Writing Writing Guide Part I: How To Publish Your Own Story

Yorth

Swordman
Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
244
Points
133
First of all, I'm going to preface this guide by saying that it's for new writers. It is mainly about how work your way through Scribblehub's interface with some advice on how to become popular springled here and there. If you are an experienced writer that is familiar with Scribblehub's interface, this might not be the guide for you.

Hello everyone, Shesmu here. This will be the start of a tutorial series for Scribblehub. For this tutorial, we will see how we can write our stories and submit them, which tags to use and which you shouldn’t. In the next guide, I’ll be talking about how to effectively use the in-built Scribblehub text editor, so stay tuned.

First of all, if you’re a new writer, you want to click on the create tab.

1567666274764.png


Add Series.

1567666287985.png


You’re now faced with this page.

1567666313887.png


Here you can choose the cover of your story.

1567666331567.png


It will show a window that would let you look for your image. Just go to wherever you saved your image and click on the file.

1567666354298.png


The recommended size for your picture is 250*350. If your image doesn’t match that size, you might want to crop it. For that, just google image resizer, and you’ll find a bunch of websites that you could use to do your bidding. Play around with those, and get yourself a cool ass cover.

1567666367826.png


Next would be the title. You want your title to grab attention. In most cases, that means it should be short, curt, and packs a punch. One of the best titles I ever thought of was: When I Was Old. Even though the whole story was trash, I still got props from many authors for the unique title. Think long and hard about your title, as it might be the deciding factor for your popularity.

1567666380400.png


Now comes the description. This is the synopsis of your novel. It tells the reader a couple of things. It tells him whether your story matches what he wants at that moment or not, it tells him whether your writing style is something they would enjoy, and most importantly, it tells him whether your grammar is up to par or not. I know that a lot of readers don’t care about grammar as they’re not native, but there is still a non-trivial portion of the reader-base which would mind if you had a typo every two lines. Make sure that your synopsis is clean and represent exactly what your story stands for. Whether it be the themes of your story (nobility, arrogance, god complex) or its tone (dark, light, funny, righteous…), it has to come clear in the synopsis.

1567666458111.png


For the genres, there are many different strategies you could go with. You have up to 9 genres you could choose, so choose them wisely. Many readers just scan through the stories until they find the genre they’re looking for. Whether it be LitRPG, horror or comedy, for many readers, they might check your genres before even looking at your title. Now, there are a couple of things you might want to do. Go to the main page, click on view more for the trending tab, and look around to see what the genres of the most popular books are at the time. You might want to take some inspiration from those *wink* *wink*. Why you might want to do this? It’s because of the similar stories feature. At least, as of me writing this guide, the similar stories feature still exist and work based on two factors: Genres and Tags.

1567666476733.png


Let’s take Karami92’s World Keeper for example. These are the stories featured in its similar stories tab. Believe it or not, this is a promotion. If we compare these stories to ones with similar chapter counts, the difference you’ll see would be noticeable. At least, for my story, Re: Sword Emperor, I noticed a large surge of views once I was put in The Queen’s Hound’s similar stories’ list. So, try playing around with those and choose the tags that are both popular, and descriptive of your novel. Click baiting will most likely result in a report, so please do not use tags that do not reflect your story.

1567666489818.png


For your main genre, I believe that it’s self-explanatory. Just choose the genre which best fit your story and that’s it. As of right now, I do not know whether the main genre has any effect on you being in the similar series’ list. If there is any update, I’ll edit this guide.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Due to my inability to attach more than 10 files (aka 10 screenshots), I will post the rest of the guide in a comment. Sorry for the inconvenience.
 
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Yorth

Swordman
Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
244
Points
133
1567666745792.png


Once you click on the white space, a list of tags should appear. You can choose up to 25 tags. As with genres, your tags would determine which story you’re featured in its similar stories’ list and which one you’re not. So, like before, take go take a look and see which tags are popular. You can find other stories tags by entering their main page, scrolling down the synopsis, and there it is.
Here is an example:

1567666754020.png


As with the genres, please use tags that are reflective of your story as your readers are entitled to a report if you do not.

1567666766318.png


For the copyright section, my friend Sak-chii explains it in great detail in this guide. Please make sure to check it out.

1567666778739.png


If your story contains any of these, you should turn on content warning and specify which one. What falls into what category can be found in the content guideline, just click the link shown in the image above.

1567666789759.png


With that, you’re done. Congratulation, you submitted your first story to Scribblehub! Hurray! Now, all you have to do is write your first chapter, and the game is on! However, the first chapters are to not be underestimated. They’re what hooks the reader into the story, it tells them whether it would be worth their time or not, so they should be perfect. And what better way to make a perfect chapter than to fully use all the tools at your disposal? In the next guide, we’ll be talking about Scribblehub’s in-built text editor, and the myriads of features it has. Stay tuned!
 
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YuriDoggo

Angery Doggo >ᴗ<
Joined
Mar 23, 2019
Messages
729
Points
133
This is a weird guide with a lot of problems, mostly with the order that you present information.
  • The title tends to be on the cover, yet you have cover upload before the title. Does not apply in all cases, of course.
  • Choices on tags and genres SHOULD NOT be based on what's popular, but on what is accurate. Sure, it might get you views, but ultimately it is an inaccurate representation of your story. By the time you get to the step of choosing tags, you should have already have all the tags set in stone because you have already written the story, or at least have the story in mind.
  • Writing your first chapter after you have set everything up seems to be counter-intuitive at best.
In the end, this seems less like a writing guide and more like a guide to Scribblehub's interface.
 

Yorth

Swordman
Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
244
Points
133
This is a weird guide with a lot of problems, mostly with the order that you present information.
  • The title tends to be on the cover, yet you have cover upload before the title. Does not apply in all cases, of course.
  • Choices on tags and genres SHOULD NOT be based on what's popular, but on what is accurate. Sure, it might get you views, but ultimately it is an inaccurate representation of your story. By the time you get to the step of choosing tags, you should have already have all the tags set in stone because you have already written the story, or at least have the story in mind.
  • Writing your first chapter after you have set everything up seems to be counter-intuitive at best.
In the end, this seems less like a writing guide and more like a guide to Scribblehub's interface.
Thanks, axiom for the great feedback. I took what you said into account and made some much-needed changes.
 

NotaNuffian

This does spark joy.
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
3,626
Points
183
Hi, apologies if I am asking this in the wrong place, from what I can tell, the author is supposed to select the genres and tags BEFORE posting their stories, is it possible to change the genres and tags once I have already created the story? Many thanks.
 

sak-chii

Professional Procrastinator (Writer)
Joined
Mar 16, 2019
Messages
112
Points
68
Hi, apologies if I am asking this in the wrong place, from what I can tell, the author is supposed to select the genres and tags BEFORE posting their stories, is it possible to change the genres and tags once I have already created the story? Many thanks.


You can change the tags and genre after you publish also.
 

LiquidCeil

Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2020
Messages
19
Points
13
About the image size thing, I made the ratio of my cover to conform, but the size is bigger. I noticed that the picture is still low-rez, even though it is within the file-size limit (barely). Will resizing the pixels down to 250/350 help, or is my cover doomed to be slightly blurry?
 

Goswick

Drunken Australian
Joined
May 21, 2020
Messages
103
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83
About the image size thing, I made the ratio of my cover to conform, but the size is bigger. I noticed that the picture is still low-rez, even though it is within the file-size limit (barely). Will resizing the pixels down to 250/350 help, or is my cover doomed to be slightly blurry?
I tend to scale my covers down to 250x350 and they come out alright. Since I'm on RoyalRoad as well, where they have 400x600 covers, I usually just scale and crop a little to make them fit, and I haven't seen any problems with doing that thus far. My actual covers are much bigger than that in their original size, and they don't blur when I upload the cropped version, so I think you might just have to crop it to meet the size requirements.
 

moodyhoodie

New member
Joined
Oct 17, 2020
Messages
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1
I have added a series. But when I look at the latest series section, my novel is not there to be found. Did i miss anything ?
 

sak-chii

Professional Procrastinator (Writer)
Joined
Mar 16, 2019
Messages
112
Points
68
I have added a series. But when I look at the latest series section, my novel is not there to be found. Did i miss anything ?

Has the series been accepted? If it's just new, wait for 24 hours for the admin to accept it. It'll take a while.
 
D

Deleted member 45782

Guest
Linked your tutorial thread to WelcomeToSH. Helpful for newcomers. Thanks! ;D

Also, fyi (just needed a url to post this snapshot. ). For those asking how come you can't see your story yet.
Story_Needs_Approval.jpg

and covers.
Cover_Needs_Approval.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Dark_Emperor

Active member
Joined
Aug 24, 2021
Messages
2
Points
43
Someone help me! Why I can't find my novel on the site I followed all the instructions... but duh, there's no shit about my novel!!! Need an explanation pls
 

JohnDevalle

New member
Joined
Apr 17, 2022
Messages
1
Points
1
First of all, I'm going to preface this guide by saying that it's for new writers. It is mainly about how work your way through Scribblehub's interface with some advice on how to become popular springled here and there. If you are an experienced writer that is familiar with Scribblehub's interface, this might not be the guide for you.

Hello everyone, Shesmu here. This will be the start of a tutorial series for Scribblehub. For this tutorial, we will see how we can write our stories and submit them, which tags to use and which you shouldn’t. In the next guide, I’ll be talking about how to effectively use the in-built Scribblehub text editor, so stay tuned.

First of all, if you’re a new writer, you want to click on the create tab.

View attachment 1142

Add Series.

View attachment 1143

You’re now faced with this page.

View attachment 1144

Here you can choose the cover of your story.

View attachment 1145

It will show a window that would let you look for your image. Just go to wherever you saved your image and click on the file.

View attachment 1146

The recommended size for your picture is 250*350. If your image doesn’t match that size, you might want to crop it. For that, just google image resizer, and you’ll find a bunch of websites that you could use to do your bidding. Play around with those, and get yourself a cool ass cover.

View attachment 1147

Next would be the title. You want your title to grab attention. In most cases, that means it should be short, curt, and packs a punch. One of the best titles I ever thought of was: When I Was Old. Even though the whole story was trash, I still got props from many authors for the unique title. Think long and hard about your title, as it might be the deciding factor for your popularity.

View attachment 1148

Now comes the description. This is the synopsis of your novel. It tells the reader a couple of things. It tells him whether your story matches what he wants at that moment or not, it tells him whether your writing style is something they would enjoy, and most importantly, it tells him whether your grammar is up to par or not. I know that a lot of readers don’t care about grammar as they’re not native, but there is still a non-trivial portion of the reader-base which would mind if you had a typo every two lines. Make sure that your synopsis is clean and represent exactly what your story stands for. Whether it be the themes of your story (nobility, arrogance, god complex) or its tone (dark, light, funny, righteous…), it has to come clear in the synopsis.

View attachment 1149

For the genres, there are many different strategies you could go with. You have up to 9 genres you could choose, so choose them wisely. Many readers just scan through the stories until they find the genre they’re looking for. Whether it be LitRPG, horror or comedy, for many readers, they might check your genres before even looking at your title. Now, there are a couple of things you might want to do. Go to the main page, click on view more for the trending tab, and look around to see what the genres of the most popular books are at the time. You might want to take some inspiration from those *wink* *wink*. Why you might want to do this? It’s because of the similar stories feature. At least, as of me writing this guide, the similar stories feature still exist and work based on two factors: Genres and Tags.

View attachment 1150

Let’s take Karami92’s World Keeper for example. These are the stories featured in its similar stories tab. Believe it or not, this is a promotion. If we compare these stories to ones with similar chapter counts, the difference you’ll see would be noticeable. At least, for my story, Re: Sword Emperor, I noticed a large surge of views once I was put in The Queen’s Hound’s similar stories’ list. So, try playing around with those and choose the tags that are both popular, and descriptive of your novel. Click baiting will most likely result in a report, so please do not use tags that do not reflect your story.

View attachment 1151

For your main genre, I believe that it’s self-explanatory. Just choose the genre which best fit your story and that’s it. As of right now, I do not know whether the main genre has any effect on you being in the similar series’ list. If there is any update, I’ll edit this guide.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Due to my inability to attach more than 10 files (aka 10 screenshots), I will post the rest of the guide in a comment. Sorry for the inconvenience.
How do you create the table of contents?
 

Shintah02

Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2022
Messages
11
Points
18
Hey y'all, I'm a new author and I don't know how to create a link to my story. It's already been published and all...


Oky, I got it, forget I even asked this stupid question:blob_no:

 
Last edited:

Elveos

New member
Joined
Nov 6, 2022
Messages
5
Points
3
How can we upload photos to our chapters?
When you add and edit a chapter to your novel, there's a row of icons for commands. The image of mountains in a square lets you add images to your novel.
How do you create the table of contents?
I don't really understand what you mean, but when you have followed the instructions and added your story, and click Create you'll be able to see your story. Under that there's the add chapter button which lets you, well add a chapter. When you save or publish it, and refresh SH and click Edit, just click the Table of Contents button next to Details, and you should be able to see it and edit your chapters again.
Someone help me! Why I can't find my novel on the site I followed all the instructions... but duh, there's no shit about my novel!!! Need an explanation pls
Did you already publish a chapter? if not it's only visible via the Create button, in which you can Edit, Add Chapters, and view It's Stats. To publish a chapter, just write up a chapter with Add Chapter button and write your chapter (You can just click save, and continue later on with Edit, then Table of Contents, Clicking the three dots next to your draft), when you're done simply click Publish and it should be posted with your novel appearing on SH
 

draemesaekyr

New member
Joined
Feb 21, 2023
Messages
1
Points
1
I just joined, which means this'll probably go into a queue of some such before getting posted. I just wanted to say that it is the most comprehensive beginner guide for people new to ScribbleHub, if not new to writing. In the last ten or more years of writing, I've discovered that no platforms have the exact upload requirements. I can say that this is the most welcoming place I've come to so far. This is also the only platform allowing images to be added to the chapters written, which is great for me since I like to add pictures to what I've written.
So thank you, and I'll soon begin my writing journey here as well.

Thanks.jpg
 
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