Perhaps I will go on hiatus and finish book one

JayDirex

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I don't know...those stats aren't too bad to me. Look at the number of readers you have for the number of views. 19k with 300+ readers. I didn't reach that many until well over that. However, my story is much different and It's not fantasy or anything of the sort.

Sorry to hear you're frustrated but I'm sure the people who are loyal to your story will be upset to hear you go.
Hi Yairy, you right ^_^ and thanks for the love

:blob_reach::blob_highfive:
I'm not going to assume that you're trolling, and that you're serious. Sad to see an author drop a novel, but if that's how you feel then I suspect you've learnt something. However, I'm going to apologize in advance, because I'm going to be harsh and say that you missed the most important lesson.

Namely, if you write for the attention of others, your work will depend on it. Which is of course what we authors want our work to get. But that attention should be considered an added bonus, not your main goal.

I suspect that you possibly got bored with your story yourself, and seeing the lack of readers merely strengthened that emotion. Which goes against one of the basic rules of writing, that you can find by spending a few seconds on google. If you're bored - even just a little - then your readers certainly will be.
I hear you ^_^ and there is truth to that. But nah, I've been doing this long enough (i have novels on, and hell, even videos on amazon). So writing to the market, and writing what I want go hand in hand. But like I said, I have been writing novels for over 5 years now, so I can tell when a story is falling flat with readers. and IN REVERSE of what you said, I am NOT bored with the story and was in the camp of, "This is a great story, how come no one's reading it???" (which forced me step back and seriously ask what was wrong with the story.)

~ thanks for the feedback
 
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TroubleFait

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As BubbleC said, these sites aren't for stories that demand real investment. I personally dropped of great stories because they demanded that I invest myself into them.
If you have total confidence in your story, maybe ask yourself if you could publish it elsewhere. Selling whole books? Finding a publishing magazine? I really don't know, but maybe there's somewhere out there where people will be more inclined to read it.
 

Aoibh

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I'll cut to the chase, and hopefully help some authors on the way. But I'm dropping my well crafted, perfect grammar, pure structure, well received (by the VERY FEW who like it) novel. Now 50K plus words in.

Like many Authors up here desperately seeking the secret formula (which I now know what it is), I kept thinking that it was, not only a good story, but mostly theme and setting that hooked readers: (LITRPG, ISEKAI, SMUT) along with action. The truth is those tags help (and mine was not Litrpg or smut...just isekai) but where I went wrong.

Pay Attention

When you TRULY look at what not only trends, but has a lot of readers actually reading and commenting are stories where the plots and conflicts are very INTERPERSONAL. Meaning, yes person is sucked into another world and has to figure stuff out, but the sticky stories are the ones where the MAIN PLOT is about that very struggle with other people (via romance, individual revenge,) the point is the conflict REALLY involves person on person conflict on a PERSONAL level.

AS OPPOSED to my story, and many others fantasy style stories like mine, where the plot is more general. Mine is a perfect example: Competent Mercenaries (meaning not too much at a disadvantage when they are isekaid- and that is BAD because that lowered their stakes, as opposed to a virgin game developer sent to another world- he has higher stakes because he is at such a disadvantage) and when they get there the plot becomes about NOBLES, and winning their war, and finding the crystal that can lead to the: .zzzzzzzzzzz :sleep::sleep:Lost the audience by chapter 8.

OF COURSE I HAVE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS IN THE STORY- it's FKN ROMANCE!! - but the romance and all of that is SUB-PLOT...that happens in between them going from place to place and fighting and etc.

And for the past 8 months of writing this pointless story, i was ALWAYS just focused on the PROPER CRAFT OF WRITING. CLARITY. STRUCTURE Character Motivation....and wanted to FLING MY LAPTOP at all of the piss-poor grammar trash up here that has waaaay more actual readers than my story.

Only now my self-righteous ass Finally gets it.

Moral of the story: To heck with your fantasy world and your overarching plot. If you want people to read your story- Focus the plot around the interpersonal. The individual struggle of people between people about people stuff (revenge, sex, lies, history between them, falling in love- Problems between individuals on an individual level and LOTS and LOTS OF SEX.

Follow this advice plus a LITRPG and or ISEKAI. I guarantee you will get readers who actually read your stuff.

Here are my numbers, by the way. Completely unacceptable for the amount of work I'm putting in.

View attachment 7359

View attachment 7360
and that 143 is an anomaly because that day I hit trending. So it doesn't count
323 readers is a lot of readers
 

JayDirex

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323 readers is a lot of readers
hi Aoi, therein lies the problem that I was showing on the images that I posted. Yeah it says I have 323 readers. But trust me only about 35 of them are actually reading.

when I post a chapter, 10 days can go by and I'll still have something like 38 views on the last chapter. like a readership of 10%. ... That's a red flag and tells me that the story itself is not sticky enough for people to want to dive right in whenever I write a chapter. The story is not grabbing folks so that they're excited for the next chapter to come out.

And that is entirely the fault of the author. (me) ^_^
 

TunTun

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I don't understand why authors here are saying that 300 is a lot of readers. If you write a popular story you can get 500 readers with as little as 5k words. Suffice to say, most of my stories are on the 300 readership mark with as few as 5 chapters.

While before I catered to the market, my stories were stuck at 50 readers after 20k words.
 

Aoibh

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hi Aoi, therein lies the problem that I was showing on the images that I posted. Yeah it says I have 323 readers. But trust me only about 35 of them are actually reading.

when I post a chapter, 10 days can go by and I'll still have something like 38 views on the last chapter. like a readership of 10%. ... That's a red flag and tells me that the story itself is not sticky enough for people to want to dive right in whenever I write a chapter. The story is not grabbing folks so that they're excited for the next chapter to come out.

And that is entirely the fault of the author. (me) ^_^
38 people is still a lot of people, yeah it might not be the full amount, some people stall or have it to read later. Don't write to please others write for yourself and everyone who is reading is along for the journey, its just a bonus.
I don't understand why authors here are saying that 300 is a lot of readers. If you write a popular story you can get 500 readers with as little as 5k words. Suffice to say, most of my stories are on the 300 readership mark with as few as 5 chapters.

While before I catered to the market, my stories were stuck at 50 readers after 20k words.
Because you are looking at it as a statistic and comparing it to others who have more readers, if you actually think of them as people in the same room as you, that is a lot of people.
Or think of it as having those people in your house and on your lawn and so on.... staring at you 0m0
 

KiraMinoru

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hi Aoi, therein lies the problem that I was showing on the images that I posted. Yeah it says I have 323 readers. But trust me only about 35 of them are actually reading.

when I post a chapter, 10 days can go by and I'll still have something like 38 views on the last chapter. like a readership of 10%. ... That's a red flag and tells me that the story itself is not sticky enough for people to want to dive right in whenever I write a chapter. The story is not grabbing folks so that they're excited for the next chapter to come out.

And that is entirely the fault of the author. (me) ^_^
I'd say the timing of your releases are more related to your view count on your most recent chapter(like really the most recent was a Sunday at 4:00 AM? wtf lol.). I believe a lot fewer readers actually read on a release-by-release basis. Also, a lot of people who have added a story to their reading list would likely rather binge it in one go so they let chapters accumulate. Many people don't even bother to start reading a story until it's hit 100k words/100 pages/100 chapters, etc. They just add it and come back to it much later on down the line.
 
D

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Try uploading on other sites to see where the audience is most receptive. SH tends to lean on the smut route, so yeah, it's kind of difficult to gain traction if your work is non-smut.
 

TunTun

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I'd say the timing of your releases are more related to your view count on your most recent chapter. I believe a lot fewer readers actually read on a release-by-release basis. Also, a lot of people who have added a story to their reading list would likely rather binge it in one go so they let chapters accumulate. Many people don't even bother to start reading a story until it's hit 100k words/100 pages/100 chapters, etc. They just add it and come back to it much later on down the line.
This is true, there is indeed a decent percentage of people who wait until there is at least 50 chapters. But the majority of readers are day-to-day readers.

If your story doesn't get at least 100 readers day 1, then that is a good indicator that you aren't popular among the day-to-day SH demographic.

Sure, you can grind your way to the top, but you are fighting the riptides.
38 people is still a lot of people, yeah it might not be the full amount, some people stall or have it to read later. Don't write to please others write for yourself and everyone who is reading is along for the journey, its just a bonus.

Because you are looking at it as a statistic and comparing it to others who have more readers, if you actually think of them as people in the same room as you, that is a lot of people.
Or think of it as having those people in your house and on your lawn and so on.... staring at you 0m0
Yeah no, I wanna have a thousand readers minimum In the entertaining industry, 300 free readers is too small. If they were paid readers then it would be different.
Try uploading on other sites to see where the audience is most receptive. SH tends to lean on the smut route, so yeah, it's kind of difficult to gain traction if your work is non-smut.
This is false.
 

Aoibh

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This is true, there is indeed a decent percentage of people who wait until there is at least 50 chapters. But the majority of readers are day-to-day readers.

If your story doesn't get at least 100 readers day 1, then that is a good indicator that you aren't popular among the day-to-day SH demographic.

Sure, you can grind your way to the top, but you are fighting the riptides.

Yeah no, I wanna have a thousand readers minimum In the entertaining industry, 300 free readers is too small. If they were paid readers then it would be different.

This is false.
Hmph, I want never gets .
 

JayDirex

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Try uploading on other sites to see where the audience is most receptive. SH tends to lean on the smut route, so yeah, it's kind of difficult to gain traction if your work is non-smut.
I have it on Royal road and they absolutely HATE the story. three stars 51 readers that fluctuates between 51 and 52. depends on what time of day I check.
 
D

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I have it on Royal road and they absolutely HATE the story. three stars 51 readers that fluctuates between 51 and 52. depends on what time of day I check.
Ah, figures...

In any case, there are other sites to upload your work. The traffic is less than RR and SH, but who knows if your story clicks with the audience? Though, if I may suggest, don't drop your work just because of the reception. We all get to have our opportunities.
 

JayDirex

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38 people is still a lot of people, yeah it might not be the full amount, some people stall or have it to read later. Don't write to please others write for yourself and everyone who is reading is along for the journey, its just a bonus.

Because you are looking at it as a statistic and comparing it to others who have more readers, if you actually think of them as people in the same room as you, that is a lot of people.
Or think of it as having those people in your house and on your lawn and so on.... staring at you 0m0
appreciate it but it just goes to show the difference in levels and how we think. 38 readers is atrocious for my standards, and history of writing online. And I explained this to you before I am not new to this. This isn't some little amateur thing that I post and I'm frustrated about.

You need to understand that many of us are not up here just writing as a goofy pastime. many of us write to communicate and get actual feedback and readers And we set higher standards.

if 38 Readers is good for you then do you.

Don't dictate that it's a good enough number for the the rest of us.
 

Assurbanipal_II

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I have it on Royal road and they absolutely HATE the story. three stars 51 readers that fluctuates between 51 and 52. depends on what time of day I check.
Agree. Asian themes have a harder time there. The audience seems more western when it comes to tastes.
 

Kitsura

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I can't tell you the formula, but I am writing to say I sympathize. I just wish you wouldn't put down the work of other authors on this site. Blaming people for your lack of success is not a good mindset.
 

JayDirex

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I can't tell you the formula, but I am writing to say I sympathize. I just wish you wouldn't put down the work of other authors on this site. Blaming people for your lack of success is not a good mindset.
at what point and where did I put down any others on the site? Excuse you. Don't put
words in my mouth.

My whole post is about where I realized I needed to write different and better as an author. But there's always one like you comes up here and reads what you want to read and accuse me of putting down others. which I never did.


stfu.
 
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