Attract New Readers to Your Book published in Wattpad for World Water Day 2019
As you
can see from my previous blog posts, my fifth Writing Project on World WaterDay 2019 went in to effect from 1st January 2019 onwards. At the
moment SEVEN mini e-books are published on Wattpad, drafts of which are written
and edited thanks to Google Documents. Book covers were made by the help of
Canva.com. Without either of these facilities my WRIPES would have been next to
impossible J
However
my fellow authors keeps raising a popular, yet desperate query:
“Chinthaka,
this mini e-book is reasonably good. I wrote it. You edited and enhanced it. You even designed an eye catching book cover for it. Overall, there is nothing wrong with
the book. Yet, it attracts very few readers. None has voted for it. I can’t
understand this. Is there anything more I should do?”
The
short, cold answer is, “Yes. Plenty”. However, I do not wish to evade the issue
that way. Let me elaborate on the subject step by step and explain to you in
detail, how to make your book popular within the Wattpad community and later – maybe
outside Wattpad.
To the
best of my knowledge, your mini e-book on World Water Day 2019 can attract FOUR
types of users.
- Your fellow authors in the World Water Day 2019 Writing Project. At the moment, excluding yourself, there are six of them.
- Wattpad authors who have not yet participated in the World Water Day 2019 Writing Project. At the moment, millions.
- Wattpad readers. At the moment millions.
- Readers or writers who do not use Wattpad.
Each
type is different from the other. So the strategies you should use to attract
them may also vary. Let’s take one by one and see how to increase your
readership and number of votes to your World Water Day 2019 mini e-book.
01. Your
fellow authors in the World Water Day 2019 Writing Project
The good
news is that you do not have to worry about asking them to read your book or
vote. In all my WRIPES I normally make arrangements for all the participants to
make friends among themselves and exchange pleasantries. This automatically creates
a comfortable environment for reciprocal feedback and I think this is one of
the biggest reasons that WRIPES became popular. If there are hundred
participants for a WRIPES, you can be sure that you get 99 votes, excluding
yours.
02. Wattpad
authors who have not yet participated in the World Water Day 2019
Now here
lies a challenge. But not a challenge if you understand the exact situation. Many
Wattpad users do not give it much of a thought and directly request another
user to read their book. That may not work. Better go and ask an elephant in
the wild to make you a cup of tea.
The
reason is pretty obvious. Think about yourself. You are a writer. Maybe you are
an author even. Why did you come to Wattpad? To develop your own reader base. You
did not come to Wattpad to become one of the readers of someone else.
Of
course, you might read other books. But that largely depends on your own
preferences and tastes. A request from another author to read his / her book
would rarely be a welcoming thought. You don’t know whether you would find his
/ her writings appealing. No, if you want to read something you will browse
through the gigantic library of Wattpad and pick out your own book. You don’t
need someone else’s recommendations.
So you
got the point. Asking another Wattpad author to read your book would not work. So
then what’s the answer?
How
about other Wattpad authors who are still waiting in line to have their books read by
someone? To see their first vote appear on the book and celebrate with a
yoohoo? Yeah, just like you and me!
Just
like you and me. We are also waiting in line to have our books read by some enthusiastic
reader. We are also waiting for the notification blink of the first vote. Let’s
work along that line. Let’s see who else is out there waiting … in the same
boat … just like you and me.
In the
Wattpad homepage click / tap DISCOVER.
I guess you
might remember that you published your World Water Day 2019 under the RANDOM category.
So let’s step in to the familiar play ground J
Select
NEW. You will see the books that are published (or updated) very recently.
When the
newly published / updated books appear onscreen, slowly scroll down the list. You
will notice that there are books – very recently published – waiting patiently without
a single vote. Sometimes, unbelievably, without a single read!
That’s
your chance to make friends with the author of that book!
Now,
wait! Do not immediately sail in to a reading exercise of the book or vote for
it. First of all you have to verify that this story has not violated the
community guidelines of Wattpad. If it has, then you would be voting for a book
that would be soon rejected by other readers.
Then how
do you know this book is okay? Simple. Once you select a book do not click read
on the initial window of the book. Click on the title.
On your right there is a
button called report.
On
mobile, this is bit different. But it is simpler than in a PC. When a book
appears on your smartphone’s screen, you can see three vertical dots on the top
right. The report button is there J
If you
go in, you would see the following.
It is
prudent to keep in mind these points. When you are reading a new book, you
might find that rather than an appreciative vote, it needs an immediate call of
attention from the Wattpad admin!
But if
the book is good, never hesitate to vote, comment in a manner that do not mean
any harm or promote your own work and drop a personal message of ‘hi’ to your
future writer friend.
A hint: this
is a must read before you comment on a story http://www.critters.org/diplomacy.ht
If you are not going to read, just as well you never comment.
Out of
my own experience I am telling you, to this date, not a single NEW author has failed
to respond to my vote, comment and hi.
Likewise
he / she would respond to you too. Take extreme care to maintain a good
friendship. Never ask him / her to read your book. Instead, discuss the
positive angles of his / her book. Win his / her heart. When both of you are
feeling comfortable, inform about this writing project you participated. Share
the link to the entire project.
Sharing
a link to your book would not get you far with a new writer. They are out looking
for new writing opportunities. They are not looking for books to read. If they
are looking for books to read, they do not need your recommendations. They will
prefer to look up their own. That’s the plain truth. You cannot make them do
things the way you want. Sorry dear.
When you
direct the new writer to this writing project, his / her first requirement
would be to go through the mini e-books already written. So inevitably your
book is going to be in his reading list. No worries!
Thus we
come to the end of the post. For Wattpad readers and other readers or writers who
do not use Wattpad I have separate strategy. For the moment you focus on the
first two methods. All the best!
More
later.
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