Wattpad's Guide to Attracting Readers

Finding Your Niche

Lets begin my addressing the ever popular theory, that if you write what you love the right audience will find you.  Why this can be true, for the majority of new writers it is really difficult to get discovered. This is due to a variety of reasons such as: the search algorithm working against you, oversaturation of the market, trends, and etc.  For this reason, I feel it is best to start out with something that is easier to write and build up to more elaborate novels later on.

One way to get started is to post short stories, for example, you might already have something written at home or even past creative writing assignments that can be posted. Keep in mind, that short stories are not the most popular genre, however, these kinds of stories can be listed instead under other genres that fit the theme. Like for instance my own story, Trespassing Has Grave Consequences, fits in both the horror and short stories category.

Another way to get started and build your skills, is to write fanfiction. Though many of you will disagree, it can be far easier to weave stories together when you already have fleshed out characters and settings to work with. As a bonus, when you base a story on something that is already popular like "Harry Potter, Re:zero, Supernatural, and the Owl House", it will already have a big fan following which makes it easier to get noticed and accumulate more reads.

Just don't take it too seriously and have fun with it. Things don't have to be kept cannon unless you want them to be. You can write an funny side story, reimagine you favorite scene, and so on.

An wonderful example, are the "What If" stories that the creator of Re:zero creates while these do not take place in cannon its fun to see what might have happened if the character had taken a different path at certain points of the timeline. 

Then there is the option of just writing a story in an established world but in another time and place like how Fantastic Beats did this with the Harry Potter franchise. 

Lastly is reinventing, this is when you take something and put your own spin on it. Like I did with my own story, The Secret Of The Tides. It is technically a Nancy Drew fanfiction, however, I deviated by updating it to a more modern setting, changed the place at which the story takes place, and changed up the characters. 

If you want to stay clear of fanfiction that's fine too. In this case, I would recommend you enter the writing contest on the site and have fun with the writing props.

Next, you must find what works for you. I wrote plenty of different stories before finding what kind of story works with my style of writing. Originally, I tried writing fairy tales and fantasy stories but that just didn't cut it. Nevertheless, I didn't give up and kept trying different things and finally found that paranormal and mystery books worked well for me and were really fun to write. 

Remember, it is good to be challenged but if you run out of ideas for a story, it's OK to give up and try to write something else. Then there are times where you have to but down a project and come back to it later. 

I do think that what you write needs to interests you or else it will be a chore. I still think its a good idea to look at what is popular on Wattpad or go to a local bookstore to see what is selling best there. While the popular subjects might not be all that interesting to you, it is possible to layer it with your other interests resulting in a wonderful "patchwork" tale. Lets just say for example, supernatural mysteries are super popular right now but you love to write love stories. Why not try to combine these two genres in to something unique. 

I have found that, a lot of the best stories break away from the norm in their genre and turns into something amazing that stands alone. Some of my favorite examples are "Howls Moving Castle", "Once Upon a Time," and "Stranger Things".