The world of online self publishing changes year on year. First it was Lulu.com, offering a self published route to paper. But paper was a hangover from the olden days, and for the online writer the market long ago switched from paper to smartphones. Feedbooks became the happening place in this respect, fast tracking your story to an international market, to a smartphone in your pocket irrespective of where you resided in the world.
Of the stuff I first posted on Feedbooks, readers wrote back, but they don’t any more, and Feedbook’s stats are now broken, so it’s hard to know how a story is doing. I still post my final drafts on there, but expect to hear any day now Feedbooks is defunct. At any rate, so far as I’m concerned Feedbooks isn’t the happening place any more.
Smashwords was another great hope, dogged in its support for the online writer, but its reach is poor, and in five years I’ve not had a single piece of feedback from any of my works on there. In Smashwords then, I am roundly disappointed.
Which brings me back to Wattpad, forum for the teen scribbler. I don’t mean to sound dismissive, but only old people and college students still buy paper books. Against all expectation my stories, Sunita and Fall of night have done well on Wattpad, and still attract that ever valuable commodity: feedback.
Oh, sure, I’m a bit of an oddball, writing stuff and giving it away. I really don’t know if I could get it published properly in paper now, but my experience of the process leaves me cold, and I’d rather not go there again. So, free it is, you lucky people. And my current weapon of choice is Wattpad, at least in the formative stages of a story.
I admit I don’t like Wattpad that much. It makes me uneasy, but it’s the only place right now with a lively vibe, at least for the freak that is the author who turns his back on the establishment. So,… up goes The Sea View Cafe, not because it’s finished, but more because it’s not and I find Wattpad’s pre-readers less shy of expressing opinions on a piece, and more likely to discover it than if I spent an age polishing it through several drafts and putting it up first anywhere else. Plus, when I know a few readers have been hooked, it renders me honour bound to find a way through the labyrinth that is the story. It adds pressure, it adds weight.
Speaking for the writer, of the first draft of any story, the only important thing is that we finish it. Wattpad helps enormously in this respect. The Sea View is not finished, and I’ve no idea where it’s going, but we’re three quarters of the way through, and that’s enough to start jamming sticks in the ground. Indeed, the more I think about it, the more I respect Wattpad, and its membership.
But I am not the best of Wattpad members. I post my own stuff, but am shamefully neglectful of the works of others. Read mine, but probably won’t read yours, because all writers are prima donnas, and cruelly neglectful of our fellow scribblers. But not all readers are writers. Some people just want to read fiction without the inconvenience of (a) having to pay for it and (b) having to write their own stuff for comparison.
So,.. the Sea View Cafe is my own current preoccupation. I am in love with the characters, and I want to do right by them. I’m using Wattpad, and I’m using you, dear reader to help in fashioning it to a decent conclusion. So ignore all other stories on there and read The Sea View Cafe.
You don’t have to read it of course. You don’t have to feed me back. Few do, actually. But those who do, do make a difference.
I thank you.
Graeme out.
As I read your post, I felt mixed feelings. I do agree a lot of writing sites are dying right now, and it seems Wattpad is the only site getting traffic. However, I’ve written stories on Wattpad for over 3 years. The site mostly caters to teen girls who like stories with romance. And sadly, poorly written stories are the ones that get popular. If you are a writer who cares about learning and improving your craft, it’s discouraging to see 100-300 word chapters full of grammar mistakes getting 1M reads. I do agree you can get feedback on Wattpad, but the site supports poor quality writing. In fact, the main book the website supported for publication was a Harry Styles fanfiction that featured some, if not all sex scenes. It’s sad really because Wattpad has so much potential. These are just my thoughts. Currently, both of my stories rank on the hot list, but even still, I feel like Wattpad has too many issues.
Hi Akaluv,
Thanks for the comment and for sharing your thoughts on Wattpad. Yes, I too am mystifed by those 1M reads. I have found some “mature” writers on there but we’re rare and my stuff certainly isn’t going to be appealing to teen girls. I’m not sure how the stats work either – I tend to go off the votes and the comments to see if a piece is still being actively read. Strange how serialisation gets you the most hits, and posting a novel in one go is like posting them into oblivion.
Like you I have serious issues with Wattpad, but I keep coming back to it because it seems the only platform that’s aive right now. Of the others I think we’d be as well serving our stories from Dropbox and linking to them from our blogs.
Regards
Michael
Oh yes, don’t post a novel all at once on Wattpad unless you are applying to be featured. Sadly, you are correct – Wattpad is the only site right now that’s alive. I’ve tried so many writing websites that I feel WordPress may be my final home. Unless one of the another websites gets major traffic in the future, I won’t be moving again.
Always nice to find a new Michael Graeme to read! If you don’t mind I’ve put in a plug on my blog and on Wattpad, hopefully netting a fortunate reader or two. I’m already hooked. It’s so funny we’ve followed the same trajectory – Lulu to Feedbooks to Smashwords to Wattpad (with some Amazon in there somewhere for kicks) and yes, they all wash up on the shore and then the next one comes around. I’ve been more than satisfied. When I started self-publishing in 2009 I think my dozens of stories had at that point been read by three or four people, friends I more than imposed upon for years. I’ve been glad to outsource the task to strangers, and the numbers don’t interest me anymore. Maybe that’s just getting old, and maybe it’s just having been through the cycle of writing, release, reads, reviews and on to the next. I no longer feel as sorry as I used to for all the fools whose life’s works ended up in piles on the floors of crappy used book stores in dead end towns. They had their moment in the sun. I’m sure it made them all very happy at the time! Now I’m looking forward to more at the Sea View Cafe!!
Hello Tom, thanks for the plug – always welcome of course. It was you who moved me on from Feedbooks to Smashwords, you also who persuaded me to look again at Wattpad having tried it once and given up on it.
Our similar trajectory is explained then by the fact I’m just following in your footsteps. You’re a real pioneer of self publishing online, always encouraging and positive in your approach. Very glad to have you along for the Sea View Cafe.
Hope I can pull it off, but then another advantage of self publishing for free online is it doesn’t really matter.
Best wishes.