How do you publicise completed books?

[AziaElga]

Hello! So yes, I’ve been on SH a while but I haven’t had time to look around so I still consider myself a big noob here xD based on my very limited experience, I realize that I’ve only ever succeeded in gaining exposure whenever I update something. So I was wondering what do people do to gain exposure for a book that is completed and thus have no more updates? (E.g. adding a bonus chapter once in a while? Posting somewhere to advertise?)

To make my question more specific, last year summer, I posted my sci-fi novella. The book is really short and it’s completed within 1-2 months of posting. All the views I got are from those two months of posting, and it’s been a long time since anybody chanced upon my books afterwards. Just wondering if there’s anything more I could do…

 

[Reborn_Cat]

Don't know if people do it here but on syosetu the are many authors who write extra chapters to already finished stories kinda like an epilogue. For eg if a story if a romance story is finished they post some chapters related to the couples married life of stuff like that, not important to the story itself but just fun to read

 

[Ellen_Dunkel]

Maybe you could make an entry at webfictionguide

Have you considered uploading to different websites? Particularly royal road

 

[HappyVainGlory]

Hello! So yes, I’ve been on SH a while but I haven’t had time to look around so I still consider myself a big noob here xD based on my very limited experience, I realize that I’ve only ever succeeded in gaining exposure whenever I update something. So I was wondering what do people do to gain exposure for a book that is completed and thus have no more updates? (E.g. adding a bonus chapter once in a while? Posting somewhere to advertise?)

To make my question more specific, last year summer, I posted my sci-fi novella. The book is really short and it’s completed within 1-2 months of posting. All the views I got are from those two months of posting, and it’s been a long time since anybody chanced upon my books afterwards. Just wondering if there’s anything more I could do…

Best way would probably be to start another story and subtly reference the other story every now and then. That, or shamelessly plug it wherever you go.

Not really much else you can do otherwise than pray it pops up somewhere somehow.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Hello! So yes, I’ve been on SH a while but I haven’t had time to look around so I still consider myself a big noob here xD based on my very limited experience, I realize that I’ve only ever succeeded in gaining exposure whenever I update something. So I was wondering what do people do to gain exposure for a book that is completed and thus have no more updates? (E.g. adding a bonus chapter once in a while? Posting somewhere to advertise?)

To make my question more specific, last year summer, I posted my sci-fi novella. The book is really short and it’s completed within 1-2 months of posting. All the views I got are from those two months of posting, and it’s been a long time since anybody chanced upon my books afterwards. Just wondering if there’s anything more I could do…

spam links to the novel everywhere you go. In every novel you read, in every porn video you fap to. POST THAT LINK.

 

[AziaElga]

spam links to the novel everywhere you go. In every novel you read, in every porn video you fap to. POST THAT LINK.

I—

I feel weird advertising. Feels like I’m bothering people lol

Best way would probably be to start another story and subtly reference the other story every now and then. That, or shamelessly plug it wherever you go.

Not really much else you can do otherwise than pray it pops up somewhere somehow.

That’s a good idea I guess. I’ll plug my completed story in my ongoing one…. The sad thing is I write different genres so I don’t know how that’s gonna go.

Don't know if people do it here but on syosetu the are many authors who write extra chapters to already finished stories kinda like an epilogue. For eg if a story if a romance story is finished they post some chapters related to the couples married life of stuff like that, not important to the story itself but just fun to read

I’ve thought about doing this but there’s a limit to how much content I can generate for a story I’ve deemed completed xD whelp

 

[AliceShiki]

Is there a point in advertising your completed novel?

If you wanna re-publish it as an e-book, then you can just work on the e-book advertising.

If you wanna earn from Patreon, it's best to advertise an ongoing novel instead, as the readers can pay to read chapters ahead.

I don't see much point in advertising your old novel. Just leave it be. It did its job.

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

Don't ever finish anything. Leave the possibility for more story, and just add onto it whenever you feel like! But, more seriously, just write other stuff, and if people like your ongoing stories enough, they'll check if there's more content from you. I presume.

 

[RavenWolf]

Translate it to Japanese and publish it syosetu. There you will get totally different audience.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Carefully

 

[Southdog]

Be active on the forums and have a link in your signature to your stories.

Shameless plug, look below. I usually discuss stuff on here and the views on my stories tend to tick upwards. The fewer clicks to get people reading your work, the better