I published a book on Wattpad

I'm a YA author, and published debut novel ( Those Who Play With Demons ) , 2023. The novel is available to read in its entirety, for free, on Wattpad. 

Wattpad is Canadian website where users can post their original writing or fanfiction for others to read - but an outsized impact. 

I had not known or heard about Wattpad for years, but early last year, I started experimenting in self-publishing. My primary objective was to gain readers, not to earn money, so Wattpad quickly became a subject of fascination for me. A lot of YA authors have racked up literal millions of reads on Wattpad, and their readership on the platform has become a major asset in their careers. 

First, I did my research 

Wattpad is a serial publishing platform and, it's an established norm for writers to post chapters as they finish them. I'm a very busy person and didn't have the confidence to say I could have a chapter completed each week, so I wrote the whole thing before I began posting. 

Next, I decided on my posting schedule 

The Writer's Algorithm to Wattpad stresses over and over that a consistent posting schedule is a must. It doesn't really matter when you post or how often, so long as it demonstrates to readers that you're reliable and won't leave them in the lurch. 

I decided to post a chapter of Those Who Play With Demons per week, on Fridays. This gave each chapter the breathing space to grow on its own, but it was enough to get the whole book published relatively quickly. The first chapter was published on 13 May, and the epilogue was published on 20 October. 

When the book was ready, I started posting! 

I posted one chapter a week until the book was complete. I also put the link to the book in my Twitter bio and put it in my pinned tweet. Basically, everything an author should do with a trade published book, I did with my Wattpad book. Part of my goal for this experiment was just to get better about promoting my own work, so I made a concerted effort to shout about this book. 

I wish I kept better track of my overall view count date. The cool thing about Wattpad is that this isn't the end - stories on Wattpad have a long shelf life. Many more users are in the habit of binge-reading completed stories than reading in-progress works, so hopefully Those Who Play With Demons can live on in the next few years. 

I'm so excited to see what its future looks like.