The Idiocy of Webnovel.com

[LynaForge]

Anyone looking for other (and smaller) site for exposure, I'll post a short list of other and smaller sites I know of. I will say your personal experiences with the site will vary so do not complain to me if the site somehow gives you issues. I'm just the messenger. Nothing more.

1) Fictionpress.com (Post specifically in the Manga section. Anywhere else and it's likely dead. The Manga section is the only one that has any reasonable amount of activity. I have found the Adventure and Fantasy areas still get poster, and sometimes the Action area....but so far, Manga has more reoccuring posters while Fantasy, Adventure, and Action...it just depends. Post in Manga section.)

2) Honeyfeed.fm (Honestly don't know much about them. @BenJepheneT would be the better person to ask about this one)

3) Creativenovels.com (I know one guy who posted here once back when he was still writing, @Discount_Blade , he told me there was a queue. Meaning they would post your work, but there was like a waiting list or something. It took his story 4 days to get accepted while someone else Discount knows took a week. I'm not sure if it's still this way seeing as this was 1 and a half years ago, maybe 2?. Hard to tell now. The waiting list thing might be gone now or it might've just been because it was a new site at the time?)

4) Foxteller.com (Initially it looks like a translation site, and about a year ago, it was basically the owner and a group of their own personal friends and a few outsiders that they invited, and so the site was small. I don't know if its gotten any bigger, but I know it accepts originals and it even has a discord channel. Don't know it. I'm sure you can find it yourselves. The owner was pretty eager to get new people in last time I checked so I'm sure she'd love to have anyone at all and would appreciate you guys advertising for her too.)

5) neoread.neovel.io/discover (I'm placing the link because otherwise the site is fairly hard to find so I don't know how large it is, it seems active due to there always being new entries every time I stop by and take a look at it. No idea how it works, I just know that it takes originals. Discover it for yourself.

6) Tapas (I know nothing at all about Tapas except that it apparently was made for webcomic people (I apparently. It's what I heard) but I have known several people who switched over to posting their web novel originals and they seem to enjoy it so if it works for them, maybe it'll work for you to? Again, I have no personal experience with the place, just the word of others who use it and like it.)

7) Moonquill.com (Has a discord. Last time I was there, over a year ago, the interface was clunky and its forums were deader than even the deadest period of RR''s dead forums, though RR's forums are by far more active than they used to be, I do not know if Moonquill has gotten more active or fixed their interface or whatever its called. Anyway, I know quite a few people who post on Moonquill. Don't know how large the site is personally, but it accepts originals and I've heard no complaints about it. Try it out for yourself.)

8) YoungWritersSociety (This one is....different. You can post originals, but the interest here is different from what most here would like, and it requires you to read and review or leave comments on other people's work to gain points, points which you then spend on posting your own work. Basically, it makes you read a fellow writers work and comment in order to post your own.)


I'm sure there are other sites but these are the smaller sites I personally know of besides RoyalRoad, Webnovel, and Scribblehub, which I guess are the Big 3?

There are other sites like Mibba, Getunderlined, and Wattpad, but I personally don't recommend them. They were worse than Webnovel in my opinion, which is impressive in its own way. I hope this help, and I hope it helps these smaller sites grow if they are indeed good places for writers.


Also, I did not make this post to take anything from Scribblehub, so please no PM's. I did this to help people find other avenues to spread their work for extra exposure. Do not make accusations. We are all writers here. Regardless of our personal opinions of one another, we all seek to work our own art right? Let's not forget that.

If I need to make a separate thread for this, let me know.

Is Web Novel legit? Do you know?

 

[SailusGebel]

Is Web Novel legit? Do you know?

It's 'super competitive'.

 

[LynaForge]

It's 'super competitive'.

so in other words, 'give up.'

gotcha.

 

[SilvCrimBlac]

Is Web Novel legit? Do you know?

It does what its designed to do. Be a place to post work. If you want something else from it besides that, I suggest you look elsewhere. That's the simplest way to put it. Accepting the contracts is something I wouldn't do until you research it or even better, speak to a lawyer about it. Very few lawyers I know will actually charge you for asking a simple question like this, though I think this depends on the state or country you live in? Anyway, I would also offer the advice that no matter where you chose to make your main place of operations, that you still post in Webnovel anyway even if you never get invested in the site itself. I'm serious. Do it.

If you don't post there, and you gain some measure of a following somewhere else, than someone else will eventually copy your work and post it in Webnovel, potentially under a different name than your own, whether you like it or not, and there is little you can do to stop them. The site's staff themselves will not help you. They haven't helped anyone else so far. So it's best to beat these poeple to it and post your work there yourself even if Scribblehub becomes your main site of operations.

 

[greyblob]

so in other words, 'give up.'

gotcha.



View attachment 11747

literally post everywhere. you lose nothing. just make sure to never sign anything

 

[SailusGebel]

so in other words, 'give up.'

gotcha.



View attachment 11747

I don't understand why you are so obstinate about not posting on every site, but you do you.

 

[Armorien]

I don't understand why you are so obstinate about not posting on every site, but you do you.

Honestly I can kinda get it. Posting on so many sites can be annoying to manage, and a lot of it could just be spent writing instead

 

[Deeprotsorcerer]

Even if you do expose your story to more people via webnovel, would it be worth it? Are patreon links still a no-no there? If so, you might lose more money than you make if search results go there first.

I released the first chapter of a test project there under my Maromar persona but I dipped because the site was ugly, I don't think you should be able to delete comments and reviews, and the UI physically makes me sick. The fact that they did this:

as if they own my work when I haven't signed a thing over to them makes me sicker than sick. I keep telling myself that I'll go back to finish the story just to see if the platform is worth it, but... I don't know if I actually will.

 

[SilvCrimBlac]

Even if you do expose your story to more people via webnovel, would it be worth it? Are patreon links still a no-no there? If so, you might lose more money than you make if search results go there first.

I released the first chapter of a test project there under my Maromar persona but I dipped because the site was ugly, I don't think you should be able to delete comments and reviews, and the UI physically makes me sick. The fact that they did this:

View attachment 11749
as if they own my work when I haven't signed a thing over to them makes me sicker than sick. I keep telling myself that I'll go back to finish the story just to see if the platform is worth it, but... I don't know if I actually will.

Get boned.

You told me to.

 

[SailusGebel]

Honestly I can kinda get it. Posting on so many sites can be annoying to manage, and a lot of it could just be spent writing instead

Clicking onto a few extra buttons takes you a minute or so.

 

[Deeprotsorcerer]

Get boned.

You told me to.

I did say that, didn't I?

Very well.

 

[Armorien]

Even if you do expose your story to more people via webnovel, would it be worth it? Are patreon links still a no-no there? If so, you might lose more money than you make if search results go there first.

I released the first chapter of a test project there under my Maromar persona but I dipped because the site was ugly, I don't think you should be able to delete comments and reviews, and the UI physically makes me sick. The fact that they did this:

View attachment 11749
as if they own my work when I haven't signed a thing over to them makes me sicker than sick. I keep telling myself that I'll go back to finish the story just to see if the platform is worth it, but... I don't know if I actually will.

I saw one of the top writers there have a link to his patreon in the stories description so ehhh

 

[Deeprotsorcerer]

I saw one of the top writers there have a link to his patreon in the stories description so ehhh

Rules for thee? Or a change in policy?

 

[SailusGebel]

Rules for thee? Or a change in policy?

No. They have so little staff that they can't even control their own rules.

 

[SilvCrimBlac]

No. They have so little staff that they can't even control their own rules.

WN is literally hanging on by just its own weight and size, nothing more.



Also, should I post that link of other sites somewhere else so others can see it? I mean, was it helpful? Or just leave it as is here?

Opinions anyone?

 

[Armorien]

Rules for thee? Or a change in policy?

Pretty much, actually he didn’t do it directly in the description I think cause links also get blocked. But he did not so subtly allude to it through author notes and whatnot

WN is literally hanging on by just its own weight and size, nothing more.



Also, should I post that link of other sites somewhere else so others can see it? I mean, was it helpful? Or just leave it as is here?

Opinions anyone?

It was definitely helpful. I’m sure a lot of people would appreciate it

 

[SailusGebel]

WN is literally hanging on by just its own weight and size, nothing more.



Also, should I post that link of other sites somewhere else so others can see it? I mean, was it helpful? Or just leave it as is here?

Opinions anyone?

It was helpful but leave it as is.

 

[Temple]

I tried posting to Webnovel a long time ago, but that place wasn't for my story. It was still kinda "decent" back then, although their tagging system was already bonkers. I was thinking to try posting there again now that I have more chapters, but I discovered that non-contract stories are just left to die. Maybe the older established non-contract ones can still survive, but new ones without a contract have no visibility.

As for other sites, they all have small audiences I think. I tried moonquill and honeyfeed among those suggested, and it's very quiet out there. I did get a few thousand reads at honeyfeed, but I decided to stop it because of lack of interactivity. Tapas should be huge, but that's their webcomic side. Not sure of their novel side.

 

[Ai-chan]

It does what its designed to do. Be a place to post work. If you want something else from it besides that, I suggest you look elsewhere. That's the simplest way to put it. Accepting the contracts is something I wouldn't do until you research it or even better, speak to a lawyer about it. Very few lawyers I know will actually charge you for asking a simple question like this, though I think this depends on the state or country you live in? Anyway, I would also offer the advice that no matter where you chose to make your main place of operations, that you still post in Webnovel anyway even if you never get invested in the site itself. I'm serious. Do it.

If you don't post there, and you gain some measure of a following somewhere else, than someone else will eventually copy your work and post it in Webnovel, potentially under a different name than your own, whether you like it or not, and there is little you can do to stop them. The site's staff themselves will not help you. They haven't helped anyone else so far. So it's best to beat these poeple to it and post your work there yourself even if Scribblehub becomes your main site of operations.

Can't you just DMCA them? After all, unlike translation, you own the copyright of your story in its entirety. If they would ignore even DMCA, they could risk their website not showing up on google and Ai-chan doubts they'd want to deal with that for just one lousy copyright infringed story. qidian has taken some pretty drastic steps when they went international, Ai-chan don't think webnovel would dare go against DMCA when they're even more international than shitdian.

I don't understand why you are so obstinate about not posting on every site, but you do you.

It would be a pain in the butt when you want to sell your book later. Amazon for example, sometimes do this strange check for copyright infringement on the net for digital books. They would ask if this is you and try to contact you on those website, but if you don't reply on the contact points, your book could get delisted from Amazon until you do reply. If you can't even have access to those stories, you can try contacting them through KDP itself when you realize that your book was delisted. Ai-chan doesn't know how often they did this, but Ai-chan has got this once.

This is not one of those Kindle Exclusive, it's just normal KDP. Kindle exclusive systems were even more troublesome. You have to specifically remove all your free stories, even on Patreon. If you post on a lot of sites, it becomes a really big problem. Especially when you have no access to your account either through forgetting your password, losing your computer (and thus all your saved password) or just site glitches, or maybe you were banned, but your stories are still hosted there.

 

[HappyVainGlory]

so in other words, 'give up.'

gotcha.



View attachment 11747

Pretty much. From what I can see, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle on Mt. Tai to get noticed.

Even if you drop a bunch of chapters every day for a while, it's still hard to get visibility. And from what I can see, even getting editor's choice for new novels isn't that big of a boost.

It's basically P2W but in writing form. If you're lucky or you somehow manage to get a good draw, you can be mildly competitive, but good luck trying to hit with the whales up top.

On the flipside, it's pretty fun to use as a reading app. I like how you can comment on paragraphs and use animated gifs. Very useful to troll the trolls.