If you're a webnovel writer, chances are, you started writing to make some money. Or at least you have thought about joining top charts and becoming loaded with cash.
The question is, do you write your novel according to your audience's tastes? Should you?
What I mean is, there are certain tropes that are very popular amongst the readers, like reincarnation or transmigration. Or elements: everyone loves some good old fluff, that makes you squeak, like an almost-kissing scene.

Will you change your novel knowing that the change will make it more popular? Or do you stick with your first idea?
a. No, I stick to my story. The readers that truly appreciate my writing will stay.
b. Maybe. If I like the trending trope, then why not?
c. Yes, but I will not make changes that go against my writing style or principles
a. Heck yeah! I'll analyze the trends and write so that the book sells

What's your opinion? Any other advice to young authors?

    4knnife How do you know that a certain troupe popular?

    Knowing what popular is hard. For example, Reincarnation or Transmigration is no longer popular (you should research that), but why authors loves to use that?

    1. Transmigration allow easier self-insert into the story. Reader can also discover your fantasy world together with MC using current knowledge. For example you can describe this thing looks like Television, etc.
    2. While Reincarnation (to the past) is a good plot to give the 'danger' if something failed. Since readers know it will GO WRONG if MC didn't solve certain things (this create tension for readers). Reincarnation to the future is just 'knowledge' cheat, etc.

    On the other side, some reader demographic loves face-slap, H18+ Scene, 'almost' kissing, etc.

    a. This is hard. Only artist could write and accept that it is not popular. Publish mean you want to share. Publish to few people is not fun.
    b. A good idea, but trend change. For example from System Era to Reborn (Non System Era) to Dual Cultivation (H18+) to now perhaps Female Romance topping the chart. A novel 900 chapters long is around 3 years. It might be no longer trending. Everyone remembers Last Wish System and The
    c. ??? This is A. Did you mean using some troupe to your story? Everyone has certain charm that made each writer different. You can see that. A same troupe can be used in various way giving 'surprise' and 'twist' that is unpredictable to readers. Why NOT?
    d. If you are fast, as an example, a top selling Amazon writer make MANY short novel about Vampire romance, he/she/or perhaps a team released a series of Vampire Romance and led the Amazon chart for a long time. Successful. But it is hard. This is Fast Food style business plan.

    My suggestion for webnovel writers. Use Webnovel to PRACTICE. Take their contract, since do you think your novel is great? Of course No. If you are great, the Big 6 publisher will knock on your door and give you THE BIG PAYCHECK aka Movie Deal, etc.

    You are here since as the writer, most of us can't knock on that door (YET, hopefully someday you can find your book printed on.). Webnovel as a platform is actually great (to get some whale) but it's market share is limited compared to the large book market (Amazon) and traditional bookstore. Use webnovel to make your portfolio (CV) that you can show to the 'real' publisher one day and get the big money royalty from film making then.

    JK Rowling becomes rich not from selling Harry Potter book (which she got a lot), she got money from selling Harry Potter Magical World (film, etc). But we are not her.

    Remember contracting to webnovel = you are giving your world 'creation' to webnovel. It is no longer yours so don't hope for big money from film deal, etc. Use webnovel to advertise yourself and practice while getting some money for the living.

    So Publish to Tell to get few extra money while getting better.

        This Senior will write a novel about yuri, and no demon or ghoul shall stop me!

          MasterRabbink
          Thanks for answering. very informative.
          "a" is not changing your storyline at all and basically "staying true" to yourself and your writing
          "c" is if you're writing an adventure story without romance (and you don't really want to add any romance), but you know that adding a love interest will make readers go "waaah", so you consider adding it.

          That aside, your reply cleared up some stuff in my mind, thanks!

              4knnife I think for writer that writes only for hobby, they definitely goes for a. But for author that need money and use writing as income, maybe they try to follow what the readers want. But, hey, thats just my opinion though.

                Maybe I'm in the elitist minority here, but I don't feel WN counts as being published.

                  4knnife
                  As with most things in life, I find the proper answer is balance. So, category C, I guess?
                  My first story was for fun. The MC was dumb and did not appeal to readers. Of course, my rough writing at the time also hurt the story.
                  My 2nd story also didn't start as a typical cultivation story, but the MC was smart and ruthless. While I didn't necessarily make him that way to appeal to readers, I did turn down other ideas that I knew wouldn't appeal to them. So, by process of elimination, you could say I chose something I thought would appeal to the Webnovel audience. Especially as my goal was to get contracted at that point.
                  Trending tropes are a double-edged sword. You need to be very early on the bandwagon to capture the market. Enter in the middle and you'll probably just do okay. Enter late and the trope is no longer popular and may hurt the story/ranking instead. Of course, if you're a good enough writer then you might trump all rules of the game.

                  There will always be a balance. For example, I wouldn't expect an ordinary detective story or murder mystery story to do well on Webnovel. Male readers want fantasy mixed with either cultivation, sci-fi, or horror. Females typically want fantasy romance of some sort and maybe romance historical fiction. As an author, you should select an appropriate category and design a likeable MC if your goal is to compete or get contracted. If you just want to write for fun or improvement, then do whatever you want.

                  On that note, I do feel it's important to not take too much influence from others thoughts. Look at the recently aired anime, That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime. On the surface, it's a super generic isekai. The isekai trope is being done to death and is arguably on its way out, or it's at least going downhill. The market is saturated with poorly done isekai books. However, That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime remains very basic and is good because of it. Instead of adding a huge twist or unique spin, it's a very normal power fantasy isekai. It doesn't take itself too seriously and builds things up gradually, maintaining a steady pace. In this over-saturated market, it returned to the basics and just did things well, which is why I think it's so popular. So, I'd say that story is a good argument to just do your own thing while knowing your audience. Of course, it remains to be seen if That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime manages to retain it's quality and theme throughout the entire story.

                    Clowniac
                    I think it depends on how you look at it. I'd certainly imagine it's much easier than traditional publishing, not that I've ever tried it. However, how does one judge 'being published'? By platform? There are plenty of easy platforms to publish on, such as Amazon, and many successful authors live off of it. By number of readers? Webnovel probably has more readers than many magazines, so that's also probably not an accurate assessment. By prestige? Well, that's mostly imaginary, though I'm sure it exists for a few select platforms. So, I'd argue the best way to judge would be by income to the author.
                    Regarding income, we can probably assume the top 3 originals make enough to live off of. Maybe the top 10. Below that? I don't really know, as I haven't gotten my first payment yet =p. If originals ever become as popular as translated, then maybe the whole game changes. Lord knows how much Full Marks Hidden Marriage has made. And we know that some of the authors in China have become multi-millionaires, though they have a much larger base to appeal to. So, I'd argue that if you want to be elitist about it, we can probably count a few of the contracted originals while excluding most others. Lol.

                        4knnife I think I myself go with C
                        My story didn't follow the usual tropes as I try not to use the usual transmigration or reincarnating tropes in the novel that I made. (not that I don't like it, I just want to try it) Most female MC's novel start with them, so I try to make mine different in that sense and so far it's quite successful.
                        For me, it's fun writing them the way I want, but I also take consideration to what the readers wanted to read and added part of them without breaking the original intention I have for the novel. Most female readers would ask for romance part, which in my case might broke the story if I make it too much, so I put it moderately (but enough to make them satisfied hopefully) while going along in my own plan.

                        As for following what's popular....it is quite hard. The taste of the people in the webnovel tend to change overtime. I have followed in this site for around 1 year and by the time the original section started, I joined in quite early (not the earliest as I missed several weeks), so I noticed their changes from the cultivation, system, H+18, and now I guess romance (?) still not sure about the current one, but the influx of romance novel recently made me think that way.

                        In my opinion, when you start to write, you have to write the story that you like (both to read and write) because if you don't, writing will become a chore.
                        If you just want to write without expecting much, you can make your story however you want and didn't need to follow the pattern to make the story popular. But if you want to earn a living from writing, then you might need to put more consideration for the story. Some usual cliches can work, but you need to be creative when using it. Readers tend to get bored very quickly as they don't only read one novel, but a lot.
                        (Imagine yourself having to eat the same meal for a week or more, the previously delicious steak will become something you found hard to chew unless if you put different seasoning in it).

                        If you hope to earn enough for living... at this point of time that not all contracted original authors have income that could make them life off their writing. Some of them did, but the rest still has to have other work, but who knows if in the future this will change since original work is still being developed?

                          If u care so much about the public's views and interest, u will end up with something like a fanfic of some anime or previously written book

                            If it makes money, why wouldn't I? Although I won't be doing this anytime soon because I'm in no way wasting hours for what webnovel is offering, I can see others doing this and there really isn't much wrong with it.

                            I would go with B and if I really get into writing, maybe C

                              SnoozySloth Sloth has become a contracted author. Congrats! :D

                              Dontlookdown Not truly back. Gwahahaha.

                              There is fewer free times to write lately. Reading many online writing lessons made this Rabbink realized there are many things that needs to be corrected of my writing skills. Probably will stay in the 'basement' and practice and practice. Gwahahaha. (Lie.)

                                    MasterRabbink i always get my idea from trendy stuff though. i mean i already plan including some trending stuff as you call it in my novel cause it's handy. as for what the readers like, i just add them as a half-filler and i'm happy to do so since they like it and i won't have to be very straightforward with the flow. it will be too fast-paced without the half fillers.

                                      4knnife I'm stubbornly going with A. That's been causing me problems from the first few chapters, actually, but nearly thirty chapters in, I'm still sticking to my guns despite what recent commenters hint they expect to happen (or just generally believe the story to be). Not gonna lie, I only just got my stress about this under control. Now I'm just gonna keep following the plan and keep quiet about future developments. The most I'd concede changing would be putting more emphasis on "hints" just in case the earlier ones didn't register enough.

                                      I spent a long time coming up with that plan, and only after doing "research" a.k.a. reading the real and/or recent reviews of the popular stories here. I ended up learning a lot about what the vocal minority doesn't want to see in what they invest their time (and money) in, and I happened to agree with a lot of what they had to say. That told me that even if I stubbornly stick to writing the kind of story I'd personally want to read, there'd be others who might read along.

                                      (P.S. I'm still wishing for that chapter per chapter view count though. Seriously. And the graph that tells the author at which point readers remove their story from their library. Having good data is crucial for success.)

                                        4knnife A.) Thats my answer... I write and publish to tell and not to sell... before I had tht mentality tht ill publish a book to sell.. because of this mentality I was prone to getting writer's block.. now I am focused on publishing to tell and inspire... It doesn't matter whether it will sell or not, just as long as people appreciates and was motivated or inspired by my writing, I am already glad. Its the greatest gift and the greatest thing to happen in my life.

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