When a person first sees your story, they will look at two things. Your title and your cover.

If they find that they like both of these, then they will click on your story. On the web, they may also hover over your story and find your summary.

I cannot stress the importance of these three things. These are the three things that will be a make or break when it comes to people reading your story. That's why it's important that these are important to you as a writer.

Your cover.

This has to be nice. You can't go around with a crappy cover expecting people to read your story. But whatever you do, make sure you at least have one.

If you don't have a cover, your cover will be a blurry picture of your profile picture, with your title on it. When I say no one will read it, I mean absolutely NO ONE will read it.

The cover is the first thing that people see on the app. The majority of readers are here, not your website. Even there, it's what they usually see first. So this is definitely going to be the first impression you have. If you have a nice cover, people will be interested. If it's not, then they won't.

You want your cover to be visually appealing, and you want it to relate to your story. Have your main character(s) on the cover, or have something that relates to your story. For example, if it's a one direction fanfic, have Niall Horan on the cover. If it's a twist on a Cinderella story, have a masquerade mask on it.

The possibilities are endless. However, you don't want it to be too cluttered. You also want to make sure you stick to a theme with your colors, fonts, and pictures. You can use covers of other Wattpad stories or even real books for inspiration.

Now, I know making covers can be difficult. There are tutorials out there to help. But if you can't make a decent one yourself, do not worry. There are people out thee who can help you! When I say there's like a bazillion people in the clubs making coveres for people, there are a bazillion people. They usually have you make a payment, such as a follow or a few votes on their story. I make ones for people for free, just shoot me a message if you want.

But to sum it up, you just want a really nice cover.

Your title.

This seems like such a simple thing, but it's always one of the hardest things to come up with.

One tip for coming up with a title is to first write the summary. Then, try pulling out words and phrases that you like.

Or, you can be cliche and choose song lyrics and titles. Some people frown upon it, but I'm guilty of doing it. I did this with half my works. However, if I'm using titles, and it's a fanfiction, I don't use titles from that artist. For example, if i were to write a fanfic about Queen, my title would not be We Will Rock You.

If you're totally stuck, again, there are people in the clubs with helps. Just go and make a new thread asking for help! People are nice and will help you.

What you want to do it keep it so that it's simple enough to be nice, but also give an idea of the plot. You want it to hook the reader, and give them a small sense of what the story will be.

Like, The Hunger Games. When I picked it up, I had no idea what it was about, but the title was really cool. It made me want to read it. Then, when I was reading it, the title clicked in my head. I was like "Oh, that's why it was called that."

AND THAT IS THE GREATEST FEELING EVER. Make sure your readers feel this.

Here's just a few do's and don'ts:

DO

Short and sweet!

Make Sure Every Word Is Uppercase.

Except For Words Like is, the, and, etc.

Keep it related to your story.

Make it unique!

DON'T

Make it really long. This is a story title, this isn't a Fall Out Boy song title, you don't want it to be really really really long to the point where you're not even reading this anymore, are you?

Be annoying, and add excessive punctuation!!?!?!11/

Have spelling erors

Give away your plot.

Okay going off of a tangent on the last point, IT IS SO FREAKING IMPORTANT. SO MANY PEOPLE DO IT AND IT'S ALWAYS WITH THOSE STUPID ADOPTION OR KIDNAPPING OR VAMPIRE STORIES AND IT DRIVES ME INSANE.

Whenever I see something like "My Parents Were Killed but i Was Adopted by 1D and their Vampires fhskfhsdf what sdkfhsk pepe doge haha I'm 12??!111///"

IT MAKES ME WANT TO SHOOT SOMEONE.

Use correct grammar. Use spelling. Keep it simple. Don't give away the story. That's all I can really say.

Your summary.

This is what I have trouble with a lot. I always don't want to give away my plot. I end up making mine too vague.

You want to find a happy medium. You want your readers to know what your story is about, without giving so much away.

You also just want to follow the basic rules of English and spelling and grammar and all that mumbo jumbo. Just always do that. Please.

And again, with this, the clubs are your friend. There are people who will write summaries for you. There are also COUNTLESS threads of people rating summaries. You can find a critic, or a lot of times it will come in the form of a game. You'll rate the person's summary above you, or say if you would read or not read, and then post yours. It's pretty fun.

But yeah, that's about it. You want to make a good impression! People aren't supposed to judge a book by it's cover but they will. Along with the title and description.