Wattpad

[theymp]

I'd heard about Wattpad before - specifically about a zombie story that Margaret Atwood was collaborating on (although who hasn't done something walking deadish these days? - I mean I'm writing one myself, it's just on hiatus).

I thought I'd give it a quick look - I've set up an account at http://wattpad.com/TheYmp even though I've only recently got round to finally posting something at Fiction Press)

I can't help but wonder if this is where FanFiction got the idea of the "covers" from - except they seem to be so much better done at Wattpad - how come no one at FF seems to do them like actual book covers - I've just had a "d'oh" revelation!

But I did have a very swift perusal of their Supernatural fanfic section... oh my... absolutely nothing but Mary Sues as far as the eye could see...

(;,;)

Comments

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Is wattpad a new site then? Or just terminally Mary-Sued?

[theymp.livejournal.com]

I think it's been around for a while. there's certainly plenty of Mary Sues on FF.net, but seriously every one of 20-odd stories seemed have a description of a female teenage OC saving the day. Maybe I'm being a little harsh - I didn't read any of 'em - maybe they were all really, really good!

When I've got a little more time I might look at some of the original fiction.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I had a quick look and came to the same conclusion - I think there was one that sounded like it might not be like that but only the one! I've got such a huge file full of fics to read from LJ, I'm not going to venture onto yet another site!

[womanofletters.livejournal.com]

It does look like an awful lot of Mary Sue. I was also disappointed that they don't have categories in the fanfiction for the specific tv shows, movies, books, etc., that the fanfic is based on. So much easier if I could search on SPN or Buffy and not have to wade through other stuff as well.

I mean there might be good stories there -- but their search could use a lot of work.

I generally read (and post) on three fanfic sites already: fanfiction.net, archiveofourown.org and tthfanfic.org (Twisting the Hellmouth). I have my favorite authors (though I'm always open to finding more). I find the stories on archiveofourown to be generally of high quality. Fanfiction.net has a lot of high quality stories as well, but it's more of a mix -- that's why over there I usually just follow authors I've gotten to know through communities like the E/O challenge. I haven't read widely on LiveJournal at all, and I'm still discovering Twisting the Hellmouth.

Judith

[theymp.livejournal.com]

Fanfiction definitely has the most content and is where I do my posting - but I'm being gradually seduced away by AO3 - although most of my reading is done via mobile and this is actually quite poor on A03.

I've read several of your SPN/Buffy recs on tthfanfic (again via phone) and I was impressed with the layout.

My main reason for looking at Wattpad was to see if it'd be a good alternative to FictionPress which is definitely FanFiction's poorer sibling!

[womanofletters.livejournal.com]

So the verdict is: Wattpad is good for fiction but not a place for fanfic?

Might I suggest checking out Smashwords? You'd get paid for your work, no? But maybe you're looking to increase your exposure at the moment, not so much looking to make money from it...I haven't actually tried publishing on Smashwords myself so I could be off on that suggestion.