#BookPromotion on #Wattpad

Last November, I was finally convinced to try Wattpad. 

Then, later in the same month, I wrote about Wattpad being a special “social media” platform for writers.

That was early in the game…

I had a relatively small number of folks I followed and there were some following me…

I have four books there; and, will soon have a fifth—one of my books, my novel, was getting reads and comments and all was productive and fun…

Then, last month, my novel jumped from 1,ooo to 2,000 reads and my followers jumped from about 300 to over 1,200.

Today, I have 3,200 reads on the novel and nearly 2,000 followers…

What happened was Wattpad decided to Feature my book.

Suddenly, being on Wattpad is “work” yet very welcome and productive work.

Back in November, my novel was being read in around 10 countries.

This map shows the situation now (countries with reads shaded blue, with darker blue being more reads):

Do I recommend Wattpad for writers who don’t yet know how to promote their book; or, are either tired of or frustrated about their promotion efforts to date?

Perhaps…

It depends on the writer.

One way to find out if you’re the kind of person who can do promotion on Wattpad is to sign-up for free; then, read How To Get Reads, Votes, and Comments – A Guide by Katherine A. Ganzel.

Here’s my profile on Wattpad.

And, here’s the novel that’s still being Featured :-)

Plus, you can read the interviews I have here with other Wattpad authors…
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There Should Be Only One Way to Promote Your Writing ~ Your Way!

I’ve written a lot on this blog about book promotion, author platforms, and social media. 

And, you can scroll down in the left side-bar to find all of it (in the Subject Index Links)…

But there are two posts in particular I’ll point out:

Breaking The “Rules” of Book Promotion ~ 6 Different Views

Authentic Book Promotion ~ Does It Sell?

I mention those because I’m going to excerpt from an article at the ALLi Author Advice Centre —> Opinion: Promote Your Self-Published Books Your Way, by Debbie Young.

You’d think that any self-respecting writer would consider their own abilities and proclivities before they tried some promotion program from some “expert”, even if that “expert” has sold gazillions of books.

There’s nothing wrong with reading what the “experts’ say—we just must pay attention to our own unique needs and abilities…

From the ALLi article:

“Just because we can tweet/Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram etc around the clock, it doesn’t mean we should.”

Followed by:

“Too many of us believe that if we don’t put in a significant amount of time, effort and budget into doing so, we’re failing.”

Thankfully, followed by:

“Drop that thought right now.”

I started promoting my novel nearly 5 years ago (before I published it) by beginning this blog.

I’ve tried the other popular social networks and found all of them wanting (though other folks do find them useful…)…

A while back, I also started using Wattpad and I’m still wondering what took me so long to find out it fits in with my abilities and needs…

So, back to Debbie’s article, with some teasers that can be satisfied by reading the whole thing :-)

“So, if the idea of staging online conversations in fewer than 140 characters makes you cringe, avoid Twitter….

“If you’re going to be irked by people posting cat videos and games requests in front of you every day, forget Facebook….

“…I found that the pressure to add affiliate bookstore links every time I mentioned a title put me off posting at all. So I’ve ditched the links.”

And, with another strong encouragement for you to read Debbie’s full article, I share this last excerpt:

“…I will try not to feel the need to justify my actions every time I turn my back on a marketing trick. Instead, I’ll take inspiration from the eponymous character from Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, who, as I remember from high school, quietly declines opportunities with the refrain: “I would prefer not to”. My English teacher, Mr Campbell, (who I think quite often fancied using Bartleby’s line in staff meetings), would be proud of me. Even if, in the story, Bartleby does eventually die of starvation.”

And, after you read Debbie’s whole article, look around on that page, ’cause you’ll be in the How-to for Authors section of the Self Publishing Advice site of The Alliance of Independent Authors…
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Finding a Social Network I Can Truly Engage With ~~~ #Wattpad

I’ve been engaged in a social media endeavor for 4 years, 10 months, and 18 days—right here on this blog… 

Naturally, since I’m a writer (and, naturally, a reader, too…), I tried the “social networks”:

Facebook—a raucous place for writers (or, readers)—folks standing up on platforms, shouting about their wares…

Google Plus—more mature than Facebook but still not geared, specifically, toward writers (or, readers)…

LinkedIn—hmmm… Sure, writing can be a “business”; but…

Twitter—broke up with it numerous times—worked out a functioning, minimal relationship…

I do, however, have WordPress automatically sending links of all my blog posts to all those networks…

Feel free to check out more of my social media opinions.

However, 5 years ago I signed up with Wattpad.

I was deep into writing my first novel and didn’t see Wattpad’s value (for writers or for readers)…

14 days ago, I wrote a post about my reunion with Wattpad and I linked to that post in another one I wrote 2 days ago—Very Short, Very Powerful Review of My Book on #Wattpad . . .

In that post, PAHughes said (about my novel):

“Picked this up and could not put it down. Astoundingly gripping , your words just dance on the page and every little bit comes to life. 

“I have downloaded a full copy of the book and will read it to the end. A brilliant book, well done sir.”

Then, yesterday, PAHughes told their over 1,100 followers the following:

“‘Notes from an Alien’ is Beautifully written with immense description and powerful undertones. It is the view of a world from strange but familiar eyes. Seriously go check it out.”

So, the reads of my novel have gone up and so have the reads of my poetry book and my collection of fantasy shorts. I’ve also had quite a few more folks follow me…

But, I’m finding out that Wattpad isn’t just about me getting readers of my works…

It’s also a wonderful place to read others’ writing—some great, some struggling, some amateurish—making comments on that writing (usually greatly appreciated, even if I’ve been a bit critical).

This was something I tried to do through other social media channels but never got used to…

Perhaps, as I prepare for my next book (I’m in no hurry…), I finally can take the time to appreciate others’ writing (even if it’s a bit poorly done…)—perhaps it’s the ambiance in Wattpad—perhaps it’s knowing that about 80% of my readers are mobile (my writing is traveling while being read…)—perhaps it’s that around 85% are under 30…

Perhaps it’s that I may be helping some stressed-out kid, on the streets ’cause home is a tragedy, slowly, incrementally improve their reading.

It’s possible to upload a full book or story but the Wattpad community has evolved in a serialization world (they even recommend keeping each portion of your work below 2,000 words...)—many Wattpaders are obviously writing a serial first draft and begging for comments so they can improve it.

I discovered Katherine A. Ganzel the other day and profited from reading her, How To Get Reads, Votes, and Comments – A Guide.

Katherine recommended another guide that I haven’t yet read—MichaelLimjoco‘s, Cracking the Wattpad Code: Insider Secrets the Pros don’t want you to know!

Wondering who those “pros” are or if Michael is just trying to draw in readers…

But, Katherine’s guide is comprehensive and extremely helpful and she really likes Michael’s guide…

Wattpad also has a Club (Forum) called Improve Your Writing and within that Club there’s a special place with a multitude of links to other aids and resources for aspiring writers plus what I’d call their Community Library…

Plus, they’re rolling out Multimedia Storytelling.

And, for any writers out there who still feel hesitant to, at least, explore Wattpad’s possibilities, here’s an interesting blurb from a writer with more entrepreneurial spirit then me:

“Drawing on her own success story, indie author Dianne Greenlay explains why she thinks all self-published writers should try using Wattpad to increase the discoverability of their books.”

She’s written this article—How Wattpad Gained My Self-Published Novel 500,000 Reads.

So, whether you’re a reader looking for mobile-joy or a high-powered Indie author, I feel fairly certain Wattpad has something for you…
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Do Social Media Networks Have Different “Identities”?

At first, social media platforms can feel nearly identical, with only superficial differences.

Many folks call Google Plus the new Facebook, and Twitter is considered by many just a short-form version of G+, while LinkedIn is the business version of any other social network…

I’ve given my opinions on using social networks in 14 other posts and mentioned it in countless other posts on book promotion (check out the Top Tags widget in the left side-bar…).

One of my most important posts on this topic, imho, was, My Cure for Social Networking Anxiety.

Still, after using these and other social platforms for a number of years, I did find distinct differences in each, in spite of any similarities.

So, yesterday, just in time for my Monday post, Business Insider had an article called, Social Media Demographics: The Surprising Identity Of Each Major Social Network.

They begin by saying, “We explained in a recent report why many brands and businesses need platform-focused social media strategies, rather than a diluted strategy that aims to be everywhere at once.”

The full report can be downloaded free by signing up for a two-week trial of their service (on the right, where it says, “Try It Free For Two Weeks”).

Some of the differences between social networks are tantalizingly—partially—revealed in the article:

I will follow suit and leave just a few tantalizing examples here, urging those interested to read the full article:

Facebook still skews young, but the 45- to 54-year-old age bracket has seen 45% growth since year-end 2012. Among U.S. Internet users, 73% with incomes above $75,000 are on Facebook (compared to 17% who are on Twitter). Eight-six percent of Facebook’s users are outside the U.S.

Twitter has a surprisingly young user population for a large social network — 27% of 18 to 29-year-olds in the U.S. use Twitter, compared to only 16% of people in their thirties and forties.

Google+ is the most male-oriented of the major social networks. It’s 70% male.

They go on to say:

“In full, the special report:

“Analyzes gender, income, and age statistics for each social network
“Includes 16 charts and datasets that provide an in-depth picture of demographics on each of the major social networks
“Discusses mobile activity on social media and its relative weight on each of the platforms
“Looks at daypart statistics to gauge how demographics drives daily activity peaks on each of the networks
“Examines how international the user bases of each social network have become”

Even though I’m only using G+ now and only using it in a limited way, other folks find social media more important in their work.

As always, I try to provide information here for my readers, even if I feel it necessary to qualify that I, personally, find less value in it…
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Social Media Mistakes . . .

Social Media, Social Networks, whatever you call them; not many are truly “social”…

Of course, if you’re a writer, self- or traditionally published, you need an Author Platform…

Ever tried being social on a platform?

Over the last three years, I’ve struggled to do what others say one Must do to engage readers.

Most of what others think is necessary and viable in the Platform/Promotion dance doesn’t work for me.

Check out this past post: Social Networking for Mavericks.

So…

Noting that I’m not doing it like others do it, let me share some fairly reasonable ideas about how others make mistakes…

Anne R. Allen has a blog post called, 12 Social Media Mistakes for Authors to Avoid.

I’ll list the mistakes from her post but leave her explanations as an exploration for those truly interested:

1) Spamming somebody’s Facebook wall

2) Creating a Facebook page and Twitter account for every one of your books

3) Creating an “event” or “group” and adding people’s names without permission

4) Responding to Tweeted links without reading the article

5) Tweeting as a fictional character and expecting people to respond

6) Blogging your WIP and asking for critiques and praise

7) Blaming people you’ve friended or circled because you’re getting email notifications

8) “Thanking” people for following you by sending spam

9) Following and unfollowing immediately after you get a follow back

10) Tagging a photo that’s an ad—or worse, porn—with the names of all your Facebook friends

11)  Not posting share buttons or your @Twitterhandle on your blog

12) Hiding your identity behind a whimsical name or avatar

So, if you’re one of those people who can make the new norm of social media work for you, those 12 actions will sabotage all your efforts…

If you do take the link and read Anne’s explanations for those mistakes, do check out the over 40 comments she got :-)
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