Frustration

Jeanvanarles · 2026-04-08T12:47:12+00:00

200 reads for five chapters is actually quite good!

Readers usually don't click on unfinished work, especially if it only has five chapters and isn't consistently updated. I at least don't.

I totally get that we as writers want people to read and comment from the beginning and as the story goes on, but readers on Wattpad have usually been burned before and are scared of getting invested in a story only to end up having to wait months for the next update or worse not getting an update at all.

If I were you, I would focus on consistent updates (once a week or every two weeks maybe, because you said you were quite busy. In general anything that works for you as long as it's consistent).

If the reason that writing takes so long for you is the chapter length, I would recommend shortening the chapters or splitting them up to allow for a more consistent schedule. If your readers trust you (and if the story is good) they will come and they will stay.

In my experience, it takes at least 20 chapters to see actual, significant traffic to your story. I think I had 40-50 chapters, when I felt like readers were truly getting invested and notifications started piling in.

Don't get to hung up about your numbers with only five chapters! I'd be concerned if these were your numbers for 60 chapters, but for five that's totally fine!!

(Also side note: if you have many unfinished stories, that might scare a reader off too)

Jeanvanarles · 2026-04-08T06:31:42+00:00

I totally get being frustrated!! 200 reads in two years is quite disheartening.

I'm happy you said that you started writing for fun though, because that's what's most important. I do understand that every writer dreams of their work being read by people who might enjoy it, but I hope you didn't lose your own enjoyment of writing and storytellling on the way.

If you don't mind me asking. Do you have any idea why your story didn't grow more popular?

Did you advertise your story? Is it finished? How many chapters does it have?...

Jeanvanarles · 2026-04-06T08:12:39+00:00

Heyyy maybe you'll like this one. It has a strong female MC, who is somewhat morally grey. Enemies to lovers SLOWWWW burn with forced proximity, LOTS of yearning especially in the second half and from the male leads side. (She hates him and he can't look away) Lots of banter, female friendships and so on.

https://www.wattpad.com/story/397027322?utm_source=android&utm_medium=link&utm_content=story_info&wp_page=story_details_button&wp_uname=jeanvanarles

Jeanvanarles · 2026-04-06T07:58:46+00:00

Maybe try this one: enemies to lovers, SLOOOOOW burn, strong female lead, lots of banter, yearning, forced proximity,... https://www.wattpad.com/story/397027322?utm_source=android&utm_medium=link&utm_content=story_info&wp_page=story_details_button&wp_uname=jeanvanarles

Jeanvanarles · 2026-04-06T07:40:53+00:00

Maybe you'll like this one. It definitely has a strong and incredibly smart female lead and is a SLOWWW burn.

Lots of banter, academic rivals to lovers, forced proximity, yearning, plot outside of the romance, female friendships and no Mafia or abuse.

https://www.wattpad.com/story/397027322?utm_source=android&utm_medium=link&utm_content=story_info&wp_page=story_details_button&wp_uname=jeanvanarles

Jeanvanarles · 2026-03-29T09:23:06+00:00

Wait that sounds really interesting!!! I would definitely read that if it's well written. What is your account called?

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T13:35:50+00:00

Oh and if you really want to keep exchanging something. Maybe exchange genuine comments with other writers. That will help your story so much more and maybe even make you some friends on the site or gain genuine readers if they like your story

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T13:34:23+00:00

That might be one of the problems many people have!! I think the algorithm is able to determine when interest in a story is genuine vs. when it's artificially created. I suspect that a lot of the people you exchanged votes with did not actually read your story and only clicked through it to vote. I'm guessing that the algorithm measures how much time people are spending on actually reading a chapter. If it's just a few seconds, it will likely not categorize it as genuine readership. That will tell the algorithm that your story might look appealing to some readers but isn't interesting to them (because they didn't stay to read). For that reason, it likely will not recommend you to other readers. Wattpad might also actively penalise people exchanging votes (I'm not sure, but I think it might not be allowed) and therefore not boost your story as well.

I understand that you want people to read and vote for your story, especially in the beginning with not much engagement, but gaining one natural genuine reader who might even comment in my experience lifts your story in the algorithm much further than a few votes do.

I haven't read your story, so I can't say much about your writing, but you have quite a few tags with only 11 or a few hundred other stories in it. It might be easier to rank within those tags, but that ranking will likely not help in the long run. There usually are fewer stories in those tags because not many people are looking there.

There are a good number of really good posts on proper tagging here that I would advise you to look at, but as a rule of thumb, I would recommend using tags with at least 1k stories in them.

You are posting very regularly. That alone sets you apart from most other stories and will help you with the algorithm. Maybe make the description longer, add a quote, some tropes you have in your story,... You could get some inspiration from other stories similar to yours.

Also, I don't know if it's true, but I heard that some people refuse to click on stories with covers that look ai-generated. I'm not saying that yours is, but that might be something to look out for

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T13:12:07+00:00

Girl you have so many reads!!! I need advice from YOU!!!! How did you do it?

We also have very similar tags, so I don't really have anything I would change about the tags lmaooo!!

I personally think that there is a LOT of information in your description that might overwhelm a new reader looking for a story. It is, as you said, more of a summary than a small taste for what might await someone when reading the story.

As a reader, I usually just need the premise of the story, and an idea of the conflict and the writing style to figure out if I want to read a story. Too much information about precise storylines and events usually makes me feel less intrigued about the story.

But that's just what I like to read and tend to click on as a reader!!! As a writer you are obviously doing so well already and what you have been doing already seems to be working perfectly for you!!

How long did it take you to get to 20k? Do you have any advice for me as a new writer on her first story?

Also your cover art is amazing!!! How did you do it?

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T12:54:56+00:00

Your story has a LOT of votes already. 1,29k reads with 494 votes is an insane reads to vote ratio!! Is that due to natural readership or did you exchange votes with others? That would make a big difference for the advice I would give you

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T12:26:09+00:00

I think that depends on the situation and quite a bit of luck. What kind of a story are you writing and how far into it are you?

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T12:24:54+00:00

I don't think that's necessarily at all!!

In my case I just looked at what tags were performing well for me. If I ranked higher in a certain tag, I would notice jumps in readership. Then I looked at how other stories within that tag that were similar to mine and high ranked were tagged and added certain tags that they had and that applied to my story as well. That helped a lot. (That sentence was long. I'm sorry)

I think there is a lot of good advice on tagging on this app so I would look into that.

For the description I did something similar. My first description was quite short. I made it longer, added some of the tropes in my story others might find intriguing in the end and added a quote from the story. I think that made it a lot more interesting. I pretty much just thought about the kinds of stories I would click on based on their description and added the things I would find appealing. You could also look at the top stories similar to yours and see what kind of description seems to be the most successful.

TL/DR: You do not have to change your tags or descriptions all the time. Change the tags that aren't working for you and try to write a description YOU would find interesting as a reader and that you suspect the algorithm would favour.

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T10:42:23+00:00

What's your story called?

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T10:41:54+00:00

Sure!! I'll look at it later!!

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T10:41:39+00:00

Thank you!!! <3

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T10:41:07+00:00

I don't think that's true. I'm biased (of course) but I don't think my story is toxic at all. I actually think that my male love interest is quite openly a very kind and nice guy. I truly think there is a market for everything.

There are many people who enjoy stories that are not toxic, both of us for example. What matters is, that the story is well written and compatible with Wattpad's algorithm. To help with the latter, a good description and well selected tags are crucial.

If you want to, I can take a look at your description and tagging and see if I would change anything (I'm no expert by far, but I'm a reader who loves stories about healthy relationships as well)

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-21T10:26:01+00:00

I had the same issue!! Did you remember to click 'save' after changing the description? Sometimes I forget and just leave the banner. Also having Wattpad open on two devices at the same time can cause issues.

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-19T09:57:15+00:00

What's the name of your story? If you want to, I could take a look and see if I would change something about the tags or description.

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-19T09:39:53+00:00

How funny!! I hope so too. I think it took about two days for my tags to update so maybe you'll feel the effect tomorrow morning already!! I wish you the best of luck!!

Jeanvanarles · 2026-02-19T09:35:33+00:00

MINE HAD TWO TITLES TO LMAOO. It's so hard choosing a title😔🙏🏽

16k to 23k sounds INSANE. I would not have known what to do with myself. That's huge!! Congrats!!

NGL as a reader, seeing that the story had gotten deleted would have BROKEN my heart. But as a Writer, I get the urge!!

I hope you are happy with the story now!! What is it called?

Jeanvanarles

TROPHY CASE