How do you build an audience for your fiction?

[reigeko]

I've been writing for a few months now, trying to publish regularly, but I realise that I'm not getting any comments or feedback on my chapters. I'm open to your advice if you know how to create a sort of community around fiction.

As far as my story is concerned, I'm focusing on an entirely created world with its own power system and a development that works for each character. We follow the story of Zayn, a young boy travelling the world to free it from the shackles of destruction. The story is called Miradjinn and here's the link: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1007491/miradjinn/

 

[AutumnPlunkett]

I took a look at your book and it seems you have some issues regarding when you post. You didn't post in April and May at all while February only saw you posting once. You need to write a lot more and try to maintain a consistent posting schedule. I understand that real life can get in the way at times, but there are ways to work around that. Lets say you want to post one chapter each week (really the minimum most readers will accept), then you will want to write two chapters, or more, every week that you can write. That will form a backlog over time and then you can just set it up so the chapters will automatically post at a certain day and time so that you don't have to worry about it when you do need to take a week off.

While there are certainly other sites you could try cross-posting to and there are other marketing tactics you could employ, it wouldn't really be effective to do so at this time. Readers are just going to look at your work see that it only has 15 chapters after half a year and think you aren't going to finish your story. That isn't what you want and the only way to fix it is to write more and post more.

 

[Panthers426]

Write something you love and people will come

 

[SailusGebel]

What AutumnPlunkett said. To build an audience you have to be consistent for a long time.

 

[Katsurandom]

Always post in the same days at the same hour. After that?

Well I don't know. I don't get comments that often here to know how to answer it. At best I get one or two per chapter, so if you find the answer so pass it around ;-;

 

[greyblob]

the first chapter (and 2nd) is the most important chapter of any novel. it's the primary hook for any potentional readers. yours is mixture of infodumping and monotonous narration. I was left with no desire to read more.

 

[TsuruI_am_a_bot]

I've been writing for a few months now, trying to publish regularly, but I realise that I'm not getting any comments or feedback on my chapters. I'm open to your advice if you know how to create a sort of community around fiction.

As far as my story is concerned, I'm focusing on an entirely created world with its own power system and a development that works for each character. We follow the story of Zayn, a young boy travelling the world to free it from the shackles of destruction. The story is called Miradjinn and here's the link: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1007491/miradjinn/

the first chapter (and 2nd) is the most important chapter of any novel. it's the primary hook for any potentional readers. yours is mixture of infodumping and monotonous narration. I was left with no desire to read more.

^THIS

1) Cover
2) Summary
70% of potential readers will decide to read or not
Its the bait

3) The first 3 chaps
Is the quality of your hook

Yes its like fishing.


Basically...................
Fine, tired to spam a lot of words, i will say the ultimate TRUTH OF WRITING.


WRITING NOVEL = LIKE DRAWING JP DRAWINGS

SMut = win
Often drawing = win
quality = win
originality = win
theme popular (like hololive) = win

THAT SIMPLE

 

[Xcalibur_Xc]

I've been writing for a few months now, trying to publish regularly, but I realise that I'm not getting any comments or feedback on my chapters. I'm open to your advice if you know how to create a sort of community around fiction.

As far as my story is concerned, I'm focusing on an entirely created world with its own power system and a development that works for each character. We follow the story of Zayn, a young boy travelling the world to free it from the shackles of destruction. The story is called Miradjinn and here's the link: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1007491/miradjinn/

It's simple because the readers aren't interested in reading your chatgpt copy-paste story or maybe another AI. But it's ai written and readers knows. The first chapter, yup. I too gave up. I don't know about the rest. If you are putting up something, at least do bare minium effort to edit the chapters. There you have it, the answer to all your questions.

 

[melchi]

the first chapter (and 2nd) is the most important chapter of any novel. it's the primary hook for any potential readers. yours is mixture of infodumping and monotonous narration. I was left with no desire to read more.

I agree, 25 instance of "was" average chapter size of 1,900 words 7 instances of "is"

This gives two red flags.

1.) Infodump / narration like grey blob said, this the biggest mistake a writer can make in a first chapter.
2.) Inconsistent tense "was" / "is" There is a mixture of present and past tense. Pick one and stick with it. Not doing so gives the message that quality is not a priority. That is an easy fix, not doing it sends a strong message and it isn't a good one.

 

[reigeko]

C'est simple parce que les lecteurs ne sont pas intéressés à lire votre histoire de copier-coller chatgpt ou peut-être une autre IA. Mais c’est écrit par moi et les lecteurs le savent. Le premier chapitre, ouais. Moi aussi j'ai abandonné. Je ne sais pas pour le reste. Si vous publiez quelque chose, faites au moins un minimum d'effort pour éditer les chapitres. Et voilà, la réponse à toutes vos questions.

I don't use the gpt chat to write the storyI don't use the gpt chat to write the story

 

[xuduxixi]

Just follow what the people above me said and you'll do good. SH readers are lenient to new works, I can attest that as someone who posted 19 chapters of work in webnovel and 40+ total chapters in Royalroad all with no single comment at all.

 

[AmeronWerschrux]

Just follow what the people above me said and you'll do good. SH readers are lenient to new works, I can attest that as someone who posted 19 chapters of work in webnovel and 40+ total chapters in Royalroad all with no single comment at all.

It sucks when you don't know if your readers love your work or not no? I'm really glad Scribblehub has active readers, at least, in my case. Because finally, I can feel that I have an audience

 

[reigeko]

Thanks for your feedback, I'm going to rework my first chapters to immerse the reader in the world straight away rather than going too slowly.

 

[AutumnPlunkett]

I've found ScribbleHub to be harder for you to build an audience in the thousands for, so I wouldn't actually say it's better than RoyalRoad in terms of interaction. The big thing is maybe 1% of readers, or less, are the type to comment. Doesn't matter which site you're talking about, it's just a universal way of being. Even options like voting on chapters or other forms of passive engagement don't see a large portion of readers engaging in it, but commenting requires more effort while being more likely to break immersion. People just want to binge stories for free without thinking about it.

 

[Keene]

It sucks when you don't know if your readers love your work or not no? I'm really glad Scribblehub has active readers, at least, in my case. Because finally, I can feel that I have an audience

I don't have any experience of other audiences on any other sites, but I've seen it commonly said here from many authors that ScribbleHub has one of the best reader communities in terms of engagement.

Edit: And the person above me is saying the exact opposite

 

[SailusGebel]

I've found ScribbleHub to be harder for you to build an audience in the thousands for, so I wouldn't actually say it's better than RoyalRoad in terms of interaction.

ScribbleHub is smaller. This is a fact. However, where you will have more interactions depends on your luck. I got significantly more interaction here. And I'm not alone. Meanwhile you or J_chemist do a lot better on RR. It's not ever necesserily genres fault. There are Smut stories here that don't have any comments at all, there are some that get a lot. It really depends on luck, and I guess how entertaining your work is. So it is better to crosspost.

And I agree with the rest.

 

[AutumnPlunkett]

ScribbleHub is smaller. This is a fact. However, where you will have more interactions depends on your luck. I got significantly more interaction here. And I'm not alone. Meanwhile you or J_chemist do a lot better on RR. It's not ever necesserily genres fault. There are Smut stories here that don't have any comments at all, there are some that get a lot. It really depends on luck, and I guess how entertaining your work is. So it is better to crosspost.

And I agree with the rest.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say RoyalRoad is for everyone. I've found Inkitt to be the best for romance novels in terms of audience and RoyalRoad better for my dungeon stories. Genre certainly doesn't determine everything as the work still has to well written, have an intriguing concept, etc.

 

[TravelingDreamer]

I've been writing for a few months now, trying to publish regularly, but I realise that I'm not getting any comments or feedback on my chapters. I'm open to your advice if you know how to create a sort of community around fiction.

As far as my story is concerned, I'm focusing on an entirely created world with its own power system and a development that works for each character. We follow the story of Zayn, a young boy travelling the world to free it from the shackles of destruction. The story is called Miradjinn and here's the link: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1007491/miradjinn/

I can tell you from experience that the only way to progress is to write, write, and write.
I have over 4,100 followers on Royal Road, and now I'm starting on Scribble Hub.
Since posting the first chapter on June 14, I've seen significant growth with 2K views, 41 favorites, and 36 readers. While it's a modest start compared to Royal Road, I'm steadily building my audience.
How?
I keep on posting almost every day.
If you put in the effort, you get the rewards. They don't fall down from the sky on your head. You need to invest the effort and do the work.

 

[reigeko]

If you agree, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the first chapter once I've edited it to see if the story is more interesting at the beginning or not.

 

[AutumnPlunkett]

Strange choice to reply in French to someone calling your writing AI generated and then expect a response... You can clearly use English one way or another since the initial post is in English.