Yep. You read that right.
I’ve decided to try out Wattpad, as it’s far bigger than my normal writing community, the OWW, and I wanted a place to connect to more readers.
So I’ve joined up and I’ve posted the first chapter of LEX TALIONIS here. If I get enough readers and interest, as expressed in comments, votes, whatever, I will post more chapters.
I’m also thinking of posting a few excerpts from my works in progress, but I’ll run that by my publishers before I do anything. And of course, I have to have an actual audience first.
I would love to hear what you think about this. Have you heard of Wattpad? Are you using it? What has your experience been like, if you have? Are there any tips and tricks I should know about how to navigate the site and find people and good stuff to read?
And please let me know in the comments who you are and how to find you on Wattpad. I’d love to make new friends–or follow old ones–especially if you write speculative fiction.
Stay thirsty, my friends!
R.S.A. Garcia 
Welcome to Wattpad! You’ll find me there as Morrighansmuse. I’ve been on Wattpad for the past 2 years posting my fan fiction (I can’t publish them for profit anyway so why not) which I’ve used as a springboard to writing again.
Wattpad is a strange place. You’ll see a lot of fan fiction most definitely, of the One Direction type, and many older authors have a love-hate relationship with it because of it. You’ll find stories that have millions of reads while well-written stories by adults have only a handful of reads and if you base your story on popularity, you’re bound to be disappointed.
One of the most helpful people on there is @TheOrangutan who also happens to help do some moderating of the groups. Definitely look around first and don’t get discouraged right away. Wattpad, I think, is onto something big and while the younger readers/writers definitely can seem to be a majority, there are quite a number of older writers (over 21 at least) who write, interact and support one another.
Oh gosh, thanks! This is exactly the kind of response I was looking for. I noticed that a lot of stuff had millions of reads and tens of thousands of stars, and yet a lot of it was not particularly well written. But I get this is a place for a lot of writers who are just discovering and learning, so I’m cool with that.
Just miss my community at the OWW and looking for a way to connect with readers, so I’m giving it a try. I’m going to look up more adult fiction though and support the old fogies like me!
Really interesting! I hadn’t even heard of Wattpad, but now this seems like something to keep an eye on. You are posting the first book in a series, which seems like a good plan. From what I’ve now read, though, it seems like maybe the ultimate Wattpad promotional strategy is to build fans with what Wattpad wants – sexy teen vampires with dystopic mutants and maybe Draco Malfoy, perhaps? – and then try and use that fanbase to promote your non-vampire original fiction.
P.S. I’m actually not being fascetious, nor am I suggesting that would necessarily be easy to write. Please let me know if you start writing the Draco vampmutant novel, as I will pop by to check it out 🙂
P.P.S Judging by the photos floating around the internets at the moment, forget Draco and use Neville.
LOL!! I hear you on all points. I’ve been hearing about it for a few years now, and there have been some teens that have gotten book deals off of their popularity there. Some wrote the aforementioned vamp stuff, others wrote the mini-John Green stuff, but it’s definitely a huge melting pot compared to the OWW, and more devoted to teens and their fiction than anything else.
I think you have the right of the strategy employed by most, but some big name authors have joined to increase visibility and connect with fans. I don’t have a big name, but I do need to get Lex out there, and I love reading new stuff and sort of miss critiquing, so I thought I’d give it a try. The worst that could happen is no one reads me. No big deal. Looks to me like you only get millions of views if you’re doing teen stuff anyway and that’s okay.
I hated Draco, so there’s no way I would use him. Probably just do a poignant tribute to Fred Weasley lol.