8 Reading and Writing Communities That Can Boost Your Platform

Updated 10/12/24

The bottom line for any writer is not how much money a book makes, but how many people have read it.

If you are writing a novel and would like some unofficial "beta" readers - or if you have published a short story, and the readership of the literary magazine has run its course - it's not a bad idea to post your work on a site that has a devoted readership.

Reading and writing communities can be a great way to get feedback on your writing. They also host competitions for the most popular stories, which are then publicized. On some of the larger sites, notably Wattpad, there are tie-ins with media, publishing houses.

Because each community offers something a little different, be sure to read the "about" and "FAQs" sections of the sites before you start posting. Given that your work will be made available to thousands - if not millions - of readers, it is important that your goals mesh with what the community has to offer.

Please note that not all of these sites block the copy/paste function.
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Wattpad

With over 18 million users, Wattpad is the world's largest reading and writing online community. It began in 2006, as the result of a collaboration between Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen. In February 2007, Wattpad added over 17,000 eBooks from Project Gutenberg making them available to mobile users. Over 64,000 stories are uploaded to Wattpad or expanded every day. Wattpad is mainly geared to a young audience, with a large number of readers in the Philippines, where several Wattpad stories have been adapted into teleseries. Wattpad blocks the copy/paste function, so you can post unpublished works on the site.

Booksie

"Booksie is a free social publishing site that provides a place where writers and readers can connect from across the globe. Over the past seven years, tens of thousands of writers have posted hundreds of thousands of short stories, novel, poems, articles and more. Booksie is for writers 13+ (no adult content). Booksie organizes your portfolio and gives you tools (including a micro-Blogger) to connect with your audience. You can Feature certain work in your portfolio, embed images and video, tell your writers about the latest news (micro-Blogging), and keep tabs of your fans." 

Critters

"Critters is a member of the Critique.org family of on-line workshops/critique groups, and is for serious writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. You get your work critiqued in exchange for critiquing the work of others, both of which are invaluable ways to improve your writing. It's run by Andrew Burt, former vice-president of SFWA and his army of software minions." Critters is listed as one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer's Digest,

Critique Circle

CritiqueCircle.com officially opened on October 21, 2003. At present time there are 5,497 active members. They have processed 160,099 stories and 823,678 critiques and received 51,667,760 visits "During your first visit to CC you will be a Trial user which means there are restrictions on what you can do. Once a CC Moderator has reviewed your application you will be upgraded to a full registered member and these restrictions will be lifted. This usually only takes a couple of hours. Critique Circle runs on a credit system. You "pay" three credits to submit a story, and receive credits for writing a critique of someone else's story. The credits you receive range from 1/2 to 2 per crit, depending on the length of the crit and the length of the story." Critique Circle is based in Iceland, where 1 in 10 people will publish a book.

Mibba

Mibba is a reading and writing community aimed at teens. Users can post stories, poems, blogs, articles, book reviews, and get feedback, Mibba hosts a forum, and provides writing tips and a grammar handbook. Good for budding writers.

Scribophile

Scribophile is an online community where writers can post their work and get critiques from other writers. The site works on a "karma" system. Before you can post your work, you must earn karma points either by critiquing someone else's work, or when other members like your critiques. The longer your critique, the more karma you earn. You "spend" these karma points when you post your work, Posting on Scribophile does not affect first publication rights, as your work can only be read by members, For more information, read their FAQs.

Writing.com

With 1,137,125 members, writing.com is one of the largest online writing communities. Started by a husband and wife team, writing.com promotes a friendly environment for writers.   The site offers writing portfolios, email, a newsfeed, groups, contests, survey forms, madlibs, and submission tracking, as well as tutorials. Writing.com is geared to amateur writers.

Young Writers Society

"Formed in 2004, the Young Writers Society serves as a keynote global community for young writers. We aim to promote creative writing as a pastime, prepare aspiring authors for future publication, and create lasting bonds across continents and cultures alike." Membership is geared to writers between the ages of 13 and 25.

Platform, Shmatform: Social Media - How Numbers Lie

Updated 8/23/24

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Below is an absolutely fabulous blog post by Rob Eager, which appeared on Tools of Change a couple of weeks ago.

The article struck a chord with me for two reasons. The first is that my stats teacher said exactly the same thing to us on the first day of classes. (I think they all do.)

The other is that my experience coincides with Rob's. For example, one of the newsletters I edit has 35,000 subscribers. Only 12.3% of them open the newsletter. Of those, roughly 1% actually read more than the first article. While I love telling people that over 100,000 people subscribe to the three newsletters I edit, it certainly doesn't mean I am actually reaching nearly that number of people.

The same is true of Facebook. With over 17,000 "likes" on the FB page I manage, how many of those people actually look at any given post? I am lucky if it is a tenth of that. And very few of those people click on the link to the main site.

And don't get me started on how many of those people actually purchase anything.

Does this mean you should stop posting on Facebook, tweeting, and so on? No. The numbers may ultimately be meaningless, but prospective agents are always impressed by four or five zeros after any integer.

Apparently, none of them has never taken a stats class.

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Numbers never lie…unless you’re talking social media: Measuring results in our rush to be followed, liked, and shared

By Rob Eagar on TOC

Back in college, I took a class on statistics and never forgot the first lesson my professor taught us, which was, “Anyone can manipulate numbers to make them mean whatever they want.” I see this point magnified today by the mass adoption of Twitter and Fakebook, err – I mean Facebook. We’re at a period in time where numbers can mean so much and simultaneously mean so little.

The more people use social media, the bigger a desire to be followed, liked, and shared. We live in an age where online popularity has the ridiculous ability to control major business decisions or determine someone’s career. Yet, there’s never been a time when big numbers can be inflated so easily and deceptively. For example:

1. According to the New York Times, people can buy fake followers on Twitter for $18 per 1,000. I’ve also seen shady businesses on Ebay offer fake Facebook followers for a similar price range.

2. Facebook claims to offer an effective advertising medium, yet their average click-through rate is .0005 (5 in 10,000) In addition, a Reuters poll found that 4 out of 5 Facebook users have never bought a product or service as a result of advertising or comments on the social network site. 

3. In addition, researchers at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute found that less than 1% of fans of the 200 biggest brands on Facebook actually engaged.

4. A guy claiming to have 50,000 Twitter followers bragged that he could use his influence to generate a bunch of sales for my new book. I put him to the test, let him send out his “tweets,” but never received a single order related to his audience. 

5. The average open rate for arts email newsletters is around 25%. So, an author who claims to have 6,000 newsletter subscribers is probably reaching around 2,000 readers. The click-through rate is about 3%.

I’ve seen some bloggers (I don’t mean to bash, so they’ll remain nameless) promote an artificial number on their blog that combines all of their different social media followers and subscribers into one large number, which is designed to make you think their platform is bigger than it really is.

When the human ego merges with social media, there seems to be no limit to the level of nonsense that people will create. Numbers that are supposed to mean so much can actually mean very little.

As my statistics professor warned, be careful about putting too much faith in numbers. Just because someone displays 10,000 Twitter followers or Facebook friends doesn’t mean their sphere of influence is at that level. In an age where numbers are easily manipulated, we’re better off focusing on the only numbers that really matter, which is how many books sold, how many new readers added, and how many dollars deposited into the bank.

Twitter: How to Build a Following - for Writers

The first person to suggest that I use Twitter was my 82-year-old mother.

"No, I most certainly will not tweet," I told her.

As much as I hate to admit it, my mother was right. I now tweet with gusto, and not only is it fun, it's effective - perhaps more effective than emails, Facebook, or any of the forums I used to frequent.

The reason for Twitter's effectiveness - and popularity - is obvious: tweets are short.

As our schedules get busier and busier, it's easier to deal with 140 characters than it is to read an email. (If an agent you are interested in approaching has a Twitter account, by all means, follow.)

It's also incredibly easy to get the word out on your promotions, blog posts, giveaways, and anything else writing-related via tweets.

As a case in point, visitors to this blog have increased dramatically since I started actively building a following. Now, a substantial number of visitors arrive via tweets.

So, read Joel Friedlander's article below. The man knows what he is talking about.
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How to Build an Awesome and Relevant Twitter Following in 6 Minutes a Day

By Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer

If you’re like lots of other authors, you might feel a bit conflicted about Twitter. On one hand, you know that Twitter has become something more than just another social media network. It has started to function as the information network of choice for millions of people around the world.

These days, you even see Twitter feeds on television, and journalists, politicians, and celebrities make use of Twitter’s ability to communicate quite a lot in just 140 characters.

You know it’s a great place to interact with readers and colleagues. And with more and more people joining Twitter every day, you also know it’s a great place to promote your book, your blog and your other activities.

Right now, as Twitter gets ready to “go public” we know that they report over 218 million active monthly users, and that Twitter grew almost 48% in the year between March 2012 and March 2013. This trend shows no signs of slowing down.

On the other hand, Twitter can seem both cryptic and confusing when you first get started.

For one thing, there are lots of people just like you who already seem to have hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of followers. How will you ever catch up?

Read the rest of this informative article HERE.

You're an Expert! How to Make Money Writing Nonfiction Articles

Updated 8/11/26

One of the best ways to build a platform is to become an expert, especially if you are a nonfiction writer. Having your articles published not only establishes your authority, it enables you to publicize your blog, your website, and your books.

If you are a nonfiction writer, there are seemingly endless resources for publishing articles. I say "seemingly" because numbers are deceptive. Getting a nonfiction article published in a reputable magazine can be just as daunting as publishing a short story in The Atlantic. Unless you are a recognized expert in your field, the competition will be fierce.

But what if you are a fiction writer? Let's say you are a gardener with years of experience with soil types, plant requirements, vegetable varieties that do well or poorly in certain climates. Having a degree in horticulture doesn't add to your qualifications. The same holds true for numerous areas in which experience counts more than academic credentials: raising children, raising chickens, dealing with aging parents, marketing your own crafts, and so on. I am sure you can think of several areas in which you have a body of knowledge that would be beneficial to others.

Internet sites that will pay for your articles

The best way to capitalize on that knowledge is to write articles on highly trafficked sites on the net. How does it work? Some sites offer writers a share of the income generated by ads on their site. Others give you a set payment for a certain number of clicks.

Here are two income-generating sites:

Wikinut - Another Among the Many Online Writing Sites - a Review

An Overview of Making Money on HubPages

HubPages 

Additional resources:

41 Publications That Pay $1 Per Word 

Get Paid to Write: 23 Sites That Pay Freelancers $100+

Write Jobs

Freelance Writing - Numerous freelance writing jobs are posted here.

Who Pays Writers - a list of hundreds of nonfiction markets and what they pay