Webnovel.Forum

Hey fellow writers/readers,

I'm a writer with a small, but loyal following (www.patreon.com/niseam). A reader recently told me about webnovel.com and I took a look around (and published the first two chapters: https://www.webnovel.com/book/13107784505724005), but I'm not yet sure if it's something the webnovel.com community would enjoy. Here's the elevator pitch:

"In a nation where wealth equals worth, a mercenary, a priestess, and a psychic must enter a merchant king's disturbed mind to prevent a civil war."

It's a fantasy novel with horror and mystery underpinnings, as well as with a bit of romance. It's fairly "adult", meaning that it contains some graphic sex and violence, but most of all "mature" themes (I hate that word, but you know what I mean).
Most of the books I browsed through here seem to have a strong coming-of-age and romance focus. What are your thoughts? I'm grateful for any kind of feedback! :)

Best,
Nic

There are tropes that are common or popular here, but also a lot of diversity and readers who like to try new things.

What exactly do you mean by sleazy, SouthToiletWizard ?

veinglory So you'd say try it?

Niseam Webnovel definitely is better than say Wattpad in my opinion for a new writer who doesn’t promot much. It’s a smaller community, but it’s more active and the interactive interface is better too; however, as with all places, readers don’t usually comment much unless they’re really really into the book.

There is a good variety on here, but I’m not going to lie, the more niche it is, the less people are inclined to read. The most popular genres are romance fiction, namely CEO or super fluffy ones, and systems and cultivation. And as already mentioned, anything heavily nsfw centered to put it lightly.

Without promotion but relatively frequent updates per week, new novels in general do fairly well and gain 1k views pretty quick. It’s the collections number that doesn’t rise as quickly. Daily updates definitely help gain readers.

With promotion, the collections accrue a little more, but it takes a decent amount of effort as the best way is through review swaps.

Sounds like your novel will do fairly well considering it’s “mature.” People really like all that graphic... jazz.

Personally I wish to see more niche types of stories, but oh well, the formula gets repeated often but it’s a winning one.

In short, definitely give it a try. It doesn’t hurt to do so, and even if you stop updating here, maybe your readers will migrate over to Patreon.

Niseam
I am fairly new here myself, but I think it is a worthwhile thing to try

yep throw it in the pot.

Chryiss sounds like you've been around :P

Niseam Your chapter is too long. Most here seem to prefer 1-2k words. 7k will scare people off.

No harm in trying

Niseam I would break your longer chapters into 3 parts, and try and post regularly.
I know this is also going to sound weird, but you might want to change your book cover.
I feel like right now it's too professional? On this site, people are used to eastern fantasy, 5 minute book covers, and its the one place where a professional image might scare someone off.

I have some other recommendations, too, but I'd just start by giving the readers bit sized chunks.
If you have any questions, feel free to tag me and I'll get back to you.

From what I can see that happened to other authors is; if you novel gets popular enough they will pay more attention to you. Unfortunately they don't care much for smaller authors. They even censor the word discor,d. Wait did they do it here? Discord discord DiScOrD

LordArmyChicken
lmao "scare people off"

Niseam
You should try posting at https://www.royalroad.com/home.

Chryiss
This I can vouch for.
When I just started and life was easier with steady releases, I managed to rack up 10k views within the first 2 weeks at a rate of 5 chaps a week.

Though the collection is around 10 at that time so I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing