Well,… not much actually. I put my short story “The Man Who Could Not Forget” on there last night and by morning it had been downloaded 10 times, which isn’t bad at all*. Looking at the download figures for some of the fiction on here I’m very impressed -well over the million mark. But that has to be a mistake, surely! I’d thought “the Man Who” was doing well on Feedbooks at about 85,000, after three years, but I’m feeling like an amateur now.
One thing I’ve noticed reading through the material on Wattpad is that there’s a lot of stuff written, I’m guessing, by young teens – a lot of young romance stuff, vampire stuff, and fan-fiction, set in scenarios familiar to young teens – i.e. school or college. I don’t think this is a deliberate policy of Wattpad’s – it’s just that this particular demographic finds the service attractive, has moved in on it and is making good use of it.
However, if you’re an older writer like me, you tend to be writing for older people and I’m not sure you’re going to be finding many of them hanging around on Wattpad. I don’t mean this in bad way – I’m both heartened and surprised to discover so many youngsters writing creatively. I’m just hesitant to endorse it as a viable market – even a non-paying one – for the older writer. It strikes me that your biggest audience on here is going to be on the young side, and I’m not sure if those young ‘uns will take to stories with characters who have wrinkles and stretchmarks.
We’ll see. If “The Man Who Could Not Forget” tops a million downloads this side of Christmas, I’ll gladly eat my words.
The other thing you need to be very careful of here, as a writer, is Wattpad’s age-rating system. To reach the widest audience you need a “general” age rating, and for this your story can’t contain anything you’d be nervous of sharing with your mother or your young teen daughter, which means all good clean fun and no swearing. However, if your work slips over to the naughty side now and then, you’ve got to give your story an R rating, which almost puts it on a private list.
R rate your story and you’re going to severely restrict its distribution. Having said that, I still managed to find a lot of rumpy pumpy in those teen authored stories – not that I was looking. I may have misunderstood the requirements, but I’d still be mortified if I put, say “The Lavender and the Rose” up there, only to have it deleted because it was considered obscene.
There are some rude words and bare bosoms in my story “The Man Who Talked to Machines”, I recall, so I’ll load that up, 13+ rate it, and see how it goes.
In the mean time, to all those teenagers pushing material out into the cloud with Wattpad, I say well done.
* I spoke too soon here. “The Man Who Could Not Forget” flatlined at about 12 downloads and hasn’t moved all week.
Updated July 2016: I pulled the Man Who after a couple of years. It never did much after those 12 downloads. Instead, I’ve found it a useful platform for putting up my novels as works in progress, one chapter at a time, say a chapter a week. Downloads are a bit of a mystery – you can get tens of thousands while having just a few readers, so I’m not sure how that works, but for the writer, knowing you have even just a few readers waiting on the next chapter aids in the writing process. Use Wattpad as a tool. It’s the story that’s important. Don’t use Wattpad if you’re thinking of eventually getting into print and for money. What’s up with Wattpad? Nothing, so long as you’re not expecting miracles.
. .
I very much agree with this article. I too am an older user of Wattpad and when I read some of the stuff that’s actually on there, 95% of the time I think they are just ok, definitely nothing special. But when you read some of the comments – Oh my God I almost cried! – you tend to realise the age of the audience you’re dealing with! I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that 75% of users are in their pre-teens!
Well, I don’t use it anymore!
If you want to read some of my stuff feel free: http://robertonacci.blogspot.com/
Comments appreciated!
Hi Rob,
Thanks for dropping by. Yes, pre-teen. The language bears that out. There’s some grown up stuff on there, but you’ve really got to dig for it. Thanks for the link to your blog. You’ve got some really deep thoughts here and very touching prose. All beautifully presented. Well done.
Regards
Michael
Hi Michael,
I’m glad I stumbled across this blog. It kind of confirms my suspicions of Wattpad. However, I will look out for the grown up stuff from now on.
Thanks for your comments by the way, glad you liked it.
-Rob
Hi Rob,
Thanks. Have you looked at Feedbooks? It’s a little more grown up than Wattpad, though I have to say I’ve noticed an increasing amount of juvenile material on there as well recently, including, it has to be said, rather lot of unsubtle smut. But the download rates are good.
I liked your Greenfly post post btw. Such a simple observation on the face of it, but it opens all sorts of doors on the mind when you start to think metaphorically. I’m prone to that sort of thing of myself – glad you decided to record it.
Best wishes
Michael
Hi Michael,
Yes, I took a look at it the other day and my immediate impression was that it looked far more professional than Wattpad. However, I haven’t taken a closer look at the content yet.
Glad you liked the post. I have more of that kind of stuff on my computer, just haven’t had the time to re-read and edit them all for posting.
When I do I will update you.
Are you on twitter?
-Rob
[…] Wattpad is dominated by YA authors and readers. YA seems to regularly fill the “What’s Hot” list, and all of the blogs and articles I have read do not question this dominance. The “Watty Awards” (Wattpad’s People’s Choice Awards, more or less) are glutted with paranormal romances, historical romances and chick lit. The majority of Wattpad’s users, according to their own statistics, are young girls. Michael Graeme, another blogger, ran into this culture and lived to tell the tale. […]
I agree that the majority of the writiers are teens however there are many who are not.
I may be baised as I love some of the stories on wattpad but wattpad it self is an alround site that is a place for people to chare their stories. The most attractive part of it is that it offers coppy rights.
The viewers of wattpad go mostly for story line, but there are more than a few books with both, mostly written by mothers; though none have wrinkly old men in them, if the story is good I’m sure it would it accepted.
In general it’s a place where everyone puts up their work to showcase it to the world and get general feed back and I think it’s excelent encouragement for young teens to read and write, they certainly aren’t doing enough of it in schools.
I do agree that the language of some stories is deplorable. The site as a whole is not. If you want an older audience you just have to know where to look.
As for stories, there is the voting system for that,
You’ll be sure to find a more mature audience and writers if you look.
I am not sure about the other site, I just wish to clarify the fact that wattpad caters to all audiences and you will find a wide variety of people at wattpad, all of them getting a certain ammount of recognistion and support not matter how good or bad their story is, anf the best thing is that if given a chance and support form other members they will surely improve as they progress which I think is a wonderful thing.
Thanks Liya,
Great comment, and good advice.
Regards
Michael.
There is an older audience there, look for the club ‘The Pub’, http://www.wattpad.com/club/40-the-pub , It’s a place for the guys and older audience of wattpad to interact.
There’s also a profile to interview the men of wattpad that are being sought out, many of older audience, http://www.wattpad.com/user/ThePubCommittee
I hope this helps you in finding some of the older authors and more mature stories. Not all of us are sparkly, you just gotta know where to look.
Thanks craig. It’s a while since I looked at Wattpad. Sounds like I should give it another shot. Appreciate the contact.
Regards
Michael
Thank you, you legend. I shall be joining the pub immediately.
As an oldie, I find it encouraging that young people are writing and not just using their thumbs!
Thanks Pete. Well said. I couldn’t agree more.
Regards
Michael
I’m with you there, it’s definitely encouraging.
Yeah I’ve noticed I’m in high school right now yet I’ve seen a lot of my classmates on it during class. I checked it out and it sort of sparked my interest. I’m used to reading things off of http://www.fanfiction.net/ or http://www.fictionpress.com/
Maybe I’ll go have a deeper look at it, I don’t know.
Hi Dominique,
Thanks for those links. I checked them out and they look interesting. I must admit I’ve drawn down my interst in Wattpad of late, preferring Feedbooks for its greater hit-rate.
If you’re interested in writing fiction – and I would encourage you to get into it – Wattpad is as good a place as any to feature your work. Let your classmates know you’re on there and curiosity will drive them to have a look.
Regards
Michael
hi ! im mac, i was actually on the move to make a wattpad account, i love to do creative writing in such a manner that youngters might not love – yeah, im on my teenage now, but i wrote too mature for my age, as they say- so i tried to read some stories out there and reviews such as this, and there you go, i still wanna have an account, doesnt matter if they dont read it. hehe . by the way nice review ! 🙂 awesome rather. 😀 godbless ! _oh and, im from the philippines :)))) by the way hehe_
Really? So WattPad appeals to teenagers? What about trying on other sites? One place in particular I’d recommend is ReadWave.
You can build up an audience around your story by starting small writing short stories now and allowing your readers to download and share. Please check out the site here: readwave.com
Hey, thanks NyNy. That’s a great link. Have you also checked out Feedbooks?
Regards
Michael.
I have never heard of the site but I will take a look! 🙂
Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article.
I will make sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information.
Thanks for the post. I’ll definitely return.
I am a fan of user generated content
be it You tube, PinInterest, even instagram and just like instagram, you have to dig through the fast food closeups and duck faced bathroom shots, but you do find great content
wattpad is indeed like the youtube of ebooks, i have found some really cool books there, and yes you have to dig through twilight fan fiction but sometimes results are surprisingly good
For me it isn’t the twilight fanfiction i have to dig through, it’s the one direction stuff i have to jump hurdles over. Usually i like wattpad in general, and it’s great that people want to try writing on a site were people aren’t as harsh on there reviews.
But without reviews that offer tips, such as add a few words into that sentence to make it flow a bit easier. (Or possibly describe an object or building so we can see what the character in the story is seeing) The trick is how to leave comments like these without hurting the authors feelings or getting other people seeing you as a bad guy.
Wattpad is great in the fact that it encourages people to write, but it’s really up to viewers and commentators to help guide these writers to were their stories are actually noteworthy.
Well, i use wattpad, mainly to read. I have noticed tht most of it is trash that is really formless and cliché. But there are some very good books that are just simply fantasy. You just have to look in the right section.
My name is Kingsley, and I’ve been on a journey through Art and Self-publishing. It led me to Wattpad aka land of the pre-teen amazons. (Dear God in heaven help me…)
I’ve seriously enjoyed this article you have no idea…or perhaps you do.
Afterall, you all seemed to have survived the zombie apocalypse that is One-Friggin-Direction-Blooming-Twilight-Fan-Frickin-Fiction…and that’s putting it in dainty gibberish in order not to swear.
On one hand, you have 1 writer who has completely captivated me with an original tale with no stupid sparkly counterfeit vampires and no blokes and chicks hooking up in the most unlikely and unrealistic of circumstances.
On the other hand you have every variation of fan-fiction imaginable. They could use this to torture people into giving up top secrets. It’s that cringe worthy.
Yet i came across one particular story so good, so well edited and structured that i was half way through the book before the bloke and the chick were about to do the deed and the bloke was revealed to look VERY much like ‘HARRY-for goodness sake-styles’. Needless to say, i closed that book very quickly. It was like one of those nightmares where everyone has the same face and they’re all your evil aunt trying to force feed you books you don’t want to read. So in a weird way, I’m thanking One Direction and bloody Twilight (excuse the stupid pun) for encouraging teenagers (and pre-teens) to write so much, even if it’s not so well. Practice and all that jazz.
We can rest assured that the next generation of girls will be so sick of boy bands and warped monster mythology that they’ll start writing Die Hard fan-fiction…no? Well a bloke can dream can’t he?
Hi Michael
I get what you’re saying abt Wattpad but what I have noticed abt the internet is that a lot of it originates with younger audiences before it catches up to older people. Look at FB, twitter, Instagram etc. Anyway it’s just one outlet if many but I think that writers that are Croce other places may bring ppl to Wattpad
Very helpful. I’ve recently had Wattpad suggested to me and I’m crawling around looking for any dirt I can. It seems the website is solid (in that they aren’t out to scam writers, but even more enticing is you point out my exact intent…one chapter at a time.
I know this reply is dated, but thank you all the same.