It doesn’t matter whether you’re a new or a seasoned author. You’re wondering if you should give writing on Wattpad a go or not.

Well, it makes sense why some of you will find the idea of writing on Wattpad rather irresistible.

What’s not to love about Wattpad when you can get paid to write your story? And not only that, but you get to work with brands and get paid along the way too.

And the biggest kahuna of all when you publish your story on Wattpad?

You’ll get a book deal from Wattpad itself. And like any published work, the chance to see your work adapted into movies and TV series.

While many authors could care less about working with brands, it sure is a dream comes true for many authors.

It’s no wonder that many authors see Wattpad as a stepping stone in their author careers.

My forgotten history with Wattpad

Wattpad was a very different place back then when I posted a sample chapter from my first book, The Diary of Modern Cinderella.

There were no such things as Wattpad imprint and movie or TV series adaptation whatsoever.

The only surefire thing you’ll get when you publish your story on Wattpad is tons of eyeballs on your story.

Of course, I wasn’t expecting anything much when I posted the sample chapter from my books.

For one, people who were on Wattpad were more interested in reading a complete, full story.

So, you’re not going to get any traction if you post a sample chapter on Wattpad.

If you want people to pay attention to your story, then it’s best to post a full story regardless of how long it takes for you to update the story till the end.

It’s because of this reason that made me publish my other book, The Mind Control Assassins, on Wattpad.

I even took part in the Watty Award too since anyone can take part in the Watty Award.

As you can expect, I didn’t win the award. But being on Wattpad somehow taught me something about writing on Wattpad.

The icky truth about writing on Wattpad

Here’s the news flash for you. Writing on Wattpad isn’t that much different from you having to post frequently on social media.

Just like social media, Wattpad also has its own algorithm that recommends stories to the readers.

And how the algorithm knows what stories to recommend to the readers?

The obvious one will be the tags that you use in your story. Another factor can also be due to the number of people who read your story.

The more people who read your story, the more likely the algorithm to recommend your story to more readers.

That won’t be a problem if you’re writing in a genre that is popular on Wattpad. And it also helps if your story is appealing to the younger demographic.

But tough luck if you’re writing for a specific niche. It won’t be easy to bring exposure to your story.

You can guess what happened when you don’t get a lot of eyeballs on your story – the algorithm isn’t going to push your story any further.

As a result, your story will get dumped into the slush pile along with other stories that won’t see the light of day.

So, the best way to go about it is to promote the heck out of your story on Wattpad and the algorithm will work in your favor, right?

Well, that’s the gist of it.

But here’s another thing that you should know.

Even if you do get tons of eyeballs for your story, you still won’t get paid for the story you publish on Wattpad since the Wattpad Paid Stories is only open to a select few.

Whether you can get paid for the story you publish on Wattpad will solely depend on Wattpad itself.

Tough luck if Wattpad doesn’t consider you to be worthy enough to get paid even if you have a sizeable audience who enjoys your work.

But you can always get them to buy your book, right?

Well, that’s another way if you don’t get paid for publishing your work on Wattpad.

Or you can ask your readers to support you on Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee.

But here’s another cold hard truth about the audience on Wattpad.

While a handful of them are willing to support their favorite authors on Wattpad, most of them aren’t willing to go that far no matter how much they love the authors.

Remember that the reason why they love reading on Wattpad is that they can read stories for free.

So, it can be hard to convince them to buy your book on Amazon or support you on Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee if all they want is to read stories for free.

If my experience with offering a free book on retailers is any indication, I will say that the outcome is the same even on Wattpad.

It’s hard to convince people to part their money when they can get it for free.

And they have no reason to do so.

Is it worth writing on Wattpad then?

Whether it’s worth writing on Wattpad or not will depend on your goals.

If you only need a place to publish your story without the hassle of creating a website and you only see getting a book deal or seeing your work adapted into a movie as the icing on the cake for you, then Wattpad is indeed the best place to do just that.

But if you want to have full control of how you make money from your writing, then Wattpad may not be the best place for you.

It’s already bad enough that Wattpad Paid Stories is an invite-only program.

And then you have to deal with those who aren’t willing to pay anything for your work.

With many things on Wattpad that are beyond your control, you’re better off doing things on your own term instead of having a website like Wattpad dictate the future of your author career.

You’re just being salty here!

Some of you will say that I’m being salty here since I wasn’t experiencing success like those Wattpad authors you see on their website.

You know, the ones that give a glowing review about Wattpad, saying that Wattpad made it possible for them to make a living from their writing.

Perhaps that could be the reason why I’m being salty toward Wattpad.

Sorry to disappoint you.

I won’t be this salty if every Wattpad authors have an equal opportunity to make money from their story, not just the chosen one.

They can choose to charge the readers when the website is in its infancy.

But for whatever reason, they didn’t. Instead, they choose to monetize the website by the time they have a large enough audience.

At that point, it’s already too late to do just that.

The ship has sailed at this point. All they have now are readers who will always be complaining every time Wattpad is coming up with any programs that will require them to pay.

That’s not the best place to be if you’re serious about wanting to make a living from your writing.

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