People might remember me mentioning an App called Wattpad. I had signed on and posted an excerpt of Beginning of a Hero. I praised it as a great marketing tool before finding out the flaws. The issue is plagiarism and Wattpad’s lack of security. They will only take a copywritten work down when they are told, so there is nothing to stop it from going up in the first place. I can post the entire Harry Potter series and not get in trouble until somebody tells management. I won’t because that’s just stupid, but it’s the major flaw in this program.
The numbers are screwy too. If someone opens your book then it counts as a full read, so a book with a couple thousand hits might have only been read a couple hundred times. This makes it impossible to gauge success or use of this App.
Now, I’ve received several lists and suggestions that include Wattpad as a marketing tool for aspiring authors. So, I’m revisiting my thoughts on it. I left because I didn’t want to support something that promoted plagiarism, but the truth is that they simply take a reactive stance on it instead of a proactive stance. It does seem to have some pull as a marketing tool for authors and I guess the smart move would be to put an excerpt on there yourself before a teenager does it. I’ll admit to checking this site a few times in fear that my book will appear on it. I remember that it checks for versions of the book already, so posting an excerpt would negate the chance of anyone getting me on there without my permission.
Again, I’m just thinking of more marketing ideas to try to boost my book sales. I haven’t done anything big in a month and my mind keeps wandering back to it. If I go back, I’m still going to have to contact Amazon to see if a digital excerpt is allowed according to their rules.
So, what do people think of the idea of using Wattpad as a marketing tool and posting an excerpt to avoid something tossing the entire book on there? I can’t take full credit for the second point. A friend said ‘best to be the one to put it up there and block someone else from doing it’.
Legends of Windemere 
If by you putting it up there will block someone else doing it, then I say do it. It can’t hurt, right?
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Nope. I just need the thumbs up from Amazon because I’m still in the 90-day exclusivity program with them. I made a good pitch, so hopefully they see the marketing strategy behind it.
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Sounds like you have done more research and looked at other angles. An excerpt or a couple of chapters wouldn’t be any different than a downloaded sample from iBooks (I almost always do that before I buy the books).
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I just need to find out from Amazon if that’s allowed under the KDP Select exclusivity clause. A full book is definitely a no-no, but I’m not sure about an excerpt. I e-mailed them about my plan and the site. I also said I wouldn’t do it if they said no.
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I was invited by an author to help edit his book as he completed each chapter, but neither of us knew about any copywrite issues using Wattpad.
I’ll forward your article on to him, once I figure out how 🙂
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If it was his book then it should be fine. The Wattpad plagiarism issue is more that the users (mostly teenagers) have been putting up copywritten material. Some do it so they can read the books on their phone and don’t realize (or care) that it makes the books available to all the users. Others do it for attention and put their name on it as the author. I have heard that most of the perpetrators don’t have a sense of what copywrites are and think everything is public domain.
It’s really only an issue if the entire book goes up for free without the author’s permission. That’s why I’m starting to look at it more as a place to put a teaser for the actual book. If you have this author’s e-mail address then you can just send him the web address of the article.
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Thanks for that Charles
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Sounds like the best option to me, particularly if you only plan to put a bit of it up there.
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Yeah. It’s certainly looking viable as long as it doesn’t cause any KDP Select issues.
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Ah yes, something you don’t want to run into again for sure.
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Nope. That was chaotic enough.
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Can’t imagine how it’d be a violation of Amazon’s rules. You’re not “selling” on Wattpad, just marketing. I agree with Pap on this one. If it blocks another from putting it up, may as well go for it.
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Thanks. The words of KDP Select say that I can’t sell or give away the digital copy of my book while I’m in the program. It isn’t so much selling as people having access since giving it away for free is still a risk to their sales. They allow a 10% sample to be posted on other sites, which is what I’m going with. They put some advertising power behind me while I’m in their program, so I can understand their position.
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