So I'm Batman

This term has been thrown around quite a bit in recent times and I'm here to tell you, everyone who has said it has been lying, because the truth is... I AM Batman.

Okay, so creative licensing used right here.

So I'm not great at swinging from wires at great heights, I don't talk in that weird deep voice, and even if I painted it black I doubt my little four wheel drive could be mistaken for the Batmobile - that and I imagine that hat (ears?) he wears would really mess up my hair! 

Having said all this, I can say I have a secret identity (oooooo!). Okay, so I'm not Matt Damon, I haven't cut my hair and changed my identity (well okay, I did cut my hair, but that's unrelated), and I'm not wanted by the police (as far as I know); but I have a Wattpad account not many of my friends know about.

You might remember I published Out Of Her League on Wattpad back in May to what I would call a good result.  I then took it down and published it on Amazon. 

Side note, but there's a high chance it will be going back on Wattpad once my 90 day exclusivity deal with Amazon expires in December.  Sure, if Amazon realises I'm giving it away they will probably drop the price of it on their website to $0 and it will never be able to be changed, but I'm cool with that.  (Random fact, you can't 'sell' a book for $0 on Amazon but if they find out you're giving it away somewhere free they will drop the price to match it and will never let you put it back up - some writers do this on purpose as they want their book to be free but aren't allowed to do it - sneaky!)

Why am I doing this?  Because I've found that I value feedback more than I do sales.  I love hearing back from people who have taken the time to read my writing and this isn't something that happens too often on Amazon.

For those who don't know, Wattpad is an online community where writers can publish their works and get feedback.  It's free and like most (all?) social media sites, you can follow other writers and they can follow you back.  I was surprised to find there are a number of well known, famous writers on Wattpad including Dan Brown and Margaret Atwood.

Just Googled 'famous writers on Wattpad' and this article written my Margaret Atwood came up.  It's from 2012, but she makes some good points and I LOVE the story about the man in Africa.  Very cool.  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/06/margaret-atwood-wattpad-online-writing

Okay, getting back to Batman.

Lately I have been delving into the world that is fantasy and have found it quite fascinating.  Okay, so I'd already written two fantasy books before this (geek alert!), but I've been reading a lot more lately as well.

So why not publish on Wattpad under my name?  Well I don't call myself Bernard or anything, I still use my first name, but decided to create another account that wasn't linked to any other social networking sites. 

Just to be clear, it's not because I don't love you guys, it's because I wasn't sure how it would go and didn't want to look like an idiot if I completely screwed it up.

Well... I have several followers, have had a couple of people design some awesome media for me (through Wattpad) - let me just say there are some extremely talented writers and artists on that site! - and have received some really positive feedback.

I have one very regular follower (here's to you gay guy in London, you're awesome!) who gave me the nicest feedback when he said 'Seriously, one of the best free stories I have read, it should be in bookshops'.  Okay, so maybe he was being nice, but it did make me smile nonetheless.

Whilst on the subject of Wattpad, I want to take a moment or two to highlight some things I have recently learnt about the site (gotta love a dot point list right?)

• There are some really amazing writers on Wattpad - some who have been picked up by publishers from the site.
• You don't always have to have perfect grammar and punctuation to tell a good story - if the story is interesting enough the reader can look past these little errors (of course if there are too many it detracts from the story making it very hard to read).
• Writers of all ages can be awesome - I read a story recently by a fourteen year old!  Crazy!
• Writers are an interesting breed of creatures and quite entertaining to talk with and learn from.

(Disclaimer:  If you do head over to Wattpad, be warned there is an awful lot of fan fiction on there so if you don't want to read about One Direction, maybe avoid that category.  Also, it does sometimes take a little while to find something you're interested in, but it's worth it once you do.)

Am I going to put my Wattpad username on here?  Not at the moment, I kinda like being anonymous.  Although if you feel the need to play 'Where's Miranda' I will follow you back if you find me.

Somewhere, someone out there is shouting 'challenge accepted!' as those around them look for a means of escape.

Until next time...