The Wattpad Experience

Whoa, can it be, a blog post that isn't a film review?! My God, call the presses, this is news worthy!
But yes, I'm going to blog about something that isn't a film review, as I feel like I've exhausted that for the past couple of weeks. Instead, today I'm going to talk about my experience with the website Wattpad.
Now I'm fairly new to Wattpad (as in, only a few months into my exploration of the site) but I feel like I've got a bit of experience with it, or at least enough to talk about my awakening to the site. I'd been hearing about it for years, and decided to give it a go when I wanted to start posting some 'world building' short stories to do with a novel series I have planned. I wanted to post them to see how audiences reacted, as the idea is quite complicated at first, to see if I should go ahead with writing this novel or not. So I made an account, wrote the first piece, and posted it, expecting it to magically gain readers like my work has done in the past.
You see, for six years now, I've been posting on official forums, fanfiction.net and AO3, and there I've barely had to do any advertising to get readers. I simply posted my work and watched the view count rise, only really bothering to tweet and post links to tumblr simply to inform anybody who followed me that things like that were available if they wanted to check out my writing. But most of my readership came from the website itself, they just somehow discovered my work, and that was that.
With Wattpad though, it's different. The website has a far, far larger readership than I could have possibly imagined, and so many more books out there too. This means that finding readers is incredibly difficult, new authors get lost in a sea of more popular and experienced authors, and generally don't get noticed without some serious self promotion. The thought was very daunting, as I didn't have a clue on where to start with that, but I've started to figure it out.
Here's what I've learnt so far:
Firstly, tagging your work is important. When posting stories to Wattpad, tags work a treat, as your story is then put in with all the other stories also tagged with that thing. So when someone is searching for, let's say, vampire work, yours will also come up with the rest of that work. That's half your job sorted already.
Second, an interesting cover and blurb go a long way. Even after tagging, nobody is going to click on a book and start reading if they don't know what it's about. So putting an eye catching blurb will help draw people in. The cover is a great advert too, it draws people in, be it by the colours, or the images on it. Nobody clicks on work which is simply the blurred out version of the author's profile picture. But before you all start shouting I CAN'T PHOTOSHOP! at me, there's an app to help out, I'm not sure if it's on android, but at least on apple products, there's an app specifically for Wattpad which allows you to make covers. It provides with thousands of images, text fonts and effects for your work, so it's easy to whip up a cover. I did mine in five minutes flat, and I have never touched photoshop in my life, so anyone can do it!
Thirdly, get involved with the clubs. There's a club section on Wattpad, where you can talk to other readers and writers about anything you want. So get in there and start talking to people, from my experience they're very accommodating and lovely people, who will accept anybody. All you do is start replying on threads, and soon you'll have people talking back to you, just like anywhere else on the internet. The difference is that here, you can talk about your work, talk about the bits you find difficult, the bits you find the best to write, and also get help when you need it too. With these comments, it is possibly to interest someone enough to see what you're writing, and you may just get a reader out of it. At the very least you'll find some like-minded writers, which is still a huge resource in your arsenal as a writer. A word of warning though - do NOT just post comments saying READ MY WORK, READY MY WORK or anything of the sort, you will soon become very, very unpopular and possibly kicked off the site. Be polite and respectful, discuss your work, but don't shamelessly post pleads for people to read your story everywhere.
Fourthly, join a book club. There's literally hundreds of book clubs on Wattpad, where other authors will read chapters of your work and comment on them, providing you do the same for them. They can provide constructive criticism when it is needed, and offer opinions which can really help you with your story. It's better to know that something isn't working and fix it, than stare at it and not figure out why you don't have anybody reading your work. The book clubs also work as an advertising agent too, and gets people reading your story, a lot of the time, people who read your story as part of the book club stay on to read more, continuing to leave comments. And when others who find it by chance see that it has a lot of reads/comments/votes, they'll be more likely to read it too. Book clubs are basically a win win situation, giving you views and comments on your stories, and that can never be a bad thing!
Fifthly, read and comment on other's work. Reading and comment on other people's work gains you friends, and lets others know that you're out there. Some may see your profile in the comments and click on your profile to check you out, and then go on to read your story. Some writers do it too, they see someone who loves their story and decide to check out yours. Also, just commenting on other people's work makes them feel good, and there's some amazing stories out there, so go and read them so you don't miss out.
And lastly, post the links online everywhere! I've said this before in a video on my youtube channel, but seriously, post the links everywhere. Post on twitter and tumblr, tag them in both places too! Post the link to your story on all your social media, so as many people see it as possible. There will be people out there who will click the link to see what you're posting about, and so will gain you some readers, or at least some reads. Give it a go, it can't hurt to try.
I've tried all those things and it's actually not going too badly for me at the moment, I'm not currently getting the viewership I had hoped for, but I am getting there, and that's the main thing. It's making me appreciate the process more than ever, before readers almost dropped into my lap, now I'm working for it, which I feel is better for me (and possibly my ego). It's a steady process, and I must say I'm enjoying it.
So if you were thinking of joining Wattpad and posting stuff yourself, I would recommend you do it, but be prepared to spend a lot of time advertising and networking. It takes up a lot of time, but it is worth it in the end. I hope this blog helps in some small way or other.
Oh, and if you want to check out my Wattpad profile, it's here.