How to reach a wider audience on scribblehub?

[JM_Webb]

I am trying to reacha wider audience on scribblehub with a story I am writing, and it's a little frustrating that I just cannot (for whatever reason) seem to get clicks.

What can I do to get people to actually click the damn story?

story, for reference: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/314639/drinker-of-the-yew-a-necromancers-tale/

Do I need a picture of an anime girl or something??! Gah.

 

[TastyCake]

As harsh as it may sound, the viewer on this platform has a certain type of taste.
Mainly Isekai, GenderBender, Traps, Smut and Ecchi.
Anything other than those will have a harder time reaching a wide audience, you will need to spend a lot more effort to reach what those tags can do.

10 chapters of your story might achieve the result of a single chapter of the story with those tags.
Other than that, a flashy title and cover are also of the utmost importance.

But don't let my word stop you from continue writing what you prefer to write, as long as you enjoy it and is willing to put all effort into it, you will eventually be able to reach out to the reader on this platform, time is your weapon here.

 

[SailusGebel]

You need to cater to the audience. Plain and simple. No matter what people would tell you, light and web novels are easier to read than published works. It's more of unserious books, some might even name it b-tier. And most people look for that b-tier novels when they hear light novels. Hidden gem kind of novels aren't popular cause readerbase isn't looking for those hidden gems. If you are trying to promote an overly serious book amidst the people who look for smut, Girls Love, Gender-Bender, and so on, you are doing it wrong. Go to RoyalRoad or some other site.

 

[JM_Webb]

You need to cater to the audience. Plain and simple. No matter what people would tell you, light and web novels are easier to read than published works. It's more of unserious books, some might even name it b-tier. And most people look for that b-tier novels when they hear light novels. Hidden gem kind of novels aren't popular cause readerbase isn't looking for those hidden gems. If you are trying to promote an overly serious book amidst the people who look for smut, Girls Love, Gender-Bender, and so on, you are doing it wrong. Go to RoyalRoad or some other site.

ah yes, Royal Road, the place where if it's not male power fantasy expect about 1 reader.

I just want some amount of reader engagement for what I am writing. I just feel like I'm yelling into the fucking void because I don't write fuckign smut.

 

[SailusGebel]

ah yes, Royal Road, the place where if it's not male power fantasy expect about 1 reader.

Honestly, I never looked into it as much. A user from the forum with the nickname Discount_Blade mentioned that it's good, and the quality of works over there is way better. I see no reason not to believe him. Why not try it? There is as well way less smut on the royal road. -1 genre you need to compete with.

 

[JM_Webb]

Honestly, I never looked into it as much. A user from the forum with the nickname Discount_Blade mentioned that it's good, and the quality of works over there is way better. I see no reason not to believe him. Why not try it? There is as well way less smut on the royal road. -1 genre you need to compete with.

Also I am already on there, it's the same struggle.

 

[longer]

I've skimmed through your book and unfortunately it's just not something quite suited towards SH. Your writing is clearly a cut above a lot of works here to say the least. However, most of the successful works posted here are smut, GL, gender benders, and harems; something that I also partake in.

I'm also unsure whether Royal Road cares that much about male power fantasy. Although a number of successful stories on the site do fall under that category, I've seen works outside of that receive warm welcomes as well. Personally, I think Royal Road is far more attracted to LitRpgs than anything else. Only other issue is how little time you get to be on the front page of Royal Road after just posting.

 

[Discount_Blade]

ah yes, Royal Road, the place where if it's not male power fantasy expect about 1 reader.

The fact that you say this is exactly why I don't believe you have any clue of what you're talking about. Its clearly something else genre-wise you're lacking because there are fan favorites on RR that have majority female casts, and others about zombie outbreaks and this is off the top of my head. I mean one story's MC is a damned chicken. I don't like the story and nearly hate it in fact, but it's explosive in popularity. Still....Zombie outbreaks!! That hasn't been a thing in fiction for several years and yet there it is.

 

[SailusGebel]

Also I am already on there, it's the same struggle.

Then, there is no way other than catering to the masses.

 

[JM_Webb]

I've skimmed through your book and unfortunately it's just not something quite suited towards SH. Your writing is clearly a cut above a lot of works here to say the least. However, most of the successful works posted here are smut, GL, gender benders, and harems; something that I also partake in.

I'm also unsure whether Royal Road cares that much about male power fantasy. Although a number of successful stories on the site do fall under that category, I've seen works outside of that receive warm welcomes as well. Personally, I think Royal Road is far more attracted to LitRpgs than anything else. Only other issue is how little time you get to be on the front page of Royal Road after just posting.

Most succesful authors post at least once a day on that site to maximize frontpage time. I literally cannot write this book at that pace.

 

[tridetect]

isekai, unironically

 

[longer]

Most succesful authors post at least once a day on that site to maximize frontpage time. I literally cannot write this book at that pace.

A lot of those authors have backlogs which they use to maintain a chapter a day pace for a period of time.

 

[SailusGebel]

Most succesful authors post at least once a day on that site to maximize frontpage time. I literally cannot write this book at that pace.

Then don't write a web novel. Write it like Japanese light novels. Write the whole volume\arc mass release the chapters from this volume\arc, and take a break. Rinse and repeat. You can't expect writing a not-so-popular combination of genres, doing sporadic releases yet gaining readers. This isn't how it works. My advice is to write in bulk and release already written chapters once every two days, or something like this.

 

[SilvCrimBlac]

Then don't write a web novel. Write it like Japanese light novels. Write the whole volume\arc mass release the chapters from this volume\arc, and take a break. Rinse and repeat. You can't expect writing a not-so-popular combination of genres, doing sporadic releases yet gaining readers. This isn't how it works. My advice is to write in bulk and release already written chapters once every two days, or something like this.

This is the kind of advice I should be taking.

The fact that you say this is exactly why I don't believe you have any clue of what you're talking about. Its clearly something else genre-wise you're lacking because there are fan favorites on RR that have majority female casts, and others about zombie outbreaks and this is off the top of my head. I mean one story's MC is a damned chicken. I don't like the story and nearly hate it in fact, but it's explosive in popularity. Still....Zombie outbreaks!! That hasn't been a thing in fiction for several years and yet there it is.

the zombie one....you are definitely talking about Dont Feed The Dark right?
......Religious fervor ends another great story prematurely.

 

[JM_Webb]

Then don't write a web novel. Write it like Japanese light novels. Write the whole volume\arc mass release the chapters from this volume\arc, and take a break. Rinse and repeat. You can't expect writing a not-so-popular combination of genres, doing sporadic releases yet gaining readers. This isn't how it works. My advice is to write in bulk and release already written chapters once every two days, or something like this.

yes, because a maintained weekly schedule is clearly sporadic.

Edit: sorry for the sass, I'm also using this thread to vent.

 

[SailusGebel]

This is the kind of advice I should be taking.

This is the kind of advice I, myself, should be taking. Yet instead of writing, I'm procrastinating and sitting here on forums.

yes, because a maintained weekly schedule is clearly sporadic.

Edit: sorry for the sass, I'm also using this thread to vent.

Nah, the thing is, I'm right, and you are wrong. Simply check the release dates of your chapters. 6,6,7,9,9,13,16,20,23,28. Perhaps this is some secret type of schedule? Like releasing a chapter according to the Fibonacci sequence or something like this? I don't know. One of the problems that I can see here from the get-go is releasing two chapters on the same day. Instead of releasing one chapter every two days, look at what you did. You might think that releasing two chapters in one day is better, but it's not. At least I haven't noticed it. And even if this helps, you haven't build up enough of a stockpile of chapters to allow yourself such a luxury. And lastly. People who read web novels like stability. They don't care what happens to you. They want stability, and you, as an author, want to capitalize on this very fact. You want to make those readers develop a habit to check your work. But, it's how I see this situation, and I'm obviously can be wrong here. You can wait for more experienced ones to enlighten you. As well as show me, and you, how I was wrong. I've got no qualms with this as I'm eager to learn(this isn't sarcasm btw).

 

[Snusmumriken]

The issue of writing books is that they have inherently different pacing from web novels. Books take time to set up the plot so to speak while web novels hit the ground running and try to keep some feeling of progress or readers satisfaction. Plots are resolved quicker and there is a bit less nuance as the story and the characters are presented in much more straightforward action.

A lot of the audience here (and many other sites that cater to daily/weekly releases) are used to these styles of stories. And for a reason. Books are okay with a slower pace because they are sold as one finished story. Once you got it you know that at least this part is already complete. A lot of web novels tend to be abandoned, so readers are wary to invest their time (even subconsciously) on something that requires a lot more effort to understand and, most importantly, to keep in memory until the next update.

I speak from my own example here - despite having a few popular tags in my story I suffered a rather slow start compared to other stories that started alongside me. Exactly because I was writing book-style prose. And despite posting large chapters daily due to accumulated backlog. I've started gaining more and more people after I got my first reviews, which pretty much told others "hey you should check it out - despite being slow its decent"

If you want to be popular on a web novel site - you kinda have to write web novels. Or write one to establish yourself, gain popularity and then use it to propel your more "serious" works.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

I am trying to reacha wider audience on scribblehub with a story I am writing, and it's a little frustrating that I just cannot (for whatever reason) seem to get clicks.

What can I do to get people to actually click the damn story?

story, for reference: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/314639/drinker-of-the-yew-a-necromancers-tale/

Do I need a picture of an anime girl or something??! Gah.

Put Wiz from Konosuba on the cover, for one, and you'll get your clicks

You wont get anywhere without a sexy cover.

 

[JM_Webb]

This is the kind of advice I, myself, should be taking. Yet instead of writing, I'm procrastinating and sitting here on forums.

Nah, the thing is, I'm right, and you are wrong. Simply check the release dates of your chapters. 6,6,7,9,9,13,16,20,23,28. Perhaps this is some secret type of schedule? Like releasing a chapter according to the Fibonacci sequence or something like this? I don't know. One of the problems that I can see here from the get-go is releasing two chapters on the same day. Instead of releasing one chapter every two days, look at what you did. You might think that releasing two chapters in one day is better, but it's not. At least I haven't noticed it. And even if this helps, you haven't build up enough of a stockpile of chapters to allow yourself such a luxury. And lastly. People who read web novels like stability. They don't care what happens to you. They want stability, and you, as an author, want to capitalize on this very fact. You want to make those readers develop a habit to check your work. But, it's how I see this situation, and I'm obviously can be wrong here. You can wait for more experienced ones to enlighten you. As well as show me, and you, how I was wrong. I've got no qualms with this as I'm eager to learn(this isn't sarcasm btw).

I literally state my release date is tuesday and friday after releasing 5 chapters in a row (and realized I could not keep the pace). I literally state this in my story description.

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

If you are not writing an op mc with the harem or an ecchi story, you won't be gaining a big audience at the start. This isn't about scribble or royal road though. Most people like to consume these types of stories. Just look at all the harem mangas or fan service animes coming out every year.

But who knows some of the biggest web novels are also the stories that are not dependent on these tags. So, keep writing, try new platforms, try to update daily, join groups, interact with people on forums, and do not forget to drink enough water every day.