The Great Wattpad Marketing Experiment

So this week’s Social Media Monday is about an experiment. Specifically, the Great Wattpad Marketing Experiment.

Over the last few months, I’ve been hearing a lot about something called Wattpad–with many of the mentions coming in a surge during the past two weeks. Never one to ignore a nudge from the universe (yeah, right 😉 ), I’ve decided it’s time to expand my social media repertoire — both for my own sake and so that I can tell you about it with at least some authority.

If you’re not familiar with it, Wattpad is a social media platform where writers share stories and readers (hopefully) can discover them. Reading and sharing are both free (so you don’t get paid for the work you put up there). Many writers use the platform to get feedback on their works-in-progress, with readers leaving comments as the story progresses. To be honest, I had initially dismissed the platform, thinking of it as predominantly a beginners thing. But, while it’s true that many of the writers on there are just starting out, the platform may also offer advantages to established writers.

In fact, a great many published writers (including heavyweights such as Margaret Atwood and bestselling author Julie Kenner) are already over there, sharing stories and conversing with readers.

Intrigued? Me, too. That’s why I joined last weekend. 

For the moment, I’ve put up the revised prequel to the Grigori Legacy, An Archangel’s Defiance, and I’m releasing my contemporary romance, Gwynneth Ever After, as a serial (one chapter a week). There are links to my website on my profile page, and at the bottom of the prequel, and once we’re a few chapters in to Gwynneth, I’ll start including buy links for those readers who decide they can’t wait for the rest of the book. So yes, I’m definitely looking at this as another way to market myself.

While my ultimate goal is to increase my fan base, however, I’m also looking forward to an interaction with readers that seems to be unique to the Wattpad platform…a genuine conversation about a story as it unfolds. How will it work out? Only time will tell, so stay tuned for an update in a few weeks and I’ll let you know my thoughts and experience. 🙂

(If you’re already on Wattpad, I’d love to know what your experience has been, so please leave me a note in the comments!)

P.S. Check out previous Social Media Monday posts — and be sure to leave your email in the right hand bar to subscribe for future ones!

P.P.S. To find out more about writing on Wattpad, check out their Writers’ Page.