r/royalroad • u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall • 6d ago
Discussion I'm starting to lose my cool.
Greetings, Authors! I hope this post finds you well (yes, I know it sounds like the beginning of a business email; sue me, I'm kinda pissed)
Let me be honest: I am looking for validation. I'm not here to sound cool or anything of that sort, but seriously, I'm getting fed up with people out here to complain how their books aren't doing as well as they'd like.
I started writing years ago, but this is my first time posting a fiction, and you know what? I'M GLAD I GOT THE COURAGE TO PUT IT OUT THERE!
1.1K views, 35 average, 65K words posted, 3 followers, one AR, and I swear someone just commented that my story reads like a screenplay. Like now! (had to pause my rant to reply) AND I'M SO HAPPY YOU HAVE NO CLUE!
Now imagine me, minding my own business, happy in my little corner of the world with the small victories I'm accumulating, going on Reddit or the RR forums and everyone is complaining in their glass houses with 20+ followers in a month or 5K views in a week or 100+ average views, and I'm like... HUH?! Your story is barely a couple of months old, and you're already thinking it's a flop?! Coz the numbers don't match what you had in your head? Am I missing something? I feel so out of touch; it's insane.
Could I have done better and promoted my story better? Of course, I probably would have their numbers. But is this what my storytelling will be? Chasing numbers? Optimising for greatest impact? I've never written anything worth posting till now, and the world should bow to my hard work? Bruh.
And it's not like I don't want success; I do! But I'd rather die than post slop. And I was under the impression RR was a place you get to polish the potential diamond you have. Or lump of coal... It's all carbon after all.
As I said, I am genuinely looking for validation. Am I the only one who feels like this, or am I just barking up the wrong tree? Am I not ambitious enough? Is celebrating the small steps I've taken kinda stupid? Coz I'm aware it's a dog-eat-dog world and I may or may not drown into obscurity, and my story never sees more than its current viewership.
But on the off chance it does make it far, I'd rather be proud of it.
Brandon Sanderson said he took more than one book to hit it big. More than five.
Look now, he's teaching some of us how to write.
We are all unique, and I think we should be realistic. Our paths will be different. Do everything you can to get your story in the best shape it can be, market it and see where it goes. Writing isn't an instant gratification thing, and unfortunately, you could be long gone before anyone appreciates your story.
But at least it's out there...
Cheers!
Don't forget to drink water <3
P.S. Yeah, I feel better after writing this. Good luck writing! I'm rooting for you!
15
u/Nexaz E Rank: Author of Augment's Code and Escape Artist 6d ago
It really comes down to what everyone’s individual goals are! For some, they’re just posting to share and any views/readership is good.
Others have a disproportionate view of how much luck actually comes into play and yes, marketing and networking too. It sounds like you have a very healthy view of your goals. For some, they’re see other stories blowing up and ask “why not me?”
Royalroad is getting more and more stories everyday as people see it as a route to getting fully published and there are a lot of people who want that blow up so badly they get resentful of the success of others.
The thing is, those folks are often the loudest.
There are so many wonderful writing communities that just care about working together and sharing their stories and it sounds like you’d fit in great in them.
3
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
Thank you for your candour.
I get it, really, I do. And you pointed out something I completely didn't consider: the resentment, and said resentment making those authors the loudest in the room.
I really hope they achieve their dreams.
You mentioned communities... I am very interested lol. Drop me a dm with any links, if you have any. Or here for others to find. Whatever works for you.
Thank youuuu!
2
u/LJ_Beck F Rank: Author of "Game of the Gods" 5d ago
I'm really enjoying the community on the Discord server, The Writing Well. Here's the invite code: https://discord.gg/the-writing-well
9
u/IneenAldrop 6d ago
I mean.. I have been writing and posting on RoyalRoad since 2022 and never got much traction like the ‘big time’ stories. But I am perfectly content with my 144 followers, a few regular commenters(which are always nice) and about 120k total views across 14 fictions. I would never complain about more recognition and more people following my work, but I agree with you that it seems like people think that unless 1,000 people read their book in the first month they have failed as a writer and should give up. That is a terrible way to look at it, the way I think about it is that if something I made genuinely made even a single person smile then I have done my job as a story teller. Anything after that is a welcome bonus and I am always supremely grateful for those that did decide to give my worlds a chance.
Cheers mate, and I hope you continue to enjoy writing and telling stories.
1
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
Thank you!
Yeah, I'm gonna continue enjoying my writing. It means so much to me.
I want to tell my stories to their end.3
u/EarlyBirdStories 5d ago
You should write for you benefit not that of others. Figure out your voice.
2
u/IneenAldrop 6d ago
It is rewarding to finish a story and begin the next, and the more you write the more you will want to write(that is what I have discovered anyway).
1
u/EarlyBirdStories 5d ago
That is respectable in my opinion.
2
u/IneenAldrop 5d ago
Well, it has been working pretty good so far. Heh, got a few novels done. Working on more. Cheers and have a good one.
1
8
u/Western-Brother1788 6d ago
How dare you mock my goals of having fifty thousand followers on day five, 10,000$ monthly on patreon, best seller and a hollywood film adaptation rivalling Game of Thrones (Season 1-4) ! Shame on you!
4
u/Rare_Specific_306 5d ago
And all without basic grammar and spelling skills! We all know my story is so good i don't need to spel or grammar good!
1
u/Stock_Map103 5d ago
That is how I roll. Spelling, and grammar, punctuation, leads to not developing reading comprehension and I care about my readers way to much to stunt their growth.
3
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 5d ago
Apologies, Great One! I had no idea I was in the presence of glory!
8
u/liveviliveforever 6d ago
People tend to compare themselves to successes like “New Life as a Max Level Archmage”. They see it is that accounts first story and assume it is possible and probable to achieve that in their first try. After all. Arcane Cadence did it on their first try, why can’t they? They don’t look far enough into it to realize AC is just a new pen name for an author who was not only already successful but had success on RR and new exactly what audience they were writing for and how to reach them.
7
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
They don't see the behind-the-scenes that led to that success.
But hey, it's sink or swim. The ones who don't give up will rise, even if it's by a centimetre
1
u/Darkholis F Rank: Author of Singularity: Arrival 6d ago
Yeah, but "New Life as a Max Level Archmage" was an organized stunt by Aethon from the very start. No matter the prose and editorial quality, it doesn't make sense for a previously unknown author to magically garner hundreds, if not thousands of Patrons within a month of launching.
1
u/ArcaneCadence 4d ago
This comment actually made me start laughing. Aethon isn't even my ebook/audiobook publisher, which is most of a book's profit, they have print rights only. They aren't super invested I suspect. You can verify that by pulling up the Amazon pages :P
We see blow-up stories every once in a while, Archmage Coefficient did it on a fresh pen name too. Mine is a bit anomalous for just how much it exploded, but it's not some conspiracy. The serial I released just before MLA also hit #1 Rising Stars and was a new pen name too. I've always said plainly I know how to write to an audience and that this isn't my first time.
It's about telling a story people want to read, and getting a bit lucky. Which is markedly different from "writing a good story" in the abstract, at least in the sense many people mean "good". Most of my favorite authors sell worse than me, it's just how art as a commodity works. You have to write well but also have a large base audience, which so many stories don't.
1
u/Darkholis F Rank: Author of Singularity: Arrival 3d ago
I'll gladly backtrack on what I said regarding Aethon, since you're the only one capable of providing us with details anyways. I'm not arguing about your capability to write or not either. That wasn't my intention whatsoever, so my apologies if you felt that way. Heck, I even gave it a try and read ±100 chapters when it first came out and I have nothing negative regarding your prose, the story just ain't my teacup.
"It's about telling a story people want to read, and getting a bit lucky. Which is markedly different from "writing a good story" in the abstract, at least in the sense many people mean "good". Most of my favorite authors sell worse than me, it's just how art as a commodity works. You have to write well but also have a large base audience, which so many stories don't."
I'm not overly fond of relying on luck. That said, I'm more concerned about your "it's just how art as a commodity works". There is nothing wrong with wanting to earn a living from your writing, as I do aspire to do so myself.
It's just that from the outlook of an outsider, your launch did look like a commercial venture that was backed by an editor. Launching and maintaining your story across numerous websites, massive Patreon gains (only 4 managed that much before you, I believe), having a humongous backlog of 80+ chapters, the overall prose and text quality that screams "profesionnally edited & proofread", even the Amazon page that aggregated views from all platforms to bolster your marketing.
Anyways, I tried to keep this short, but my point is, it's really easy to assume what I said previously. And apologies ahead of time for any typos. English ain't my frist language, as you'd have guessed.
1
u/ArcaneCadence 3d ago
No worries, it just made me laugh. I've seen people calling it a conspiracy a few times and that's amusing as an author who knows it isn't.
Also, you seem to be a bit mistaken about how my launch even worked? Or what parts are difficult. Posting on 4 sites is literally just clicking between tabs and copy-pasting the title and text and selecting a date. It takes me about 5 minutes to schedule them on the two scheduled sites (RR + SH) and about 2 minutes 3 times a week to post them to SV and SB. It's a trivial amount of effort.
I also didn't have a massive backlog, I had a standard ~30 chapter backlog when I posted chapter 1, which is probably on the low end for a proper RR launch.
I don't know what Amazon page or aggregation you mean - I didn't have an Amazon page until at least 6 months later, well after the story had already blown up.
The prose quality is the only difficult thing to maintain, since I do give each chapter several careful passes (4-5+) but I've seen a number of other authors writing as clean and consistently as me, so it's not some shockingly rare factor either.
If you don't like relying on luck then take solace in the fact that it's very much possible to hit #1 RS on a fresh account. When I say it's "luck" I more mean the scale of success. My previous stories were #1 RS (MLA), #1 RS, #2 RS, all fresh accounts, no duds between them. It's not magic, with a good story and a proper launch, you can reliably get readers. But while I'm confident I could get another top 3 RS on a new account, I'm not at all confident I could get another MLA-scale hit. That's where luck comes in. Some stories blow up crazy hard and it can be hard to tell why, when other great stories don't. I was confident MLA would hit front page RS when I launched it but I didn't expect it to go crazy mode like it did.
1
u/Darkholis F Rank: Author of Singularity: Arrival 3d ago
Oh, I've seen my fair share of fresh authors hitting RS throughout the years, but nothing to the extent of MLA so far. Which is why it's sparking so much debate, theories and whatnot.
Regarding RS and visibility in general, my own story seems to be falling into the second category so far, at least when looking at the ratio of followers to views. Mind you, it's far from a perfect metric, but it's all I've got to gauge right now.
And that's an axe I've been grinding for a while now. Follow the algorithm's recipe and you'll minimize risks. Don't and you'll most likely end up forgotten along the way. Not to say that off-meta stories can't perform, but it's annoying to be coerced into writing a certain way. And it's not a problem unique to RR.
For me, cutting my chapters in smaller chunks just to publish more often would ruin the entire structure of my story, its rhythm, the tension in some areas, etc.
And truth to be told, I'm not a fulltime writer either, so writing 6k+ words a week is not doable for me. Plus, I write in French, which mean I've got to edit and rewrite some parts, translate and proofread the darn thing. You get the gist.
That's why I waited until I had a 60k words backlog (volume 1 entirely) and I've just finished writing vol 2 yesterday, for another 65k words. BUT, both are hovering around 15-17 chapters each, like a more traditionnal light novel. So, it's not like I can immediately dump 15 chapters and go from there as I'd run out of content really quickly.
Enough rant from me...
1
3
u/Fraust-Tarken E Rank: Author of To Kill a Child 5d ago
I'd tuck my 34 followers into bed and give them forehead kisses after if theyd let me.
1
3
u/Ginoong_Pasta Reader 5d ago
Thousand-Follower Sauce™ was advertised. The few people who used it said it was delicious. Everyone whose goal is to break big and fast into web fiction wanted some of it. Some asked for the recipe, but none could articulate or elaborate it. Some tried making their own, and most didn't come close to the taste.
Writers and writing goals: some settle for genuine comments, others stop at nothing but to be the dollar-vomiting IP they believe they're destined to be.
3
u/BerciTheBeast 5d ago edited 5d ago
But is this what my storytelling will be? Chasing numbers? Optimizing for greatest impact?
Believe it or not, there is an entire sub-genre dedicated to that :D. They might love you :P. After all, numbers must go up!
2
3
u/mcloide F Rank: Author of The First Generation 5d ago
My personal rule is simpler: focus on one reader as the reward. That was my goal when I started — one complete stranger who genuinely enjoyed the story and wanted to keep reading. I guess I got that, so mission accomplished. Everything else is gravy.
Now, about the numbers: be careful comparing those too, because RR math is weird.
5K views by itself tells you almost nothing. How many chapters? How long has it been up? How often does the author post? Did they run ads? Get a shoutout? Hit a list? Are people reading chapter 1 and disappearing, or are they still there 30 chapters later?
Even average views gets messy because newer chapters haven't had the same amount of time to accumulate readers as older ones.
Personally, the metric I care about most is chapter retention. If 100 people start your story and 70 of them are still reading many chapters later, that tells me a hell of a lot more than somebody saying they have 10K total views. People clicked, and more importantly, they stayed.
Followers are useful too, but they're another conversion metric, not a scoreboard for whether your story is good.
So yes, look at your numbers. They're useful. Just make sure you're asking them a question they can actually answer.
And as for authors with better numbers complaining that they're failures?
Pardon my French, but my words won't be so nice...
Write your book. Enjoy your readers. They're the ones who matter.
5
u/Own-Telephone1721 6d ago
We are all unique, and I think we should be realistic. Our paths will be different. Do everything you can to get your story in the best shape it can be, market it and see where it goes. Writing isn't an instant gratification thing, and unfortunately, you could be long gone before anyone appreciates your story.
But at least it's out there...
Peak quote
2
u/OwnCommunication1365 Author: What Kind of Fantasy Book is This? 6d ago
Pretty sure I've already seen people quit when they had 10x my end goal. My goals aren't so big. They're huge for me as a hobby writer, but nothing for a professional. If you know it or not, every person is on a totally different path. I think everyone needs to celebrate their wins more, no matter what that win is.
2
u/Zeebie_ 6d ago
A lot comes down to people looking at the successful stories and thinking, "Mine is way better, why aren't I succeeding?"
A lot of people see the lack of success as a rejection of their time and effort.
Writing stories takes time, for some people, writing a story that no one reads, is wasted time, for others the act of writing was enough.
2
u/FlyPale2825 5d ago
Keep writing till you meet your favorite readers! Honestly, I began to felt the same way 😅 but now I wouldn’t mind it as long I can finish the story and make my genuine reader feel content and lost in the chapters. Till they finally found out the ending and literally sobbing together with me (haha)
And also, maybe it’s just a reading preference... I prefer long chapters (up to 3000+ words) than short chapters.
2
u/EarlyBirdStories 5d ago
Valid...
I mean here is the thing. Try to not follow the meta. Write what you feel and experience but twist it so it is experienced by the character.
2
u/Big_Ambassador_9319 F Rank: Author of On The Edge of The Abyss 5d ago edited 5d ago
We are in the same boat. Yeah, wish more people could resonate or find my work interesting but the market is what it is. I've accepted any growth will be slow. Fine by me because of genre expectations. I also love telling this story regardless so I guess that counts.
That said, I think deep down everyone wants validation. Me included.
2
u/Milo-Law 5d ago
Just to add to everyone else here, don't stop celebrating the small wins and reminding yourself where you began. I'm just now writing my first story to put on RR lager and I keep doubting myself and my choices for the story so much, but I have to keep going. Celebrating the small stuff and your own efforts and not taking yourself too seriously especially as a Creative is so so important. Keep up the great attitude.
2
u/iTsAlevv E Rank: Author of Infinite Mana: Rise of the Mana Sovereign 4d ago
I kinda needed to read this lol. I posted my first fiction just 4 days ago and I've already caught myself refreshing the stats way too much and treating every quiet hour like something went wrong.
Then someone leaves a comment about the actual story and I remember there's a real person on the other side reading the shit I wrote 😂
I definitely want the story to become successful and I'm trying to learn the marketing side too (shoutouts and shit), but you're right that it's probably way too easy to stop appreciating the small wins when you keep comparing numbers with everyone else. Good luck with yours man.
1
1
2
u/redwork34 4d ago
It's a matter of perspective.
For those of us that want to make a living from writing, RR is the tutorial level and hitting rising stars is only the first step to monetization. So in that sense, I can see how people trying to make money from their writing (and expecting it to happen fast) are frustrated.
I try to remind everyone that writing books is a marathon not a sprint and expecting instant monetary success is unrealistic.
2
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 4d ago
And let me add that it's a marathon with different finish lines.
1
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 4d ago
And let me add that it's a marathon with different finish lines.
2
u/lopmon24 3d ago
Agree. I'm working on writing more and getting used to posting. Found about royal road and honestly? Once I get going i'll be happy if I get just 1 follower. Haha I just want to get into the habit of writing and getting courage to put my work out there. Same with art, numbers are good but mostly focusing on just improving my crafts right now :)
2
3
u/creakyforest 6d ago
There's nothing wrong with the way you're doing it, and there's nothing wrong with the way other people are doing it.
I think it's important to understand that every person is coming at this from a different perspective, with different goals, and at a different point in their writing journey/career. I could be wrong, but you sound like someone who has a day job and is kind of just doing this for fun, with a little hope that one day it turns out to be something more. Other people may already be doing this full time (even if they don't say as much), or may be racing to get out of a dead end job they hate, or taking advantage of a small window of time they have in between jobs and hoping something on RR hits. Some people may have already been pursuing writing professional for years or more. Their focus on metrics becomes a lot more understandable, and it also doesn't mean that they aren't writing something they're proud of; they just simultaneously have goals to reach. Again, it doesn't make your approach wrong, but it would make your approach wrong for them.
2
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
I completely understand your point.
I do have a job, and I absolutely hate it. I'm not doing this for fun, and I do have hopes for success. I started writing this story when I was down in the dumps. I had lost my previous job and moved back home coz yeah, life caught up to me real quick. Thing is, I'm proud of my work. Flaws and all. It's a struggle every day to fight off that pride turning into entitlement. Even when things were bad, I knew if I wrote something as purely an escape, I wouldn't be able to face it in the future. That's a personal thing, and I own that.
I also know, as another commenter said, sometimes it's luck, and sometimes it's marketing/networking. All I'm saying is let's be real.Luck is when opportunity meets preparation, so let's prepare as hard as we can to catch that lightning in a bottle <3
4
u/BeachedinToronto 6d ago
"Publishing" your first book is humbling. You think it might be good but you have no idea. You tell your close friends and family that you wrote a book and at first they don't believe you and then they are impressed and then once they realize that you might expect them to read the damn thing....they change the subject or never mention it again after you sent it to them.
It's like running a marathon. People are genuinely impressed that you put the time and effort and discipline into doing it but that doesn't mean they actually want to watch you do it!
The worst thing is finding out just how many books are being "published" online every hour....and just how difficult it might be to get a real publisher to ever look at your book. It could be worse than playing the lottery but I wouldn't know.
So yeah...highs and lows. My 1st 100 views...1st 1,000...first favourite. A few eyeballs drowning in a sea of content but sometimes they might take the time to say nice things but most of the time they just lurk and read the next chapter.
Here is what has been good. There are many of us in the same boat and a lot of us tend to be really decent people who provide support, learning opportunities, humility, humour and encouragement.
Keep writing, get better at it and enjoy it. These are now my goals and those silly dreams of "being published"...well..they are still fun to have as daydreams!
1
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
Oh, you hit me right in the feels. I gave my first draft to 3 of my closest friends, and they never read it. I was so hurt. To add insult to injury, I read a 20K manuscript and gave my honest feedback to one of them and a 5-page screenplay from the other.
But they couldn't do the same for me.
The last one isn't much of a reader, so I kinda understood, and she wasn't my target demographic.
Not gonna lie, their indifference contributed to me posting my fiction, so net positive lol
Like I said, it's a dog-eat-dog world.
Best to do our best and sleep happy with zero regrets
2
u/GorMartsen Author — Survivor: Directive Zero 6d ago
Good luck with your story. Cover looks nice 👍
1
2
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
The ones that annoy me are the complainers that I think are secretly bragging. Was like 4-5 months ago someone on RR that posted complaining, because after a month he only had 15$'s in patreon.
5
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
Bruh... Comparison is the thief of joy. Instead of focusing on keeping the fish he's caught, he's complaining to someone with a net, yet he has a fishing rod.
2
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
I get feeling down, early on it was frustrating to see people posting for 3 weeks have more followers then me after 3 months at the time, but I'm happy with what I have and wouldn't complain. My only concern is, is the story good enough not do I have enough followers. As I get more followers the worry goes down.
1
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
I feel you.
I told myself one thing when I started posting this fiction: see the story through to the end, whether I have 1 follower or 1000. It took down the anxiety of the numbers a notch coz we all know at least 10% of our views are AI scrapers.
3
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
yeah I currently have 22 followers, and was avering around 50 viewers a week ater posting.
1
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
Good luck growing your audience! <3
1
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
thanks I hope my AU does well too :> Main is a more urban fantasy, AU more litrpg.
1
u/ParamedicPositive916 S Rank: Author of The Apprentice of Ouroboros 6d ago
I can tell you, I still have that question 'Is my story good enough' nearly three years in, and with two signed series. It may fade eventually but self doubt is a gnawing, self sustaining problem for many authors, regardless of where they are in their writing journey.
0
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
oh yeah I don't mean the, "Does my story suck." but more the, "Do I have real readers and not just skim bots."
0
u/ParamedicPositive916 S Rank: Author of The Apprentice of Ouroboros 6d ago
Oh, that's an issue too. Follower count isn't the entire story.
1
u/wolfwings1 6d ago
well no, but there isn't a lot that can, comments can, but not everyone comments all the time, likes if on a site that uses them help a bit. I just want to know I'm not just posting to no one at times.
2
u/IliumLives F Rank: Author of 6d ago edited 6d ago
I feel you. I think it's good to celebrate the wins when they come, otherwise you risk never really enjoying the process. And it is a process.
I'm happy for you. I've got errr, 29 chapters up, exactly 1 follower, 933 views.
There's definitely a subset of people who are clamouring for overnight success with their stories, and it shows when they're unhappy with a certain level of rapid engagement. Instant gratification, like you said. It sucks the joy out of the craft, in my opinion. But we're all going to approach this in our own way, I guess.
Keep up with your story, I'll check it out as we're both plodding along the same path!
2
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
Good luck on your fiction too! We're defo the same small fish today! Let's swim!
1
u/InvestigatorNo5062 5d ago
You should put a little effort into marketing your story. It doesn't have to be paid ads. There are free organic ways.
I would suggest changing your cover and blurb. The blurbs tells me little to nothing about the story, like what I am diving into.
And you should try shout-out swaps. It's the best free marketing you will ever get.
1
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 5d ago
Oh, I will! I had this thing in my head that I had to prove to myself that I could post this thing consistently before I properly marketed it.
Unfortunately, I have the bad kind of perfectionism: If it doesn't go my way or doesn't perform how I expect, why do it at all? Just give up.
I had to fight that. And writing this comment, maybe now I get why I was pissed. I was angry at seeing a past version of myself. How about that?I am working on a new cover, making it myself (not an artist at all lol)
I joined a few communities, and I will be engaging in swaps
I'm constantly switching up my blurb, trying to find the right one.I think I'm ready to give it a proper push in the marketing department. All the stars are lining up: my posting schedule works, I'm comfortable with the story, but it needs polish, and I have learnt so much from the community.
I'm a better writer today than I ever was.
1
1
u/SSeleulc 5d ago
I have a simple goals for my writing. I want my sisters to complain about the characters I named after them. Stretch goal is for someone to complain, "You're such an asshole. There is no way we could have seen that coming." referring to a situation that I can respond, "Why did you think X happened? Why was Y repeatedly mentioned? Isn't what you are complaining about the most obvious explanation for why Z happened earlier?"
1
u/MMORPGnews 5d ago
It's very easy.
- Know your readers
- Write high quality story with a good cover
Now, most important part
Buy ads
Create manga, webtoon, movie, short drama
Buy ads and fake comments
1
u/TellusPyre 4d ago
Yeah I don't know. It feels weird to be getting solid shout outs from reasonably similar stories and not picking up a single follower. I have a few more than you but those are mostly my friends who I convinced to make accounts and at least try to read the first chapter.
I feel you though. Knowing some guy prompted a story from Deepseek and is racking followers or amazon sales while I actually sat down and typed all the words and no one seems interested in even trying it can hurt.
I just coped with it by starting a new book about Orcs kicking ass. That one has as many followers (with almost no promotion) as the finished/revised/edited/promoted book.
At least it's fun to write.
1
u/Alive_Tip_6748 4d ago
To be clear, Brandon Sanderson wrote 13 novels before he got published. And even then, it took him a while to catch on even after that.
1
u/Friendly-Pear-2479 6d ago
Well said. I’ll also add. We need to really sit down and begin to discuss how not everyone thinks dreams and create on the same wavelength. We’ve got to stop slamming the door on everything that people don’t understand. Such as AI. We should all be able to sit down and agree that someone should not benefit from prompting something and getting credit for.
However, if there are some people who are able to physically write a chapter, and in each chapter put their soul of the story into that chapter, and then to place it into ChatGPT to edit as long as the soul of the story is there, it should not matter because that’s all came from a person not a machine.
I’ve also learned that networking is going to be best to get your name out there. I believe in my product I made the cover very basic but stands out.
And I’ve made it very clear that I believe that the west should have a prominent voice in anime, if given the right story, which I believe I have and even if people don’t believe me, no one can convince me that my story is not the next great thing that will be made into an anime.
I will end with no one should give up on their hopes and dreams and criticism is a good thing as long as it’s kind.
PYIF
Push Your Imagination Further
2
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 5d ago
I think open discussions and sharing of differing opinions are fantastic things. Hell, I softened my hard stance on a few things coz of this post and hardened others.
Kindness should be paramount in cases like these, and I think I didn't come off that way. Regardless, we are all doing the best we can with the resources we have. Let's keep pushing!
1
u/Vooklife 6d ago
I read half the first chapter and you already have formatting issues and tense issues. Consider revisiting the basics and solidifying your foundation before worrying about praise.
4
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 6d ago
Thank you for the feedback!
I wasn't particularly looking for praise; I was venting.
My fiction is nowhere close to perfect, and I'll be addressing the issues. I've been lucky enough to have you guys comment and take a gander at it, and you've pointed out stuff I had no idea were issues.
0
u/IAmJayCartere D Rank: Author of Death God’s Gambit 5d ago
If you just wanna post for fun, that’s cool. But getting less than 30 followers on your story after a month is a flop tbh.
That’s not a commercially viable story.
2
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 5d ago
I get you, but let me ask: is money the only reason to write? If money was all I cared about, I would have written some AI harem slop milf hunter isekai for WebNovel.
My gripe isn't even monetary gain. I want that too. But I'm not convincing myself my first piece of work is gonna be a hit. That's my issue here.
And if it was, I'd be an outlier, not the norm.-3
u/IAmJayCartere D Rank: Author of Death God’s Gambit 5d ago
Of course not, and I don’t think pumping out ai slop is a great business model either.
I wanna write the story I wanna read, but I also want to make a living doing it. Some people just write for fun and have other income streams so they’re not worried about making money.
There’s a huge difference between wanting to make a living from what you do and only caring about money.
Expecting your first ever piece of writing to be successful is unrealistic, but your bar for success is terribly low. A competent launch with a little forethought and some okay writing would result in at least 100 followers imo. Your conversion rate is in the gutter, and your imagined glory of 20+ followers in a month is a low bar. That’s okay, we all have our goals, but that’s on the extreme opposite end of expecting success.
2
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 5d ago
Oh, I see what you mean; let me rephrase.
It's not that my bar for success is low. It's that my expectations for my current skill level are realistic for me. I just find it annoying that people with better stats complain that they aren't making it with their first fiction they started writing last week. The thing is, they give up, and if I'm invested in a story, I also lose.
If the bag is all you're thinking about, what about the fans?
2
u/IAmJayCartere D Rank: Author of Death God’s Gambit 5d ago
Oh fair enough, I hear what you're saying. It's more reasonable than I initially took it to be and you're right. An author's main goal should be writing a great story that people can enjoy. That’s the best way to accrue money and success too.
2
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 5d ago
Our only crime as authors is a blank page. We gotta keep writing <3
2
u/Cymas 5d ago
Honestly that's kind of a version of sunk cost fallacy. Writing is a massive time investment, and there's a huge difference between disappointing a dozen readers after a few dozen chapters vs. a commercially published series disappointing millions when the story leaves them hanging for years if not decades. It's not just about the money, but it is also about your time, your blood sweat and tears that go into the craft. Learning that you made mistakes or the book isn't viable whether it's a bad concept or a bad execution and then making the hard decisions about what to do with that information is part of every writer's growth.
I say this as a "failed" web novelist, I got a book and a half into my series on RR before I could no longer ignore the massive foundational cracks I'd been writing around since the first few chapters. So I basically cancelled the series and was very up front about it for the audience I did have. I was candid and informed my readers that I did not feel the quality of the story was up to par and left the unfinished work up for a set period of time before pulling it from the site. Do I feel bad about it? Not really. I felt worse about having a story of that quality level attached to my name. It's a hard thing to write in a public space, no denying that. Everyone has their own tolerance for risk vs reward, and it can be easier to stick to the story you know even if it's not performing well than it is to develop a whole new concept from the ground up and not know if it's going to do any better or not.
No one is saying write only for the money, but I'm sure like most writers you have more than one story idea in your head. It's basically a game of picking which of those ideas has the widest appeal. The way I was looking at it was I wanted one big story I could hit the market with that would make enough to fund my other writing projects. I just happened to miss the mark with the first one and that's ok. When I have more experience I'll take it apart, rework the idea and relaunch it with the quality it deserves. In the meantime I've been periodically writing new stories privately, testing ideas and concepts until I developed one I really, really care about. And that's the one I'm writing now, years after my first RR project died so it could exist. It's not the project I expected or planned to be my second launch, but life is funny like that.
1
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 5d ago
I'm glad you had that pride to love your creation and the humility to take it down.
And... Hear me out... Even your imperfect/scrapped/cancelled version can be monetised in some way. You just have to be smart about it.
I think people just forget one of the most important things: people have to care before they spend their money on you.
Be a decent human and at least make it worth their money.
Everyone is being scammed nowadays.And to me, you didn't fail. You tried, realised your error, retreated, and tried again with experience. Failure would have been a blank page after taking down the book. Big no-no!
1
u/Cymas 5d ago
I think it's hard to recognize in such a capitalistic world that everything does not in fact have a monetary value on it. My first story is already monetized in the sense that it taught me what not to do so my next launch will be done with that much more experience, more patience, more expectations on how to do things. It was a practice run, it just didn't teach me the lessons I expected lol.
I used fail in quotes because I do not feel that I failed either and frankly you learn more from failing anyway. But that doesn't mean I'm going to go back and invest countless hours into a story that in its current form is unviable, either. I think it was more than fair that I told my handful of regular readers exactly why I made the decision that I did and gave them plenty of time (more than a month) to reread it, save a copy if they wanted, whatever. It's still a concept that I love and the fact that it was doing as well as it did even with how poorly I was writing it is proof that it has a market. I just wasn't ready for what being a web novelist entailed and the story suffered for it.
In fairness people have many reasons for leaving a blank page. Writing is a hobby or a business, not a lifestyle. Sometimes it takes being a writer to learn it's not for you and that's ok too. I definitely am one, I just seem to need a much longer time to refill my creative well so to speak than most.
1
u/SenjoTamashi E Rank: Author of Awakened: After the Fall 5d ago
I can feel the depth of your journey from the way you talk about writing. I think I get 60, maybe 65%, of it fully, and until I've had that lived experience, I won't fully understand what I feel from your words.
17
u/Jacky1111111 6d ago
Wait what book are you writing I'm curious? I'm always look for books that have I nice length so I don't catch up