(Warning, this post contains a multitude of links)
I’ve been hearing about Wattpad a LOT over the past months/year. My good friend Aaron Kite has several of his novels up on the site and even won the Watty Award for his novel, ‘A Touch of Poison’ (which I highly recommend, BTW).
Ever since hearing about it, I’ve been considering how to best approach Wattpad. I mean, what are the ramifications to putting one of my stories up there to readers and publishers alike? Do I actually have a novel polished enough to publish in this way. What if the other kids don’t like me?
It is sometimes easy, especially for me, to procrastinate to the point that nothing EVER gets done.
But, I decided to quite waiting and bite the bullet. I chose the story I was going to put up and another good friend (honestly, are there any other kinds?), Dan Absalonson, agreed to make a cover for me.
The story was/is, Boyscouts of the Apocalypse. Some of you might have heard it podcast as part of the Action Pack Podcast last year. I knew the story was good and I also knew it might appeal to the readership over at Wattpad.
When I got the cover and Dan and I started to show it off, the resulting comments just made me doubly eager to start playing in the Wattpad pool.
Last night I put up the first chapter (along with the new cover) up on Wattpad. Then I went away for thirty minutes or so. For some reason, I checked Wattpad then.
I already had 19 reads. In half an hour.
I don’t think I had that many listeners for the first several episodes of Action Pack Podcast.
Needless to say, I was excited. In fact, I wondered if I would sleep at all or go to my computer and check the stats out ever hour or so.
Somehow, I managed to sleep and today, the number continues to climb. Not quite as fast as that first half-hour, mind you, but steadily. For someone like me who wants his work read, it is a great feeling.
Since the book is already finished, I think I will publish a new chapter every few days. That will give me one last chance to edit and revise before it goes up. Just because I’m not getting paid doesn’t mean I don’t want to put a good quality product out.
Now to resist checking the stats every few minutes during work. š
