The idea of giving yourself a star is a part of Wattpad everyone has an opinion on. I naturally have my own opinion as well. But why just give my opinion on it when I can turn this subject into an entire chapter? That's just wasted opportunity right there, so let's get this thing going. This is Wattpad 101 after all, and I think it's a good idea to at least discuss the phenomenon known as "self-voting". Autovoting if you will. Not to be confused with Deceptavoting.

For those of you out of the loop, when you publish any given chapter, there is a star displayed in the upper right corner (in the browser) and in a second screen at the end of the chapter (tablet/phone) with the word vote next to it. Whether you call it starring or voting, the effect is still the same. You're declaring this chapter 'just swell' and endorsing it. By voting (starring) or starring (voting), it's a small price to pay to boost the writer's confidence and help their work be more likely to be seen. Other than actually commenting, this is the best way to endorse and support your authors... outside of patreon (jingles change can).

Hopefully, most of you are aware of this. What you may not have noticed, realized, or confirmed, is that that button exists on your own writing as much as other people's writings. And yes, you can click on it and ultimately give yourself a star. To some, this is an appalling action that comes off as conceited and desperate. To others, this is a natural thing to do, a sort of virtual pat on your own back that occurs almost ritualistically.

I've mentioned in my chapter on Wattpad ratings that starring your own chapters does NOT affect your ranking in Wattpad, so if you were hoping that by starring your chapters you could get noticed, starring truly does nothing but conflate the number of stars under your chapter total. If you write a sixty-chapter book, that's 60 more stars you could potentially add to your book.

To the unobservant reader, a book with 100 stars may look a lot more worth their time over a book with 40 stars. Although that's hypothetical, I don't know too many people who make reading choices based on the number of stars a book has. Either way, to some, you wrote the darn chapter, and you should have the right to click on it.

My last chapter went on about the reasons a reader might not star your work. A point I teased at but didn't add (it's 100 reasons, not every reason!) was that some people don't like to star a work because it reveals what they were reading on their recent activity. I can click on anyone I'm following and see the last few stories they starred. So, if they were starring Backyard Bad Boys XxX, I could tell... and I could judge you. In the same respect, you can see if someone stars their own work. Shortly after someone releases a new chapter, look through their history to see if they starred their own work!

To some, this should be the norm. As the argument goes, everyone has a vote in the election. Even the President of the United States usually votes for themselves in their election. So, why does voting for yourself on a Wattpad book suddenly become so undesirable? Shouldn't it be a given that you should support yourself. You wrote it! Shouldn't you be endorsing the thing you wrote?

Some readers might even go so far to say that if you can't star on your own work, in other words, you can't even give your own writing your personal vote of approval, then how do you expect others to? I'd like to think that way of thinking is pretty extreme, but it is a way of thinking you may encounter from some readers.

Then there are the other kind of reader. The kind of reader who feel like starring your own work is desperate. Voting doesn't affect the ranking system, so it's just there to make you feel better, but it's affect is a placebo. You're essentially lying to yourself, pretending you had more stars than you do. Furthermore, you're lying to other people, conflating the success of your work just for the slight edge it could give you.

Just as one might feel that voting on your work is showing confidence in your work, to another reader voting on your work might show that you don't think it's good. After all, if you're so afraid your work won't get any stars that you have to provide them yourself, how could anyone say your work was good to begin with? So, someone who truly thinks their work is good shouldn't feel the need to star.

In other words, you should show confidence in your work by starring, but you also should show confidence in your work by not starring. See the problem here? That's right, there is no winning. Either choice can potentially backfire with some readers and writers.

Plus, there is one more aspect to this story as well, and that is the aspect of reads. Chances are you've clicked on your own chapters, just to make sure that they publish correctly if for no other reason. Sometimes, this triggers as a read, depending on which computer/device your using, whether your signed in, and some other factors I've still not figured out in Wattpad's somewhat foggy and lag-filled counting system.

If you're going to gain a read anyway every time you click on your chapter, and you have any desire for a decent read to star ratio, then it almost seems like you SHOULD star your work. After all, at least one of those reads is yours, probably more if you've ever checked your work on another computer or wiped your cookies, and returned a few times. And it's not like anyone has a problem with a writer COMMENTING on their own chapter, which can actively start conversations with others, artificially driving up comments which absolutely does affect rank.

So, commenting on your chapter, especially in response to other comments, something that can actually change your rank, seems fine, but starring isn't? For some people, the idea of starring just seems to rub them the wrong way. It feels like cheating. Even knowing Wattpad does not factor it into their ranking system, it still feels like adding a few stars to your book's profile stats is an artificial cop out that doesn't settle well with them.

Where does that leave us? Or perhaps more on point, how do I, your Wattpad 101 guide, feel about this particular conundrum? Well, if you take a look at my books closely, you may or may not have realized that I typically do NOT star my chapters. Once in a while, I might click one by accident, but I've never gone out of my way to habitually click them or anything of the like. Part of it is a matter of pride (I can tell you there was a time where I leaned on the 'starring looks desperate' side of things), and part of it is just that it never sat right with me to do so.

Upon contemplating this subject and seeing other people's views, I understand them, but I don't think it will cause me to change my behavior. I don't think you'll ever find me suddenly starring every chapter. The reasoning for that is simple. It doesn't make me feel... well... anything. I certainly don't feel better doing it.

And I think that's the answer you need to look for. How does starring a chapter make you feel? If you feel like it's patting yourself on the back, punctuating a job well complete, then it's a good thing for you to vote on your chapter. If, in any way or form, it makes you feel good to do so... then do so. On the other hand, if it makes you feel guilty, dirty, or otherwise unapathetic to star your work, then there is no reason to do so.

In the grand scheme of what it takes to be noticed and popular on Wattpad, the dozen unranked stars you can potentially add will likely not make any real difference. My very Wattpad 101 book has received around 6.9k stars as I post this... would the potentially extra 100 stars I could add (pushing it to 7k) really affect anyone reading it? Would it have changed people's response? Changed its place in nonfiction? Changed anything?

Any changes it might induce would be so subtle and non-distinct that you might as well not factor them in at all. So, whether you star or not should be dependent entirely on how starring yourself makes you feel.

That aside, the one thing you can change by reading this is trying to understand those on the other side of the spectrum. Unless you're up a writer's arse, it's not that easy to determine whether they star their work or not, having to skim their recent activity and look for the telltale signs. However, if you do as such and find an author who does or does not star, while you're vehemently on the other side, try to understand their feelings on the matter.

For the anti-autovoters, understand given that the stars don't affect rank, they are merely doing this to show you that they support their own work and care about it. Like any elected official, they were given the right to vote, and they use that right to say they are confident you'll enjoy their work. They worked hard on that chapter, and they feel justified in breaking the ice by adding that first star to their work, like putting the cherry on top of a hot fudge sundae.

For the pro-autovoters, understand that not every culture endorses self-promotion. In some cultures, such as Japanese, it's considered outright rude to NOT be modest. Some people might just not be comfortable promoting themselves, or feel that by doing it they are looking for attention. They want their work to stand on its own merit, and staring might make them feel phony. It might hit their pride as an author, or even frustrate them since they want to clearly see what other people think of their work, not what they themselves think (which they already know)

So, star if it makes you happy, and don't star if it makes you uncomfortable, but don't judge those who do either. There IS a good argument for both sides, and unless Wattpad puts its foot down one way or the other, it doesn't violate any rules or cause any unfair advantages. It's simply one more aspect of the Wattpad system, and you can either take advantage of it or ignore it.

Good Luck, and Happy Writing!

Oh, and deceptavoting would be creating extra accounts and using them to vote on your main account. Don't do that. Everyone can agree those guys are douchebags. Transform and roll out!