As an Outreach Ambassador who approaches new writers on (pretty much) daily basis, I got asked these questions more times than I could count.

I don't really mind them, I mean, I wish when I first started on Wattpad one and a half years ago there was someone who would guide me and tell me these things. Perhaps if that happened, I would not get lost or have a decent amount of words in each chapter instead of random.

For starter, the normal chapter for Wattpad is 2,000-2,500 words. I just found this out recently as well. Some of my chapters had over 5,000 words and some only had 800 words.

Do you see how I, myself, am a mess?

Okay, let's tackle those two questions that most people filled my inbox with.

Actually, those two questions sort of answering one another in a way.

How to get my readers to stay? Well, one of the ways is to engage with them.

How to engage with readers?

There are plenty of things you can do to engage with your readers. These are some of mine:

- ask them a question — this does not have to be a hard question like "what's the square root of phi?". You can go with the basics like "How are you? What are you gonna do for Christmas? What do you think of this chapter? Can you guess what will happen next?" This way your readers will experience what I called "WattEXP" aka Wattpad Experience. On Wattpad, you can say your opinion on in-line comments, unlike published books. By doing this, you can get closer to your readers, get to know them better, and perhaps even be their friend.

- ask their opinion — "Tell me what you think in comments! I truly appreciate you reading my book, would you please let me know your thoughts in comments?" Ask nicely and politely. This way, you will know what they truly think about your story (which is very useful, by the way, as you can use this to improve yourself in the future and to get to know your audience better).

How to get my readers to stay?

- thank them — seriously, without readers, no one will read your book and that is fine if you just put it up for yourself and don't mind if nobody reads it. But most of the writers put their works up there so that someone could read their book and if someone does, thank them. I am so so grateful to everyone there who gave my book a chance and I try my best to tell them how much it means to me. You can do that as well.

- reply to their comments — if you asked for their opinion, reply to them afterward instead of ignoring their comments. What usually happened when someone was being ignored? It is either they will never talk again or they will shout at you. Most cases I saw on Wattpad was when readers commented and did not get a reply, they would not comment in your book anymore. I link my Wattpad notification with my email account (which eat up my storage a lot) so I get notifications for every single comment and I try my best to reply them. You can do that too but beware, this could happen:

- don't be rude — this is a no-no. I am a quite chill person in real life but when it was the time of the month and I get short-tempered, I will take a breather now and then. When someone made a rather offensive comment, I will take a minute, pull out the ice cream out of the fridge or eat chocolate before I reply to them. People can be rude to you but that does not mean you should be rude to them.

- make it interesting — before ending the chapter, make it a tiny bit interesting. Something must happen that will make your reader wanting to read the next chapter and figure out what will happen next. You don't have to make it a cliffhanger, just make it interesting instead of flat.

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okay, I will update this chapter once I know more. for now, these are my tips! I hope you find it useful! loads of pizza, Agi x