So guys, Im a budding author and here's the thing about novels' which im finding very difficult to comprehend.
Target Audience.
I know what it means, but my question is ... why? and what?
as a author, why would i need a target audience for my novel?
it's not like if my mc is a male (Which is for all of my novels) does it means that im focusing entirely on males or something. similarly, what's with this 'female' tag? what's the use and just why would i, as a author want it to have.
Now, i dont know whether u guys @Webnoveldeveloper or @WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL are trying to reduce gender divide or increase it, but please. as a quite pleased and happy author, i would be happy if u would kindly remove it in one of ur TGIF or something.
otherwise, if it's something else that this option means, please enlighten me.
At the end of the day, all i would say is....
1. You guys are doing a great job.
2. Please do something about the ss. Im quite frugal and it itches me everytime a part of my ss expires. TT
Thank U and cya!!!
Target Audience
JunkieOverThe_Moon i think it's basically divided as female lead and male lead.
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Reinesse Then, they should have indicated that it was "Lead" and not "Target". This is the same when they started separating the What's Next section too. 
I'm not blaming you or anything. I just think what they did was not needed. It's not like females couldn't read male novels.
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JunkieOverThe_Moon
There are so much in your question, so I don't know where to start.
It is one of the most basic mistakes of new creators, not understanding your own target audience.
We ALL (and I mean it, I haven't met an author who hasn't gone through this phase) tend to think that we write our stories for everyone to read.
In fact, that's not true. Basically, if there are people who like something, there ought to be people who dislike it, and you don't want them in your target audience. (I can't say that stories targeting those who will hate them are nonexistent, there are stories which are made to stir people, but most of the time that wouldn't be your intention)
For example, if you write kid's story, your target audience won't be those battle crazed maniacs or harem lovers. Nope. Your target audience will be those who like kid stories (not necessarily kids, by the way)
I'm saying about this because that is really the delusion that every new writer will have. And that is to be avoided for you to have your peace of mind. There always will be people who are not your readers. They may or may not hate what you do, and it's hard to not be disturbed by it, so this basic knowledge of what a target audience is for is a must.
Now, moving to the point of male and female audiences.
That's where the confusion kicks in.
Male MC doesn't mean male audience and otherwise. Just it's better seen with the male characters. I don't need to point out the fact that BL novels which target obviously girls all have, wow, Male Leads?
So in my opinion division by male and female audience is a wrong one (not to say it's sexist and hate-inducing, which shouldn't be allowed based on the terms of use I've read if I'm not mistaken.)
I myself don't like this separation, but.
We, as authors, should respect our readers too.
There was a thread on this forum, which deepened significantly my understanding of why it is done.
There really are types of novels which audiences mostly consist of only one gender. For example, those mentioned already BL novels. I don't say that boys won't read them. But it won't be lots of boys reading those. Or those harem novels, where the male lead goes and ... sleeps with everything which moves (um... wait... he doesn't sleep with other males, he faceslaps them, whatever). there won't be many girls reading those.
And there aren't any marks (at least right now there are none) to separate those on webnovel.
But it would be really great if they not only separated those novels from each other but from the rest of the stories too.
For example, I have a story in mind, which is targeted at those who like horrors. Should I tag it male or female audience? Why? What horrors have to do with being male or female? Or I have a slice-of-life story about the magical beasts (by the way, there is really no tag nor genre-tag for slice-of-live which is a pity I think.) Which target audience I should put?
Also, if I were to write BL novel and target it female, would it later show up as a story having a female protagonist?
@WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL
It certainly needs some modification, because right now it is confusing and misleading.
And I really would like to have a tag to target my audience both gender. I think it would be the best - you'd give authors a way to tell readers whether their story can be more appreciated by boys, girls, or we can find something entirely different and unrelated to gender topics in the story.
And @WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL gimme authors a way to put tags on their stories, like BL, Harem, male/female lead, character death or whatever. We know our stories best, and we know what tags our readers need or which tags we should put that people could avoid our stories if they definitely won't enjoy them. And unlike readers, we know them before they actually appear in the published part of the story. Yes, we can put it in the synopsis, but not everyone reads those, and aren't those tags exactly for this purpose here anyway?
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DazzlingGem
Yeah, but the point is that many male readers would really dislike reading female novels.
At least, that is what I see from discussions and that is where the idea of division comes from as I've come to understand.
CrazyTree I guess I'm just saying my point of view as a female reader. But I still believe it's not needed. The genres/tags should be enough for the target audience.
CrazyTree
Thanks a lot, mate! Ur views and ideas are much appreciated. I really needed someone to clarify it.
But, u see, there is another problem Im facing.
In my novel (I will put the link below XD), i wanted to have a mix of both male and female. It's not supposed to be like those common webnovels where only the males are superpowered or get recognized or where females are ONLY bullied. That is the aim Im trying to achieve for my novel and that is where ur point starts to waver.
So, what would i do if my MC is male but the story, which is not a harem btw, also has equal share of female power and influence. Which tag should i use? Male or Female?
and if Male tag is presumably only for male or male-liking group, then wouldnt i be cheating my readers by putting female influence? I can just go and have all the females be as submissive as possible, maybe like lambs. Btw, i respect women and am not going to do those kinds of scenes.
what then?
contrarily, there maybe readers in the female section too who MAY be interested in the perspective in which I'm taking my novel.
Basically, isnt it quite hard to find something common in ALL MALES OR ALL FEMALES?
@WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL
please clarify my doubts.
Link: https://www.webnovel.com/book/12118500106950205
Thanks to anyone who leaves a comment or a review. XD cya and have a nice day!!
DazzlingGem
Absolutely! thats just what im talking about.
it's the reader's choice on which books or genre they want to read and effectively, we, as authors arent gods (or goddesses) to know which person will like which book. There is a possibility that a guy MAY like a MALE MC but that maynot happen too. Who knows!?
DazzlingGem
The point is, that yours is a female point of view (actually, many males can agree with you; and I personally agree)
But we should respect not only ourselves and what convenient to us.
And I just happen to know that there ARE people who find this inconvenient.
The problem is how it can be made convenient for both parties, or at least not as inconvenient as it is.
But I agree on the point that well-made tags would mostly eliminate this problem.
My point doesn't waver, cause what you are referring to is not my point.
My point is exactly as yours (I've even put examples) There are stories which doesn't go well with either of tag female or male, cause, IDK, multiple characters, or focus of the story lies somewhere else.
I myself like to write stories in an experimental way, so I don't know how to apply this "male\female target" thing myself.
Though, I kinda have an opposite problem, as my stories not targeted at both but rather at neither. (For example, the main story I'm trying to do at the moment is about Male MC written from the PoV of a female character which doesn't go well with boys, but with some disturbing scenes which doesn't go well with girls)
The problem, as I see it lies in the point that for those I described above (harem, BL and such) you can really easily point the target audience. And about other kind of stories, perhaps webnovel doesn't consider them worth their attention? I don't know((
because ppl have different tastes. Age and gender are probably the number one way to garner to largest audience accuractly because people who share an age group or gender tend to have the same interests.