Webnovel.Forum

I'm an amateur author writing my first webnovel on this site and can share some of what I've noticed.

1) When creating a brand new novel completely from scratch, it is nearly impossible to keep up with novels that are already very far along especially the professional ones with a stockpile of chapters being translated.
2) Personal life gets in the way. We can't always spend the entire day typing out our chapters.
3) Some of us new authors live paycheck to paycheck and have to work a large part of the time and thus have very limited free time. Add in a personal life and we have even less time to churn out new chapters.
4) Webnovels tend to be judged on their release rates and chapter counts. For new authors to be able to compete with established novels we often have to make shorter chapters to up our numbers and release rates. This may also lower the quality of our work.
5) Many of us authors don't have the energy to keep going at our fastest release rate. Our motivation also takes a hit when nobody comments or we only get negative comments. I personally see the number of collections my book is added into fluctuate seemingly without reason. I try not to take it personally when my numbers go down but I'm not even given a reason why from those that drop my book. As far as I know, it costs nothing to keep books in your library, so why drop any? Authors can see when their book is dropped and this hurts our motivation big time.
6) We work hard to make an intelligent original work only to see Fanfiction and works of less quality skyrocket in popularity while our reader numbers crawl along. This could be included in loss of motivation but it also makes us step back and rethink our reasons for creating our stories. This leads to #7
7) Sometimes authors get stressed out by the pressure and lack of reader response. To destress we may take time away from creating chapters to re-motivate ourselves and reenergize to come back fresh and capable of typing out quality content again.
8) Very few of us original authors are actually getting paid for the effort we put in. We are doing this for free most of the time. Ask yourself, would you do all that work for free month after month? If you said yes, would you REALLY put up with criticism and the constant pressure to release more chapters day after day spanning many months just trying to be noticed, ALL for free? Unless you are very passionate and care about your work or just really like that kind of pain, I doubt you'd put out more than one hundred chapters of quality content of at least 2k word length each within a year.

There are insights and explanations I haven't included and I can't speak for everyone but at the very least I hope I've explained some of what goes on for us Original authors.

If you've actually read this far, I salute you and hope you understand at least some the plight of me and my fellow Original authors.

Reinesse Yes.

Now, will you get the view and follow results you want? Maybe not.

Does any of that matter if you're having a great time writing? No.

Xyphon_Storm I agree with everything except the fanfiction part. I was obsessed with that too as a teenager, but that's years ago lol. I'm just assuming majority of the readers on WN are teens or young adults whose real preferred media are anime and manga. Fanfics are side dishes, and they get plenty of that here. Again, I'm just making an assumption here big time.

The rest, as I said, I agree with. I was just telling a friend about some of what you said, and I could sometimes make myself feel better if I view collectors' actions based on my own. Sometimes, with no real reason, I spend time just browsing for new works or those from specific genres. I sample a chapter or two, and if I liked it, I'll add it to my library. I'd then let it gather dust in there until (1) I manage to find time to catch up on my reading, (2) something about a particular book made me click it randomly, no matter what else I should be doing at the time. There are other reasons, but the bottom line is that I too don't make it a habit to follow the stories in my library chapter by chapter. I haven't even caught up with my favorite translated ones (honestly, I need a full day just for binge reading soon). Based from my own potentially hurtful behavior, I now find it hypocritical to be upset that I only get one or two comments per chapter (sometimes absolutely none; also, this doesn't mean that I don't get upset anyway). There's also this slim, borderline delusional chance that most of the readers I managed to interest were the silent types who don't like leaving comments (please at least leave power stones!), but in conclusion, I can't really do anything about their actions, only my own. Right now I'm just really trying hard not to take anything personally (but damnit, that's my baby out there -- who wouldn't take it at least a little personally?!)

In real conclusion, good luck to you. I hope knowing that you're not alone in this could make you feel even just a bit better.

WinterBud Thank you, I appreciate your well-wishes and wish prosperity for you as well. I mostly mentioned fanfiction because when I first saw their numbers I seriously doubted whether they were paying the proper royalties to the original creators of the content they are working off of. Which I, of course, found frustrating at that time so I included it as an example. As much as I've experienced and learned in this life, I still hold to some naivety in wanting justice and fairness. Absurd, I know.

Reinesse I didn't realize you were a fellow author. I thought you were a random reader complaining about lack of updates. Oh well, this isn't the first time I've embarrassed myself and won't be the last. Good day.

Xyphon_Storm Absurd? Not really. I don't know the exact rules of copyright either, but I think fanfiction writers (and mangakas) can make money out of others' original creations as long as they don't claim them as their own. I'm just pulling theories out of thin air, though, so don't mind me. I wish you a nicer writing life from here on.

WinterBud well, fan fiction can earn. there is this one western fan fiction book i've read titled Dorothy Must Die. if i am also not mistaken, there are sites dedicated for fan fics and authors get paid.

Xyphon_Storm
I agree and that is why I do a few things when writing and reading original stories.

1. When writing my story, I never check my collection count, views count or anything like that. I do check where it is popular, any reviews (so far one) and any comments.

2. Always comment with a thank you, something positive or have a couple comment long discussion with the author on a particular point (all positive e.g. "I like how MC uses this attribute qi to do that") every chapter for the stories I really enjoy that don't get many active commenters. I do this because I know how much a "thank you" or "I love this chapter, it was really well written" makes authors happy being one myself. As original authors, we all prefer to see people show recognition of our work and we enjoy talking about our book to our readers.

3. Never be negative without being reasonable. Usually, we original authors hate it when someone just disses our own or other original authors' work. Therefore I have made it a personal rule to never blatantly hate on ANY novel (except Martial God Asura, that shit deserves all the hate it gets for its repetitive plot line and generic characters. The only cool part was that retard that kept appearing because he wasn't a fatty like you would expect) because none of them truly deserve it. If I must give a negative review to a novel (which I usually refrain from doing), then I will be as reasonable and objectively critical as possible.

WinterBud
Mhmm. I am the same. I only have one person who has actively said "Thanks for the Chapter!" consistently about 80% of the time.

Can the writers please include the watch ad feature so we can read the novels wen we are out of ss

Reinesse

Xyphon_Storm

WinterBud

WorstNameEver

The way I Ah e always seen it is this. Do what you want with your novel and don’t worry about face or fortune. Worry more about having fun because an author who can enjoy writing will always be on the right path whether other people notice this or not.

For my novel I have had PLENTY of complaints for how terrible my everything is, but I have genuinely been enjoying every chapter I’ve made so far. But if I ever feel stressed out or find writing to no longer bring me happiness, I will probably quit until I find my passion again. If updating once a week makes you feel good, then do it. If once a month, then do it. But the most important thing is to enjoy it, writing an original novel isn’t your job(yet?) it’s a hobby. And you are the one who controls this hobby, not the other way around.

UnjustlyUnderpaid Very well said. :thumbup:

UnjustlyUnderpaid
Yeah, I don't really worry about readers.
My release schedule is whenever a chapter is done and I only edit if I feel like it needs to be.

UnjustlyUnderpaid fuck off I want 100 chapters a day! Where is my whip!

Forsaken1
You left it in my room...