If you’re interested in writing books or even fanfiction, you’ve definitely heard of Wattpad by now. If you want to get started and build a following on the platform, it’s going to take some time and some work. Still, you can make it happen if you follow the steps outlined in this ultimate guide to getting started on Wattpad.
What is Wattpad?
If you’re clicking on this and you’re not sure what Wattpad is, I’ll give you the abridged explanation: Wattpad is a platform that allows users to sign up, write, and publish books and stories of all kinds. Whatever interests you may have, you’ll probably find a book about it on Wattpad.
A few years ago, Wattpad started experimenting with more monetization features, so some books are not free anymore. For the most part though, books and stories on Wattpad are all free for people to read.
Wattpad does protect your copyright though, so when you hit ‘publish’ on your story, it’s automatically your intellectual property. Anyone copying it would be violating your copyright.
Is Wattpad Free to Join?
Yes, Wattpad is 100% free to start an account on and write books.
Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started on Wattpad
1. Sign up
This is obviously the most basic step, but you need an account on Wattpad to get started. You can either make a custom username and password or you can sign up with your email account. You can also choose to sign in with Google, which might be easier to remember.
2. Create Your Profile
Once you’re in Wattpad, you can now create your profile. You’ll need to pick your username here. Pick a name that you feel comfortable with.
If you’re using Wattpad to eventually grow your brand as an author, then use your real name. If you’re just using Wattpad to write stories for fun or even fanfiction, you can just come up with a fake name.
Don’t think too hard about this right now, since you can always change this if your objectives/goals shift in the future.
3. Set Your Profile Picture and Banner
One of the best ways to show potential readers who you are as an author is to set a profile picture and banner that represents you and your writings.
You can also just use a picture of yourself if you like.
Your banner can be anything you’d like it to be. It can represent your books, it can be something about yourself, etc…
Remember, visuals are a great way to show who you are as a person.
4. Write Your Bio
Th next step is to write your bio. This is basically just a quick blurb about yourself, your writing, why you write, etc…
For example, you can talk about what got you into writing and maybe a quick fun fact about yourself.
Remember though, this section isn’t supposed to be long. You want people to read the bio, as it can help them learn more about you. But you don’t want to bore people.
Okay, now you’re all set with getting started on Wattpad. It’s time to write!
How to Write Books on Wattpad
Writing books on Wattpad is actually super straight-forward and very simple. It doesn’t require too much work at all.
Well, I should say getting them onto Wattpad is easy. Writing books…that’s not very easy.
Do Some Internal Research
Let’s just say that you love writing fantasy. It’s probably a good idea to scout out what Wattpad books in the fantasy genre are like. You’ll probably find some inspiration there, or you’ll find what trends on Wattpad.
A lot of Wattpad stories deal with romance, so if you like romance, you can try to rank better by writing in a subgenre of romance.
Do You Need a Wattpad Niche?
Honestly, I don’t think you do at all. You can pretty much write whatever you want in whatever category you want. If your story is interesting, people will click on it.
When you go to Barnes and Noble, you probably don’t think too much about what other books a specific author writes. You’re interested in that particular book you just picked up.
The same thing really applies to Wattpad. Most authors eventually find a niche because their writing style or their comfort is within said niche.
The Publishing Process
Publishing books on Wattpad is straight-forward. You’ll need a title for your book, a description, and a cover.
Making a cover is probably the most taxing part about publishing your book, because a good cover can really go a long way. You’ll need to make sure you know the title of your book and then design your cover around it.
I personally use Canva to design most of my covers. With Canva Pro, you get access to stock photos, graphics, premium fonts, templates, and more. It’s extremely useful and recommended by most self-published authors and Wattpad authors as well. You can sign up for a 40-day free trial of Canva Pro and see why it’s such a great service.
You can skip adding the title, description, and cover for now if you’re not sure you’re ready to do that step yet.
You can then start writing your book. I always, always, always recommend writing it someplace else before putting it into Wattpad. Use Google Docs to write your book out and then copy and paste it into the Wattpad book. Seriously, do not write it only in Wattpad. If you lose access to your Wattpad or a crash happens, you will lose all your hard work!
Extra Info
When you’ve finally gotten your first chapter done, you can now set your category and the tags for your book. You basically just need to make sure you know what category your story primarily falls into. If it’s a fantasy book with romance, it’s probably just a fantasy book. However, you can still set it to romance if that’s what your book is focused on.
The tags help readers discover your works. I recommend looking at books similar to yours and seeing what tags they use. It’ll help you understand how to best reach your target audience.
Set your story language and if it’s mature or not. It’s really difficult to set a book to mature if it’s just normal. If there’s excessive gore and sexual content, then you should set it to mature. If it’s just a standard YA romance, that’s not mature content.
For the most part, you don’t need to worry too much about this, but you don’t want to be writing something extremely explicit and not setting it to mature. That’s a bad idea.
Now you can publish!
How to Promote Your Book on Wattpad
Promoting your book is pretty much by just writing in it regularly and updating it as you go. Readers will find you eventually. You just need to know how to craft a story that will reach people.
I don’t recommend paying to promote anything on Wattpad. At the end of the day, it’s still a free service. If you want to write books and get paid, you should go through self-publishing services like Amazon KDP.
And that concludes this guide! Happy writing!
Hey, thanks for reading DZSH! Check out our newsletter too so you can always stay in the loop!
Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
