone who becomes a fan will start to notice and rely on your once-a-week release. Naturally, the faster you release, the more chances you have to catch people's eyes. Every time you release, you end up being moved to recent releases, giving yourself another shot at catching a reader. Release daily, and your work is going to go across a lot more eyes than if you release monthly.

Once you start missing those deadlines... and releasing unreliably, you'll break people's drive to read your story... and your fanbase will quickly scatter.

Books have DIED because of this mistake. Not just books, movies can die too. You might have a story that is super hyped... but that hype can only last for so long. The longer you delay the movie, the more the hype will die. That's why a movie that came out ten years after the last one isn't going to be as popular as a sequel that came out within a year or two. In terms of Web novels, that hype is even shorter.

The answer isn't to strike when the iron is hot... it's to keep striking steadily and never give up. You're never going to know when that iron will "get hot", but as long as your striking away at a constant rate, you're going to make it.

I also have an entire chapter on this concept. In the end, I think my conclusion was that if you wanted to remind people, it doesn't hurt, and it's up to you which you want to do. However, recently, I think my opinion on this might be changing a bit. This comes mostly from my view of youtube channels.

Subscribe and smash that button! It does help the channel!

If you watch youtube, you've probably heard these kinds of words. According to these channels and their analytics... asking does help overall. People just don't think to do it normally, and will just keep going on and on.

The trick is not to ask in an invasive or annoying way. Don't hold back chapters or threaten readers. Your release schedule should not depend on how many stars you get. However, a line at the end of every chapter, done reliably as if by rote... really will help.

"Please vote and comment if you like this story. It will help it get seen and I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!"

Something like that at the end of EVERY chapter, with either a line or bold text so it isn't confused with the story... would be all you need. Will it work? 99-100 times, no. People will just come to ignore it. It will just be background noise. However, 1/100 times... you'll get that one more vote. When your chapter is at 1000 reads, that's an extra 10 votes... which then helps it get seen by more people, read by more people, and voted by more people. In the end, it really does help.

I would also like to throw out the same advice I mentioned once before. End with a question. Engage your audience. This will help you get comments.

"What did you think of this chapter? Is Anna really going to fall for Jenna's trick?"

A specific question directed at the audience will inspire some to answer. I warn that this gets you a ton of answers that do not talk about anything else in your chapter. You won't hear what people thought of the story, because they'll be busy answering your question. However, If you care more about just getting the max number of comments, then this will help as well.

I'm kind of rough in the comments. I tend to speak to commenters... well... exactly how I speak in this story. I also only really respond to commenters if they have something, I feel I need to address. If they make a comment I feel can be explained or I feel is wrong, I give my explanation. This... seems to cause people to explode with rage every once in a while. People don't like to be authorsplained to. I've set off a lot of people this way.

That said, if you want new loyal readers, blind enthusiasm and encouragement would help. I've done a good job making people on my site afraid to comment. If they comment on my story, I will usually take the comment at face value and address it. If I think it makes no sense, I will explain in a three-part essay exactly why I disagree with it. This... hasn't done me any favors. I've fostered an environment where very few people comments, or want to comment on my work.

That said... the exact opposite would be true. Thankful, encouraging, and happy responses will likely get thankful, encouraging, and happy responses. In Wattpad more than anywhere else, you get what you give. Even if your work isn't that great, you'll get far more positive comments if you provide positive comments.

It'd be a good idea to make it a habit of responding to ALL commenters. Thank you, or Oh wow, I never thought of that, or "that's interesting". Even when the comment is negative, and you feel personally attacked, an "I'll consider it, thanks for your opinion." Would be great. When people nag about future things, a teasing, "Maybe, you'll have to wait and see!"

You're going to find yourself catching far more flies with honey than with a defense posture. I've always said an author has a right to defend their work from criticism as long as it doesn't grow to the point of just arguing and fighting anyone who disagrees with you. However, that might not be the best method if what you care about most is comments.

Make people feel good about commenting on your work, and more people will comment. It's as simple as that.

Self-promotion is probably one of the things I'm worst at. I've looked at hiring people for PR, and to date, I've never found a solution to be able to PR properly. If I could better promote myself, I'd probably be doing a lot better. Oh well.

If you're good at self-promotion, congratulations, you've done 60% of what is necessary to be a successful author. Believe it or not, writing skill isn't what is needed. Being able to sell yourself is far more important. That said, I will only be speaking the theoretical here because I can't really speak from experience.

First off, you'll want to get your name out there. The more exposed your name and your book is, the more likely you'll sell. You really can't think of things in terms of effort/returns. Maybe, in time, that will matter, but at the start, you can't predict exactly what or where will get people coming to your site. Just like with a steady release, you'll want to steadily put yourself out there. You may not see immediate returns, but they will steadily grow in success as you continue.

You can't think of it as the gains from a single day or a single week. It's the compilation of everything you've done over months or even years... that will ultimately shape your success. For some of you, that delay gratification might not be there yet. However, if you want to see success, that is the key. These kinds of things are going to take time. The more consistent, reliable, and persistent you are, the more luck you'll have.

This original list made self-promotion its own thing separate from certain other Wattpad features. I felt like they were all similar, so I grouped them all. However, it still can be noted that two features of Wattpad, dedicating chapters and tagging people, are also ways of getting promoting yourself.

It's all about spreading your network. If you were running your website, it'd be called SEO optimization. It fits in the same vein as properly selecting the tags for your book. I'm introducing a lot of different concepts right there, but they all serve the same purpose. They link people to your book and give them another means of reaching you and your work. The more places your book is linked, the more likely someone is to find your book, and ultimately, the more likely they are to read it.

Tag others when you make mentions of your story. Dedicate others when you feel they helped you with a chapter. Link others when you're talking about your book. Every time you interact with the site, with Facebook, with friends, throw another link out there. When you talk on forums, make it part of your signature. If it's seemingly automatic, then most people won't even find it as intrusive. This website used to have forums, which I guess don't exist anymore, invalidating several chapters of this book, but there are plenty of other places for you to talk, engage, and sell yourself.

And I should add, promotion isn't purely just about advertising yourself, it's about making your work as easy to reach as possible, not just so someone sees it, but they see it exactly during that time when they're most motivated to read it. Sadly, this isn't a time you'd ever be able to predict. That's why you need to put out as many breadcrumb trails as you can, hoping that if you do enough you can bring as many people to you as possible. That's when you use your work to shine.

I mentioned above that it's always a good idea to ask a question at the end of your story. That's only a single idea to try to get your audience involved. There are many other options to try to make them a part of your story. This may come off as juvenile to established authors, but acknowledging that most people on here are more on the social aspect of writing and in their teens with a small or non-existent fanbase, involving your audience in your stories is a potentially great way to drive up readership.

You can have little contests... offering prizes like a dedication, a follow, or their work critiqued. These will attract people who might otherwise not have been interested, driving up comments, participation, and thus the potential to collect more fans.

However, it can go more than this. You can involve fans in the writing process. You can offer fans the chance to create a character, select a direction, or just ask them which they'd prefer when you come to a choice you can't quite make. Being involved with your fans will give the fans a feeling of excitement too. Many love the chance to see the inside workings of a story.

If you take all of my advice together, take one of those readers who start microediting all of your work. Instead of getting angry, upset, or ignoring them as I would do... you can try making them feel like they're an important part of the team. Not just thanking them for all of their help, but implying that you're looking forward to them continuing to help you improve your grammar and spelling. Make them feel important like they are a part of your community or even a needed part of your community.

The final piece of advice isn't so much advice as it is a reality check. I've already mentioned this, but I feel it cannot be stressed enough. If you've done all these things... and in two months you haven't seen success... you haven't given it enough time. Keep working at it. And those of you who have been doing it for a year, and haven't seen success? I'd say the same thing. 10 years? Same.

Keep your enthusiasm at a reasonable amount. If you explode with a 1000 followers overnight? Great. However, more than likely, it'll be a battle to gain a few followers every day. I started writing for money 3 years ago. For six months, I only made $30 a month. It slowly started to grow from there. I didn't one day wake up and I was making six figures. It happened slowly month after month, a steady increase as I build up myself, my brand, and my IPs. That's not even mentioning the six years before that I wrote for completely free without asking for anything.

No matter how long you've been working at it, keep working at it. It takes time. Do better. Do more. Keep trying. I was listening to a podcast recently and a certain wealthy podcaster stated that there is one consistent thing they've found when it's come to everyone who has made it. That thing was that they kept doing it persistently and never gave up.

You will get there. It may take longer than you hoped, but you will eventually be able to build something. It just requires consistent and perseverant work. Getting fans, getting popular, getting successful... it's all just a matter of continually producing. If you fail? Try again. If something doesn't work? Try something else.

Grow. Try things. Write. Fail. Try Again. Write. Keep Writing. Always Writing. You have it in you to create whatever you can imagine, so go for it.