Wattpad vs Inkitt vs Fiction Press vs FanFiction.net

If you’re a writer, there’s a good chance you have written fiction at one point in your life. It didn’t necessarily have to be fanfics. It can be original fiction works too.

As there are so many fiction writing platforms on the internet, how would you know which one is better? In this article, I have condensed a mini list of which writing platforms are the best for new and upcoming fiction writers.

Are These Fiction Writing Platforms Paid?

This is a common question asked by many writers. It’s a valid question. However, the answer depends on where you are with these platforms.

• You can and will be paid if you have generated enough followers, likes, and ratings on your works. Once you have reached a certain stipulated threshold, you can paywall or monetize the stories you have published on the platform. The income depends on your author level most times.

• You will not be paid if your fiction works are fan fictions, because it is illegal to monetize fanfics. This is due to copyright issues and goes against the very principles of fanfics on the whole.

• You can and will be paid if there is a certain contract signed between you and the platform you’re writing on. However, there are some weasel terms and conditions that turns away a lot of writers from writing on the platform.

How Do These Fiction Writing Platforms Function?

How these platforms work is pretty straightforward. Most of it commonly will ask you to sign up for an account first and verify it. As soon as it is verified, you can start uploading your stories. It can be a standalone work (sometimes called one-shot) where it’s just one whole story with just 1 chapter. Or it can be a long story with several chapters and with several sequel works.

When it comes to getting paid for your work – it’s a “very competitive market”. Most of these platforms will require you to achieve some sort of platform requirement before you can monetize your content. It’s a normal thing for these platforms to do.

If they made the requirements too easy to achieve, that means everyone can do it. And if it’s easy for everyone on it to monetize and earn huge incomes for their work, then there is no money for the platform to be made.

However, of course, they will not make the requirements impossible. They just made it really hard for the majority of the writers to achieve the requirements, that’s all.

A Comparison Between 4 Writing Platforms

I will do a comparison between 4 popular international writing platforms: Wattpad, FanFiction.net, Fiction Press, and Inkitt.

1. Wattpad (Website)

Wattpad is perhaps one of the biggest fiction writing platforms for writers to publish their stories. You can publish either fanfics or original fiction. It may or may not be the biggest fiction writing platform, but it certainly caters to all fanfics and regular fiction writers to publish your works.

With 150 million page views per month, you can monetize your works on the storytelling platform. Wattpad itself has a paid program for its writers, but terms and conditions apply.

You can find people monetizing their programs and products on Wattpad. Writers can join their Wattpad Stars program or be part of their paid stories program. However, you can find people using the platform to promote their own products (affiliate marketing) or peruse the “Buy Me a Coffee” program (link up from Patreon).

A lot of writers like to join Wattpad for one very good reason: a very high possibility of getting their works published. They hope they can be the next E. L. James, author of 50 Shades of Grey, who was once a fanfic writer before she became famous.

Pros:

• Easy to upload your stories

Wattpad’s user interface makes it easy for its writers to upload and publish their stories. It’s very straightforward and easy to learn how to upload their stories on the website.

• Option to upload book covers and insert illustrations in your stories

One good thing for Wattpad is that it allows for its writers to upload the book covers onto their stories. If you choose not to, it’s all right. But it will mean that your story’s cover will default to whatever default images Wattpad has for the covers.

Another good thing about Wattpad is that it allows its storytellers to include images and illustrations in their stories. Not a lot of writing platforms have this feature. Even if they have this feature, it’s not as well incorporated as Wattpad’s.

• Huge amount of readers

For a reading and writing platform, Wattpad has some of the biggest amounts of readers. If you want to have readership (and only readership) for your stories, this will be it. However, here’s the catch: you will have to actively promote your stories in the forums to get exposure. If you don’t, well sorry then. Your story’s exposure will not get as much attention you wish to have by the end of the day.

Cons:

• The main page is too messy

I’ll be honest… When I first opened Wattpad’s website on my PC, it looks really messy. There are so many things going on on the page, it takes time for my eyes to adjust and for my brains to process what I was looking at.

The page does take a bit of adjustment to get used to. However, after being on there for a couple of years, you’ll get used to it. But it’s good if Wattpad tones things down a bit.

• Monetizing your stories is not for everyone

Here’s the issue when people sign up on Wattpad. They think they can be the next big writer like E. L. James. If they can’t be the next E. L. James, they will at least try to have their works published and be made into a TV series. Anything to monetize their works and get a bit of fame.

This is the issue when some writers get on platforms like these and try to make some money out of it. The truth is: it’s not for everybody. The competition that comes with it and the amount of work you have to put in is just not something nice to do by the end of the day.

It will be a very long time for people to get to the published stage before they can see any fruits of their labor.

2. Inkitt (Website)

At first glance, Inkitt’s main page comes across as slightly cleaner than Wattpad’s. The layout on Inkitt is not exactly “in your face” kind of messy and disorderly. However, it’s still messy in the sense that they don’t categorize their books as FanFiction.net and Fiction Press do.

Inkitt’s influence to bring in writers and readers is not as great as Wattpad’s. However, it still does its job at bringing in new writers and promises of a publishing contract. Inkitt is very active in their competitions where winners can win a cash prize.

If you are aiming to get published, you will have a fighting chance. They have even published a rundown of how to get published with Inkitt here and a sample of their contract here.

Pros

• Accepts a wide variety of stories

Like Wattpad, Inkitt accepts all kinds of stories. It can be fanfics or it can also be original fiction works. By the looks of it, original fictions are more popular on this platform than fanfics are.

• Easy to upload stories

When I first tried to upload a story, I find it stress-free to do so. Not only is it straightforward, I find its interface easy to follow.

There may be a few steps to take and complete here and there. However, it’s nothing too much to ask of the writers.

Note that as soon as you have submitted your work, the website’s moderators will need to check through your work before it’s published.

Cons

• Less Readership Base Than Wattpad

Though Inkitt has a sizeable readership base, it’s nowhere near as big as what Wattpad has to offer. In many senses, one can say that Wattpad overshadows Inkitt. That’s why many authors and writers prefer going to Wattpad to publish their stories overdoing it on Inkitt.

However, Inkitt has the upper hand here when it comes to publishing your works. They are very black and white in what they say and do in their publishing contracts.

3. FanFiction.net (Website)

If you are in Malaysia, FanFiction.net is banned by the Malaysian government due to the platform having “questionable contents”. In several news sources, it mentioned that FanFiction.net will remain banned as long as the indecent and lewd contents stay up. Though it’s ironic that FanFiction.net is banned in the country, it does not mean writers will not find ways to go around the ban.

People who have written on FanFiction.net before will know how clean and organized the website is. They categorize the fanfics into 2 kinds: fanfics and crossovers.

Fanfics are pretty self-explanatory. Those are works based on original works and all the world and characters surrounding them.

Crossovers in fanfics just mean that the writers and authors mix characters and worlds from 2 (or more) different works.

When uploading your stories, it does require a bit of technical work. However, it’s nothing too difficult to learn and catch on to. FanFiction.net’s readership is not as high as Wattpad’s but it does give Wattpad a run for their readership base. FanFiction.net has, in its early days, established a strong and steady readership base. One can say that if they are looking to read fanfics (or write one), they will return to this website first before exploring other options.

Pros

• Clean and organized website

This is perhaps what a lot of writers and readers like about FanFiction.net. Its website is clean and easy to navigate. If the reader is looking for fanfics based on their favorite games, they will first go to the Games category to look for it.

The website allows readers to filter out all the genres they are looking for. It’s not to say other similar websites don’t have this feature; they do. However, FanFiction.net made it in such a way that the filters are comprehensive yet easy to understand.

• Strong and Steady Readership Base

This is also another plus point of reading and writing on FanFiction.net. The strong and steady readership base is what makes the platform stand out for both readers and writers. They also have several forums catered not just for user-powered reviews, it also has other forums to discuss any other aspects.

Cons

• The readership base is not as many as some other platforms

Though yes, FanFiction.net does have a sizeable readership base, it is nowhere near as much as what Wattpad has. It does have a solid readership base that reviews your stories but expects only from a small handful of the same readers.

Another thing is that when you are looking for reviews, be sure to leave a review on the other users’ stories. You know, a review for a review sort of thing.

• Limited to just fanfics

Here’s another downside to writing on FanFiction.net: it only caters to fanfics and only fanfics. If you have original works that are not fanfics, then this platform is not for you. FanFiction.net is only for fanfics and just that, as it has publicized itself via its website address.

However, if you have original works you’d wish to upload, perhaps you can try its sister site: Fiction Press.

• Banned in some countries

FanFiction.net is not accessible by all countries. Malaysia is one of them as it has banned the website due to it having questionable content. Malaysia is not the only country that bans FanFiction.net. There are a few other countries that have banned the website for various reasons.

4. Fiction Press (Website)

Fiction Press is the sister site to FanFiction.net. This writing platform is catered to original fiction works. It does not just accept fiction, it also accepts poetry as shown on its main website.

Fiction Press is not banned in Malaysia like its sister site is. That means you can still access and publish your fiction and poetry works here.

Generally, the website looks quite similar to FanFiction.net, but with a different color. There are a fair bit of technicality when uploading your work. However, with a bit of time spent on learning how to upload your works on Fiction Press, you’ll get ahold of it in no time. As a matter of fact, uploading your work on Fiction Press is exactly the same as how you’d upload your work on FanFiction.net. They both have the same system of uploading your works there.

Pros

• Clean and organized website

Like its sister site, FanFiction.net, Fiction Press has a clean and organized website. As a matter of fact, it looks almost exactly like how FanFiction.net looks like.

It’s easy to navigate Fiction Press as everything is categorized already. Just like its sister site FanFiction.net, everything is organized cleanly.

Cons

• Readership base is not a lot

This is the downside to Fiction Press. It does not have as much readership base even when compared to FanFiction.net, its sister site. If that’s the case, it has a much less readership base as compared to Wattpad and Inkitt.

As that is the case, you won’t find a lot of writers publishing their works on this platform. The lack of a readership base is one of the main reasons why a lot of writers don’t write on it long term. They’d often hop over to Inkitt or Wattpad as it’s “more worth the efforts” to publish there.

Key Takeaway

There are several writing platforms for writers who wish to write fiction. However, if you join these writing platforms hoping that your works will be published in mind, then you will have an uphill battle to get through.

Not only is it competitive, as you are competing with millions of other writers. You also have to think about the subsequent jobs surrounding the post-publication of your book that you have to put up with. Like promoting your book, for example.

It’s a lot of facets to think about if you are hoping to get a publishing deal from any of these platforms. However, if you are not looking to get published but just want an outlet for your creativity, then yeah these platforms are something you should look into.

Lydia is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
Register at headliner.newswav.com to become one of our content writers now!

*The views expressed are those of the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright, or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.