Gotcha. Makes sense. Maybe I should start posting there again. 
Never thought of it as a place to get feedback, especially since itās tough to get readers there in the first place.
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Honestly WP is a cesspool of scambots right nowā¦ Iāve had better luck on Inkitt, they have a rudimentary version of forums, but at least itās a place for authors to talk and kinda discover each other.
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Do you pay for the subscription or just the free version? Is it a good place to get alpha and beta readers?
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Yeahā¦ that was back in 2018-2020. I think itās so much harder to get reads now. The only for sure way is to join reading clubs and other community spaces. But then youād have to be willing to swap.
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Inkitt is free to use, write or read on. Perhaps youāre thinking of their sister website, Galatea? Inkitt is a free website, with no ads at all, it works just like Wattpad. Itās probably easier to get some genuine reads than on wp if you interact with the community and find stuff to read, but I wouldnāt necessarily say itās easy, overall. It takes time and patienceā¦
Galatea is their sister website, where popular Inkitt stories go to make money lol. I think you need to pay a subscription to use it? Idk Iām not on there as a reader. And you have to receive an offer in order to get on there as a writer.
But, Inkitt does have a subscription system, where anyone can publish their stories under a subscription tier. Basically you go on there, publish your stories, and people can choose to support with a monthly fee in order to read your stuff. Kinda like Patreon lol. This is also free to use, I donāt think Inkitt charges fees for it, just maybe what the service provider asks for? But afaik, Inkitt does not take a cut (their money engine is Galatea).
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This is available to everyone? I thought it was an invite-only type of thing! 
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Nope 
anyone can do a subscription tier on Inkitt, for as little or as much as you want. Or even multiple tiers. Galatea is invite-only!
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You learn something new every day!! Thank you 
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And lots of people on Inkitt are in the business of needing covers, so might be a nice market to tap 
so many of them do self-publishing. But, as a heads-up, Inkitt has AI bots blocking those ācommissionā scammers so advertising design services might not be too easy 
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Bots blocking the commission scammers? Exceptional news. I hate those bots SO much lol. Interestingā¦ I have an Inkitt account but I kinda let it die when I started my publishing experiment this year. Maybe I should add it to my plan for 2026! If you have any tips, I am all ears 
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It might also block some stuff you donāt want blocked lol but on balance it works pretty well. Anything goes content-wise as long as it is marked appropriately, but consistency is key with Inkitt. Maybe not daily updates, but consistent ones. It seems itās better to update on weekdays than weekends. Biggest readership boost comes when marking a story complete. Ideal chapter length around 1500-2500 words, and best to keep it under 100 chapters. You can post either app only or web & app, but I find the app too glitchy to use. Itās apparently safer against spammers and mirror sites, but I get most of my reads from web 
The app does have āshelvesā on the homepage where stories are promoted, a recently completed shelf or a contest shelf. Thereās also a recently updated one but theyāve changed the logic recently and nobody understands how it works anymore lol. Oh, and stories need to get approved first + reach 10k words to start appearing on these shelves. The approvals are automatic now and go pretty fast. I couldnāt tell you what they check, exactly. You should technically not have NSFW covers or titles, but sometimes these slip through the cracks lol. Like I said, anything goes. They have tags for noncon and dubcon. I think only explicit stuff with underage characters is a no-go, but other than thatā¦
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I was expecting perhaps a āpost once a weekā, and you wrote an entire manual!! Thank you <3 This is all really helpful
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You got it 
Iām MariaKilljoy over there if you ever wanna get back into it and hit me up 
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Let me see if I can remember my loginā¦
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Topic: Growing as a Writer Online
I donāt know my writing life without some online space. Of course, I did have a time when I wasnāt in any online writing space and still writing, but my growth happened all online. I think thereās something interesting about that.
In a sense, while being alone in my room, I was never truly alone in my writing journey.
2011: At the time I started thinking about seriously pursuing writing, I joined Figment: Write Yourself In. and also started blogging on Blogger. Figment was my first introduction into an online writing community space and thatās where I would remain until itās shutdown in 2017. My first time on Figment was the same time I started growing as a writer.
2014: I created an FB account and public page only for blog content, but that would change later.
2017: I joined Wattpad since Figment was shutting down. I slowly adapted to the space. From my time on Figment, I knew what to expect and I knew how to navigate it. I was in the forums. Also joined writing-based FB groups around this time. I turned my Blogger FB page into an author-only FB page. I was looking for a lot of connections, all kinds of feedback and critique, and a community.
2019: I joined Instagram to connect with writers and bookstagrammers. Here, I interacted with writers, shared my writing, followed advice-based accounts, or editorsā accounts, and I was growing as a writer.
2020: The world shut down, and so the online communities absolutely flourished because for some people, it was the only way to connect. Then Wattpad forums said goodbye, and Wacky Writers said hello (it says I joined in Aug. 4, 2020, and I joined not too long after Wacky was created).
2021: In May, I joined the Dreamland Discord server. I remember someone told me about it on Wattpad. I think @JaxCreation was one who did. Thanks for that 
There, I connected with Wattpad writers.
There wasnāt a time when I wasnāt connected to some form of online writing community. So, I donāt know any other world of growing as a writer or being a writer. I only know my writing journey as being online.
I donāt consider myself to be an expert when it comes to ābeing a writer onlineā, but I have, over the years, learned some tips and tricks You can ask about that, or my writing journey in general, or whatever else youāre curious about 
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Oooh, what tips and tricks have you learned? And what would you recommend for the rest of us as far as growing our own online writing presence?