The Corner Booth

#1 Start, Stop, Continue

The High Five: Meet the first ever panel for The Corner Booth:

Rita Kovach: @rskovach

Michelle Hayes: @Michelle007

Mary L. Tabor: @maryltabor

Jason Howell: @SeeThomasHowl

Brittanie Charmintine: @BrittanieCharmintine

And our show runner:

Nat Bradford: @natsaninja

What we are about: To aide not only new Wattpadders, but veteran Wattpadders. It's about how you engage the magical land of Wattpad.

Cream or Sugar: To see these shoutouts, go to Two-week Notice #1

The Entrée: Questions and discussion from Week One

1. If you could go back in time to the point when you first signed up for Wattpad, what would be the first thing you'd do after registering

Brittanie Charmintine: Start poking around and finding things I would be interested in reading. A couple ways to do that is to check featured books, the hot list, award winners, searching by key words. Come in as a reader before you start writing and posting things. Figure out what people are writing, what's working for them, and form relationships with people.

Jason Howell: Seek out and follow the Ambassadors. If you want to know how to conduct yourself socially, they are the people to look at. They are great people who are there for the community so get them on your radar.

Mary L. Tabor: Mary is a published writer, in print and in the stores. Currently writing PASSING THROUGH live on Wattpad.

Michelle Hayes: I wouldn't change anything besides joining clubs. The benefit of a club is to establish relationships with other writers of the same genre as you. Those relationships can help you get feedback on your story and you can find others to give feedback to as well.

2. When it comes to Wattpad, what are your pet peeves? What do you do to deal with those who press those buttons?

Jason: There's not a whole lot that bugs me. There are a lot of things on Wattpad that can annoy you if you let them, just like there are a lot of things at 7/11 that could annoy you if you let them. Just take everything in stride.

Mary: This is a social network. That means you don't sit and wait to be discovered, you need to go out there and discover and tell others that you have found something. Generosity is what Wattpad thrives on. Your writing and your reading life gets richer by giving.

Michelle: Giving credit where it's due is critical. Votes and comments are like my paycheck. Silent readers are a pet peeve. That star, that vote does matter to writers. Showing gratitude for that vote and that comment is important.

Brittanie: People who leave general, negative comments on someone's work. Those comments aren't helpful in anyway, it just makes the person feel bad and it doesn't give them anywhere to improve. Instead, point things out through constructive criticism. Give a comment that is nicely worded, letting the person know what may not be working well and how it might help. Those comments are gifts to writers.

3. What's the most valuable piece of advice that you've received? What's one thing you will never stop doing on Wattpad?

Michelle: Interact! It's essential! Interact with other authors and know that I can't please everyone. One thing I will never stop doing is thanking people for picking up my story, taking time to read my story and for voting and commenting.

Brittanie: I can't think of anything better than becoming a part of the community. I read Michael Limjoco's Cracking the Wattpad Code and what I took from it was that you should become a part of the community and you should write something worthy of being read. Write the best thing you can write.

Jason: One thing I've learned is to always represent yourself sincerely on the site, both in your work and how you interact. Be sincere, be yourself, conduct yourself well, and treat your neighbors well. Follow the golden rule.

Using the threads: Every club has a different vibe, different regulars, different ethic and speeds. Find what works for you. Show up and start posting, get a sense of the club and you'll get an idea of how to bring people into what you're doing. Just give yourself time to get comfortable.

Mary: Talking about relationship between literacy and writing on Wattpad. Literacy and art hold hands the way children hold hands. Art emerges on Wattpad. There are writers of all ages and cultures. They are bleeding on the page and they are doing things of significance, and if you're not going to Wattpad to see what they are doing, then you are missing out.

Pass the Salt: Improvements that can be made. The other side to Cream or Sugar.

Nat: Wattpad is always changing in one form or another. Please be patient with these people and give it time. It's a free site, you're not paying to put your story out there. Giving a shoutout to Gavin, @TheOrangutan he handles these situations so gracefully. He has such a level and cool head while responding to angry Wattpadders. Basically, Gavin is just super awesome!

Check Please: Signing off

Michelle: Thank you for your time, it's been a ride and a blessing and I'll be here for more.

Mary: I won't be here next week, but I want to say that Wattpad is rich with the undiscovered, with the voice that's waiting to be heard.

Jason: Thank you, Mary for what you said earlier. Thank you all for showing up, I've enjoyed every minute.

Brittanie: I want to thank Nat for organizing this and putting it together. I'm excited to see where this goes. Thank you to the panelists for what you've done. Thank you to those who are watching this live or afterwards. If you have any questions, send them in to us because we'd love to hear from you.

NOTE: Be aware that this covers the main questions and a summary of the panelists' responses. There was more discussed within the broadcast. You can watch the video above if you haven't already to get the in between chatter that veers from these questions slightly.

Feel free to discuss and ask questions below. You can use the usernames above to tag specific people if you'd like to ask a direct question, and please, if you haven't done so already, check out each of the panelists above. Take a look at their works, get to know them, they're writers just like you!