Wattpad: Tips and Tricks

How to get your book noticed.

What's new and What's hot

Whats new:

Surprisingly the list of 'New' stories doesn't go off of which books are the newest. It actually goes off of which book has a chapter updated/published most recently. This is why you can have books that started 3 months ago with 13 parts at the top of the 'New' list.

If you post a new chapter everyday the you're going to stay on the New list longer without being completely buried. The bigger the gap between chapter updates the further down that list you will be.

What's hot:

Now the 'Hot' list doesn't go off of who has the most reads. It goes off of who has the newest read/votes/ comments for each day so the earlier you publish your chapter the longer you will have to get reads/votes/comments and the more likely you will be to get on the 'Hot' list.

Updates

Regularly:

Everyone who is successful on Wattpad either has their story completed already or update regularly. This is because people can see when you last updated. If it was over a month ago and only has five chapters chances are that they won't even start reading your story.

No one likes waiting a month for a new chapter and a lot of wattpadders are tired of reading books that writers never finish so if you don't update regularly they're going to think you may have stopped writing that story altogether. 

Now you can do one of two things. Include a note at the bottom of your story description with 'Updates every Monday' or whatever day you aim to write a chapter by.

A lot at first: 

If you're publishing your first book on Wattpad do not just publish one chapter. My advice to anyone planning to post a new book on Wattpad is to release more than one chapter at first.

One chapter is not enough to hook your reader in and they probably wont want to wait for a new chapter especially if they have no idea when you might next update. 

My advice would be to publish at least three chapters to begin with and write in the description when you plan to update. If you have a lot of chapters written already then post 3-5 chapters on the first day and then a chapter a day.

The exception to this rule is if you know you can write new chapters quickly and wont leave readers waiting too long.

Cover

Ever heard the expression 'Don't judge a book by its cover'? Well, it exists because people do just that. A good cover will attract readers and a great cover will tell your reader a bit about your book before they even read the blurb.

I know what you're thinking the cover on this book isn't great but I'm not using it for the story I spent hours/weeks writing. I am by no means a cover designer but since this is just a helpful guide book the cover is not that important.

Now you can find genuinely good cover designers on Wattpad for free or for a wattpad payment (such as a follow or comment/like on the cover makers book).