I had multiple secret Wattpad accounts that I used to inflate my friend’s reads/likes/comments.

In middle school, my friend wrote fanfiction that she posted to Wattpad. She loved writing so much and it was the #1 thing that made her happy, but she was so discouraged by the lack of reads, likes and comments that she seriously considered quitting.

So I created 8-10 fake accounts and started liking and commenting every time she posted, dm’ing her to ask “when’s the next chapter???,” etc. I gave each of these accounts different names, speech patterns, backstories. I even wrote short stories to post on some accounts for authenticity. My friend got SO excited that she suddenly had fans, and began to write more and more and more. I kept this up for YEARS until she got bored of Wattpad and started to write her own novels.

Now she’s a real, successful writer with genuine readers and fans. When people ask her how she got started at Q&As/book signings, she nostalgically tells them she got her start on Wattpad.

I can NEVER tell her.