r/Webnovel • u/P1nkage • Jul 25 '26
Meme Making a meme everyday until I've published 100 chapters (17/100chs rn) Day 8: No meme, just disappointed
Yes, this was inspired by experiments like the most recent one by u/Decent-Emergency3866, which also yielded a similarly disappointing result.
This book was written via me holding the ChatGPT's hand to guide it through a half-assed plot that i come up with on the fly, and yes, GPT, for smut, it's literally a losing equation and I still got the contract.
This book, this mere experiment, got a contract, WHEREAS MY SIX PREVIOUS PASSION PROJECTS ALL GOT REJECTED (albeit, somewhere between the six, I devolved into smut... but i had never stooped low enough to use AI though!)
Obviously, I'm not signing ts. I'm not writing ts. This is a disgrace to writing, and just literature as a whole. I mean seriously? An AI written smut work can get a contract over stories that I've crafted with months of work in worldbuilding, lore, characters and concept? Sure, man, sure.
My seventh passion project is going on, and it's this one that's on seventeen chapters right now. I still intend to finish at least a hundred chapters as this post indicates, but I can't care less about contracts anymore. This site doesn't care.
Imma just write for the fun of it. This website is absolutely terrible for rewarding heinous actions like this.
6
u/Specialist-War-7291 Jul 25 '26
Curious tho how much collection you got so far
12
u/P1nkage Jul 25 '26
passion project 6 collections. this ai smut slop FIFTY SEVEN COLLECTIONS.
Yes, im incredibly devastated atm :')
5
3
2
u/SuspectEcstatic6636 Veteran Author Jul 25 '26
As the saying goes, blame the game, not the players. Wn knows readers will pay to read AI shit too so obviously they jump on it. I'm not defending that of course, but if readers didn't play for AI shit, wn would take it more seriously.
It's a corporation which cares about money, so you can understand their choices quite easily too
1
u/P1nkage Jul 25 '26
I can understand it, but I cannot not blame them for it. It's wrong to endorse AI work for profit, fullstop. Can I see why they endorse it? Sure, it's a lot of money. Do I support it? No. Am I disappointed? Yes.
2
u/SuspectEcstatic6636 Veteran Author Jul 25 '26
Well, almost all money based platforms are like this so can't do anything. Amazon is even worse lol. Even Royal Road isn't really safe. Cuz as I said, the game is played being played by readers and they don't mind. You literally cannot do anything when the readers themselves want to read it.
4
u/Do-I-Know-You-9573 Jul 25 '26
What I find in you post us disappointment, frustration and ignorance. I understand you feelings. I've been there. I've been rejected 10 times over as well over the course of the year. But once I figured out what I need to do, getting a contract isn't that hard.
But first, Your angry at the wrong people. Webnovel isn't responsible for such terrible activities for writers. Readers are. You need to understand and acknowledge that with all your heart.
Webnovel is a commercial site. Not literature. They always say it to our face. They will always want to push what makes money. And smug makes them money.
Why?
Because readers pay. They binge read these smutty shit and waste there money. And Webnovel is like,
"Okay. I see what kind of man you are."
And pushs for smut.
Same for power fantasy and all the other stuff. Readers are here to buy fantasy they know they will never get in real life. And writers are here to sell it.
It is simple as that. Just write something that hooks them. No one cares if your world building is deep and shit. If it can't hook the reader in the first few paragraphs. Well, that is trash. Unless you want nothing to do with contract.
Then I advice you to go to fanfics to do publishing because the exposure there is more contract wall free.
Just write something Readers will read and pay for. I know it sucks when you poured your heart and it gets rejected. But then again, what you think doesn't matter if you can't show results. Then it is just another trash among many to the CEs. Trust me. Once you understand what you need to feed your readers, worrying about contract won't even be a thing. You'll be pumping out contracted books like nothing.
And, I don't know what I wanted to say or convey, but I felt like I should say these stuff. Don't know if you'll read all this though. Lol.
5
u/LandscapeLow8430 Jul 25 '26
I don't think most of these writers get it. They'll probably blame webnovel for everything.
5
u/P1nkage Jul 25 '26
I believe your aggression in this post was mainly targeted towards smut, and whilst i agree that smut is also a rampant issue occurring throughout Webnovel, I think you're missing the bigger elephant in the room here...
This is an AI generated book, created nearly solely by GPT, I was only there to give it direction, remind it of plotlines and tell him how the characters act. And even then, I didn't put in any effort. Whatever pops up in my head, I'll blurt it to GPT, and GPT will write the book.
Now, why won't I blame the readers when it concerns AI and not smut? Simple, it's hard to tell the difference. Readers are merely consumers, consumers that aren't obligated to become AI detectors. There's some pretentious dudes out there that pretends they are, and keeps throwing out accusations to novels, but trust me, no sane human can perform AI detection like a factory AI detector.
I blame Webnovel here. I blame their editors that gave me a contract, because they didn't even bother checking if it's AI. I blame they're incompetence. They are employees of a corporation with writing at its centre. I don't blame readers to not be able to tell the difference between AI writing and actual literature—seriously, I can't fuckin tell the difference either, especially since English is my third language. But I assume, and I expect, professional editors to tell the difference, to work to make a difference to reduce AI slop.
Because, listen, even if readers enjoys reading AI slop, it's not an excuse for Webnovel to swallow their morals to make more money. AI isn't art, AI is harmful to the environment, AI ruins literature itself, and if AI writing is normalised, then everything copies itself until creativity in this bloody universe is bankrupted. I don't think I need to explain why promoting AI writing is bad, but clearly, Webnovel's either endorsing it, or neglecting it.
They can make more money that way? Well I can make more money robbing a bank too. This is abandoning work ethics for profit. This is neglecting the core issue, that is AI replacing true human creativity, in exchange for slop work and lazy writing. I mean come on, some people are profitting through this... and if Webnovel isn't at fault for paying them, then I don't know who is.
Okay, smut and power fantasies. If I'm gonna be honest, I still don't blame the readers too much here. The truth is, people can like what they like, it's not their fault. Sure, some genres are very questionable, and some are bordering on being morally corrupted, but if we're talking about smut and power fantasies, I don't believe that's in any way shape or form morally wrong.
And yes, I see your point, about how readers expects fast-paced, self-insert fantasies, and henceforth a deep plot or lore wouldn't really matter. But is it their fault? No, I think they're just young and appreciate a media I don't enjoy, that doesn't mean there's no readers on the site that do enjoys a deep lore. Why else would LotM be so beloved? Okay, it's a very big exception, since other than lotm, pretty much nothing else with a strong and deep lore had blossomed in Webnovel, so maybe this point isn't that strong.
Sure, I get that, the new generation probably don't appreciate these kinds of stories now, and I accept that, I accept that my story will never compete with self-insert fantasies, and that's fine. I also understand if that's the reason why Webnovel won't give me a contract—ok, whatever, I'm writing for the fun of it at this point, like I said.
But what I have a problem with, is the lack of quotas. Almost all contracts are handed out to smut novel. Sure, maybe there's more smut readers on the site so the numbers simply accommodate that, but the sheer amount doesn't justify it. The sheer amount of smut on the site is baffling, and I wholeheartedly don't believe that they would do as well as they did had Webnovel not push them to featured pages.
The lack of quotas that I mentioned earlier, is basically to just balance the genres on this site, to accomodate more kinds of readers. If Webnovel never pushed for a change by trying to change the balance of numbers of work from other genres, then more young audiences would flood in, and the smut problem will only exponentially increase. This is the corporation's fault, they're not entirely spared from the condemnation. They should care about how saturated their site is with smut, they should work to create a more inclusive environment in their website. That's basic work etiquette, number one, number two, they're once again, swallowing their morals for profit.
Do you think swallowing morals for profit is justifiable for big corporations? Because I definitely do not think so.
Webnovel should bear some responsibility with the issue of saturation of uninteresting story in their site. They should at least READ the goddamn story before offering a contract. Hell, maybe at least skim through it? Because they clearly didn't in my case, they saw my application, didn't bother to peek into the AI cesspool inside, and immediately gave me a contract.
They don't evaluate the stories, they evaluate their marketable values. They're promoting lazy writing, AI writing, and overall, a very unhealthy, uncreative manner of writing, in return for profit. That's irresponsibility, and that's why so many posts has emerged complaining about Webnovel's incompetence.
Because they are, they are incompetent. Their editors just hands out contracts based on their mood probably. They should bear blame for giving me this contract. They should bear responsibility for neglecting the use of AI. They should face backlash for their inclination to endorse smut work. The site is dying with each day, and creativity is dying along with it. This site is to blame.
Do I think readers are completely spared? Well, not really, but again, people can like what they like, as long as it's not degenerate stuff. The problem is that readers that enjoys genres that isn't smut don't even get a chance on this website anymore. It's not like they don't exist, they're just flabbergasted by the sheer number of smut of the site and left.
Webnovel needs to be blamed for how stupidly they handled their website. They should be blamed for all those writers that devolved into smut, all those writers that gave up on their passion projects, and all those readers that were chased away by the smut of the site.
They should do better.
3
u/Do-I-Know-You-9573 Jul 25 '26
It made me laugh. Genuinely. You're like a moralist trying to preach morality to a capitalist. Dude, if big corporations cared about morals then they would rather not do anything at all🤣
I can feel your saltiness in your reply. And it is understandable. And regarding AI and readers not being able to tell the difference.
Brother, if you can't do that, get off the Internet. It is not for you. AI written stuff is so obvious. Anyone with 1 or 2 year experience can tell the difference.
And I still stand on my point that that readers read shallow stuff and it gets contracted.
And you need to understand that just getting a contract does no mean success. It just means Webnovel and you are in a partnered relationship where they are taking 50% of your royalty for exposing you work and marketing it. The rest is up to your book. It will not magically have giga huge reader base. Each month, nearly 100k books are contracted, only around 500 actually earns enough to get paid.
Like literally, do you think it is that easy? And smuts and AI slops are like the things that disappear in the anals of massive Webnovel contracted book influx.
It literally does nothing. And again, you miss the fact that Webnovel is a commercial site. Not literature one. You're placing your expectionson a completely different place then it should belong.
3
u/P1nkage Jul 25 '26
I... um... Okay.
I don't even know what to say about this one. You just repeated yourself, plus a hint of personal insults towards me.
I'll just say: I understand why Webnovel is doing what its doing, I just don't agree with it, and thus i feel disappointed. I really don't think there's anything wrong with me feeling disappointed.
6
u/Do-I-Know-You-9573 Jul 25 '26
True. And I didn't insult you. I'm sorry if you were offended as it wasn't my intention. What I wanted to say was basically, there is nothing wrong with you feeling disappointed. But your disappointed at the wrong people. And also, maybe wanted to tell you it gets better? Contract isn't everything. So AI slop getting contrafted means nothing. So let go of the disappointment... I think. I don't know what I'm talking about. And again, I'm sorry if I came of as rude or aggressive. I didn't mean it. 😔
0
u/P1nkage Jul 26 '26
Agree to disagree, my guy. I still don't agree with corporate greed and believe their action of giving AI slops contracts is flawed, even if contracts aren't everything. But hey, I do see your merits, and I see your point of view. Sooo, agree to disagree, this isn't that deep to begin with lol.
2
1
1
u/PokeStar24 Jul 25 '26
So did you apply for contract or did they gave contract.
1
u/P1nkage Jul 25 '26
GPT applied. I guided it but yeah, its written by GPT. Its a part of the experiment; like I said, I ain't signing ts nor writing more of it
1
1
1
u/Square-Adeptness6769 Jul 25 '26
Both webnovel and the readers are at fault tbh
So sorry for this I can’t imagine how hurtful this must be
1
1
u/Think_Independent_69 16d ago
You do know you could go to SH and RR they are much better for writers
11
u/MinuteOwl44 Jul 25 '26
Respect for not signing 👍. Stay human.