How to become a popular author?

[BigBadBoi]

I thought homosexual is gay. I have been wrong this whole time.

Reading yuri smut is the straightest thing a masculine man can possibly read. Reading genderbender yuri smut is gay as fuck.

 

[HappyVainGlory]

Not only how to become one but what causes it to be one, does it matter, and what tags are there other than that?

Causation? The bottom line is good writing, but gearing a story towards trending premises/settings/tropes helps.

Does it matter? If you're trying to monetize or aiming clout, yes. If you're just writing for fun, not at all.

Tags... Oh. If you're talking about the "Famous Author" tag on the profile page, iirc that should be 2000+ collective readers on your stories. I think the other ones are 'Author', 'Rising Author' and 'Well-Known Author', in that order until 'Famous Author'. 'Rising Author' should be 100+ or something and 'Well-Known Author' is 1000+.

They don't really do anything though. Not that I've noticed at least.

 

[PeacefulMyst]

Piracy

 

[Deleted member 57675]

1. Routine update schedule. Update several times a week.

2. Clickbait waifu cover. Or cover that looks like a published physical book's cover.

3. Write in the trending genre of whatever platform you're on. SH: Isekai smut (probably).

4. Never give up, never surrender. Rick roll readers with cliffhangers, keep 'em on their toes.

Never give up writing. Take good advice, throw out the troll or unfit advice.​

​

5. Stop dilly-dallying and procrastinating. Yes, that also means avoiding SHF if you have to too.

 

[doravg]

I watched a Ted talk recently. It was posted by someone in the forums. In it, it was spoken about how our creative talent didn't come from inside, but it is a sort of blessing. That a genie told us what to write, draw and what have you. So, you might want to tell your genie to lend you a hand. Mine makes me write 5k + words every day. Today, I wrote 8,825. Yesterday, I woke up at one am because I got the inspiration for a chapter.

In a sense, being a writer is like having voices in your head. And, as any mental illness, people want to be cured of it. To do so, writers write. Feed the voices in your head by writing every day. Or you will get lost in your own daydreaming. It doesn't matter if you are famous for writing. Just that you give your genie an outlet before it drives you insane.

 

[Amok]

include feet pics with each chapter

 

[lambenttyto]

Not only how to become one but what causes it to be one, does it matter, and what tags are there other than that?

1) Write well
2) Get lucky

 

[RavenRunes]

Write what's fashionable now. Also have some back-up books in different genres so that when the genre you're writing in goes suddenly out of fashion before you've finished your book, you have some ready to go for the next big thing. I suggest Westerns, haven't had any of them for a while, also like YA Westerns. Someone would only ruin it and put a vampire in it though.

 

[ZombieHat]

Cheat, steal, lie

Not only how to become one but what causes it to be one, does it matter, and what tags are there other than that?

You need a mix of writing what you want with your own style and writing what others want, at least if you want to grow fast. Otherwise it's a slow and hard grind to get anywhere big. Just practice with short stories and research writing techniques.
Here's a free class on writing by Brandon Sanderson -

 

[LillyanaKabal]

Step 1: Write a fic
Step 2: Become popular

 

[Ymadthepirate]

Reading yuri smut is the straightest thing a masculine man can possibly read. Reading genderbender yuri smut is gay as fuck.

what the what i mean hes not wrong but still

 

[Kuropon]

Write a LitRPG and put it on RR.

 

[KevinStann]

This may be a little hypocritical of me, coming from a smut author, but write what you want and write it well. If you're looking for quick popularity going for the popular tags (Gender Bender, GL, Smut, etc.) will net you an immediate reader base, but you won't hold it without at least decent writing and an idea of where your story is going. Keep in mind that setting out with the idea of becoming popular rarely ends in a good story, which rarely ends in popularity.

Also, there's a bit of cynicism in this thread that I don't necessarily think is fair. Don't let a bunch of dweebs, me included, tell you what will and won't work.

 

[RavenRunes]

yeah someone once said to me 'write the book of your heart' - she writes extremely long books, with smut, but there's plenty of plot and character development too. I think if you try and write to market you'll get bored quickly. Just sometimes you're slogging away at this book of your heart and then you see something in a bookshop that clearly hasn't even been ran by an editor and it's on their display table with a little READ THIS card and you're like '...!'