Support for Indie Authors discussion

I'm loading my book on smashwords, there's a wattpad link available. I don't have wattpad and from what I'm seeing writers post a chapter at a time on wattpad. My question is why would I give away my chapters, if someone is reading them for free on wattpad then why bother purchasing the book. Am I understanding it incorrectly?

I don't recall ever encountering a Wattpad link when I uploaded my books to Smashwords. However, note that you have a channel manager in which to choose the vendors you want to distribute your books to. Wattpad isn't listed. I don't know what the Wattpad link would be. It would help if you would tell us which screen the link appears on.

Okay, I found it on the "edit profile" page. It's just asking if you want to show a link to your Wattpad account on your profile page. I don't have a Wattpad account, either, so I ignored it.

Thank you Ken sorry for not stating the screen. I just don't understand why I would give my writing away a chapter at a time. This is my passion not my hobby...so anyway. I just wondered if I was missing something.

I used Wattpad for a while. A lot of people post things there that they don't plan on releasing elsewhere. I posted a lot of short stories and books that I never really planned on self-publishing. That way there was more of my work people could get familiar with and not have to spend any money, the theory being that, if they liked it, they'd go seek out what was for sale.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to release a full book chapter by chapter on Wattpad when it's for sale elsewhere. If you released the first five or so though, that would hopefully encourage them to seek out the full book wherever it's for sale. I saw a lot of writers on Wattpad do that.

The problem I saw with Wattpad is that you're just buried under thousands of garbage stories and it's very difficult to get anyone to pay attention to you unless you already have a following.

What I'm trying to say is that Wattpad is good for sharing extra content you don't plan on selling, but not for much else. I wouldn't put anything up there that I planned on putting up anywhere else for sale.

Posting chapters on Wattpad can be used for a couple things. The main things I see are:

A) People who like to write fanfics
B) People who like to write but maybe not in the "published" game yet; meaning maybe they don't have a full book to publish, or haven't published through a platform like Amazon.
C) People who like to write and want to create awareness about their work through the Wattpad medium.

So for example, I'm under C). I have my entire first book on Wattpad in chapters as a way to reach people I may not normally reach, get them interested in my story/style, and hope that they buy my second book. This method of promotion is a "Loss Leader" because I've spent money to publish book 1, but I'm giving it away for free hoping they buy book 2.

Thank you Thomas and Ben. I have a better understanding now. I'm still on the fence about it, but at least now I can make an educated choice.

I have several books free on Wattpad. Similar to permafree on other storefronts, they create funnels that get people interested in my work and hopefully lead them to purchase at the other stores. I know that some of my Wattpad readers convert to paid readers, but I couldn't give you any stats.

I have one series that I release a chapter a week on Wattpad. I am currently releasing book 3 a chapter at a time, and by the time I get the last chapter up, the release of book 4 will be imminent. Some readers really want to know what is going to happen next and if they don't want to wait a week for the next chapter, they can go over to Kindle or another store and buy it so they can finish reading it in a day instead of a year. I have a number of Wattpad readers who are very eager for book 4 to come out.

@PD I'm new and unknown so I'm trying to look at wattpad as a marketing strategy to get my name out. Thank you, you've got my gears turning.

@V.M I will thank you

Carol wrote: "@PD I'm new and unknown so I'm trying to look at wattpad as a marketing strategy to get my name out. Thank you, you've got my gears turning."

Carol, I did Wattpad for a while, and still am on it, though not as active due to other commitments. But I did a series of blog posts on it; you can read the conclusion here: http://mademers.com/conclusions-on-my....

Forgot to add: the post looks at demographics and genres, so it's helpful to look at that and see where your book fits.

I use wattpad to write short stories and poems I have no intention on making into books or publishing. I use it as a way for people to get an idea of how I write. Also I have the first chapters of all my books on there.

I don't know how does it work in the English-speaking community but my Spanish account on Wattpad helped me A LOT. In less than a year, more than a thousand readers got to know me by my Wattpad stories and bought my physical books on Amazon.

Right now I'm trying to open a new account in English BUT I don't know if I'll get the same result.

I'm very active on Wattpad. I actually run an adult (mature) community. Most of the adults I come into contact with are new writers and are honing their craft. Wattpad is good for beginner writers who aren't yet ready to publish.

A major problem with Wattpad is that if your story does become noticed and on the Hot Lists, other free reading sites steal it. It's hard to control, and hard to get legal. The problem comes when someone wants to publish their work, either through Amazon or traditionally. Amazon is getting very tight with books published for free other places (even if they have been stolen) and traditional publishers in general won't accept a book that has been posted online before. So, there is a growing attitude that people don't want their stories to get popular or hit the Hot Lists if they want to publish.

Though, it is known among the users that Wattpad is about social popularity rather than quality. There is a current discussion tossing up if being connected to Wattpad is a good idea when you want to publish later on.

Thank you, Racy and others. I've been kicking Wattpad around and was confused. This has been really helpful.