Hook your readers with tags and story description (video)
Crafting a captivating story is no small feat, but getting readers to discover and engage with your content is a whole new challenge. In episode 4 of Story School, we explore the power of two essential tools in your Wattpad toolkit: tags and story descriptions.
Writing a story description
The description of your story is your elevator pitch to every reader. You don’t get the chance to have a personal conversation with everyone who opens your work, so you have to make sure your description draws in your target audience and gives them a brief understanding of what’s in store when they scroll to the first page. This is your big shot to impress, so make it your best! After all, stories with descriptions get on average 108x more reads.
Tagging your Wattpad story
If you had to describe your story in a handful of words, which ones would you choose? Wattpad uses tags to tell readers what your story is about. Tags also make your story more discoverable by allowing it to appear in several different locations across Wattpad—from search to tag pages and readers’ home feeds. Optimize your discoverability by using words that are accurate and relevant to your story.
Getting started on social
Name recognition is a powerful catalyst for funneling readers toward content. In fact, it’s the number one reason someone buys a book! People are spending more time online now than ever before. That means that as an author, it’s critical to self-promote and get yourself out there.
How to effectively promote stories
Want to get your story out there, but don’t know how? You’ve come to the right place! Below we discuss how you can promote your story on Wattpad, on social media, and among your inner circle.
Engaging with your audience on Wattpad
Wattpad is not just a collection of stories; it’s a community that thrives thanks to engaged readers and writers like you. As a creator, it’s important to have an audience because they offer feedback, help get your work exposure, and validate your writing. If you’re looking to amp up your engagement on the platform, you’ve come to the right place.
Understanding your story analytics on Wattpad
Story Statistics is a feature built to help you analyze your story’s performance. This resource will help you gain a better understanding of the Engaged Readers metric on Wattpad.
Styling your story
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but first impressions matter when prospective readers are browsing stories. Stories with covers get 23x more reads than those without. Your best shot at getting a reader's attention? A striking, click-worthy cover that is a clear reflection of the story you've written. A great cover will tease what's inside or speak to one of the major themes. Here are some tips on how to maximize your story's appearance.
Covers 101: Winning at DIY cover design
First impressions matter. As the gateway to your story, a great cover can be a game-changer. At the same time, it can be paralyzing to try to sum up all of your words and ideas into a single image. For that reason, many writers are intimidated by the cover process. Our aim with this module is to give you a few practical steps to build your cover confidence!
Sell your story
Creating the right cover for your genre, whether it's contemporary romance, young adult, paranormal, or otherwise, comes down to selecting the best imagery, fonts, and color schemes to represent your story. In this article, we share some common cover elements for these popular genres.
Branding yourself
Your brand is a fancy way of referring to the presence you provide to the people who connect with you. As a writer with professional aspirations, it’s important to think about this as a step on your career path. Creating a few simple designs for your brand can help elevate everything you do in the public sphere, whether on Wattpad or social media. We’ve broken some ideas down into concrete steps for you to follow on your journey to becoming a household name.
