• Questions

  • Why I'm getting less views in writing the novel ?

I've noticed that viewers trickle in after the first few and then, they vanish. I'm not a great writer but I'll give you my two cents. Or maybe five cents.
1) Covers: are what readers look at before everything else. Create an appealing face for your novel.
2) Synopsis: I try not to be lazy when writing these. All of mine are terrible but here are some tips. Add quotes for the reader to think about the themes, take an excerpt from the novel that could be the most intriguing part of the novel, describe the main characters so potential readers can know whether they can relate to the protagonist or antagonists, maybe add some information about the world and society? Also, you could put any warnings so there are no misunderstandings and no room for disappointment. It might be a dumb suggestion but I think my potential readers would not like my novels if I update whenever I feel like it instead of every day while they wait every day.
3) Updates: I do not know how authors update daily. They are the real MVPs, but try to avoid making promises. I've tried updating daily but life bit me in the butt.
4) Promote: Find places specifically for promotion because those places are where you will find potential readers and they are also finding you. There are tons of forums right here on Webnovel. Exchange books with someone, ask for reviews. If you have social media, use that to bring in more readers. Just remember, do not be demanding and interact with people. Be enthusiastic too!
5) Readers: would like to know you care about them as much (or more) than you care about views. I have trouble interacting with my readers because I have so little and they are quiet. Still, thank them every once in a while in an author's note. Maybe ask questions about what they think about certain events and characters in your novel.

As I said, I do not consider myself a great writer. You may have seen so many comments suggesting these things, but they are just suggestions. Do what you think is needed and keep in mind why you are writing. Do you like to write? Do you want to help others experience a different life? Or are you writing for the views and collections? The last motivation is not bad if you answered the third, you do you. Whatever you do, stay motivated and patient. I apologize for writing so much. I wish you luck and if you need another reader, I'll be available sometimes. 💙

    ValKree 3) Updates: I do not know how authors update daily. They are the real MVPs, but try to avoid making promises. I've tried updating daily but life bit me in the butt.

    Daily updates is almost like a standard here :laughing: . Tbh, a regular update routine is fine. Even if it's weekly, fortnightly... as long as the schedule is somewhat consistent.

        Veronica8 True, but i agree with the argument that the first skill a writor should work on is his writing speed. Most of the rankings here are influenced by this. Even if you do your worst, it all comes down to statistic in the end. Even if 1/10000 readers like your story, it will be fine if all the readership of webnovel can easily access to your story.

        I myself never start to read a story below 200-300 chapters with a regular updating schedule, because i'm a really big binge-reader. However, sometimes i try a few chapters, and if i think the story has potential i add them to my collection to easily follow them, check if they drop the story, keep regular schedule ect..

            Arkinslize Possibly, if a writer is after verbatim. The feedback return rate can help with growth.

            From my experience, skill development should also have a level of quality to strive for. Speed is just one part of the equation.

            I've found, it's realistic to have a balanced approach when writing.

            Hiatus occurs when one part of living outweighs the other. If churning out chapters by speed of reader demand becomes too much of an impact on other offline responsibilities (school, jobs...), writing typically takes a back seat. Should a hiatus occur, that could be a stop towards further skill growth. As the skill isn't being used.

            In my view, new writers are best to focus on solid basics towards a personal best completion of their first draft. When writing for the first time. It's better to focus on finishing about 70% -100% of the story in an unpublished draft state.

            Set aside a realistic time schedule to work on chapters. Publishing the first chapter after 70% -100% of story completion gives some leeway and takes advantage of post scheduling. Then it's just a matter of checking for feedback and correcting accordingly.

            If new writers share out their in progress story as they go (without stock pile), and just focuses on speed by reader demand/expectations, they'll limit chances for improvement. May even cause a burn out. The WIP might take a turn they didn't want to take, but it's not going to be easy to fix as they already have readers following the current story line. New writers are likely not going to have the skill to be able to lead the reader seamlessly down the revised plot line whilst the story is written on the fly.

            I've seen new writers, over the years, give up the craft because they can't achieve both quality and quantity at speed of demand due to lack of skill. It becomes a chore rather than a joy.

            In fact, the more new writers improve on their grammar and storytelling skills, the faster they can churn out a chapter. As they'll be able to naturally write a quality chapter on first submit. Albeit with a few minor grammar slips and typos to fix up here and there afterwards.

                Veronica8 oh, I guessed so. Perhaps that is why my novels are barely viewed. I wish I can be an average Webnovel writer but my life is so hectic that I can only write at night. When my brain is tired and running on chocolate.
                Then, I write fast without losing ideas, but the quality is terrible. I try to update consistently, around once a week or two weeks. Holidays are exceptions though.
                Still, I am just happy to write and seeing new collections give me an adrenaline rush. I'm a tiny writer but right now, I'm thankful for anyone who keeps my works in their library.<(￣︶￣)>

                    Veronica8

                    I agree with you. The ideal being to write well and fast.

                    Personally, as a non-native english speaker, i'm striving each day to write more words. The 3 to 5k words recommended here. But not by sacrifying more time. Even i can write 5k words with my broken english if i don't care about anything in 2 hours, but that would be bad.

                    Today, i can barely produce 3-400 words an hour at my best english. And i have an almost finished outline for my story, so no writer block at all. I lose time searching for words or checking grammar rules, but i'm quite unfocused. I could probably step up my game to 700-800 words an hour if i was more efficient.

                    In the end, i'm quite happy if i have 1500 words written at the end of the day, but with time i'm confident both my english skills and writing speed will improve if i keep the good work. But only if i write. So writing more is the good way i think, as long as it's done mindfully.

                      It's possible to get a decent number of views without click-bait cover or title, but it's harder.

                      From personal experience chapters 30 - 100 is a harsh experience (as a writer). Don't take those numbers as an exact estimate btw. You get a chunk of reads "early on" and then it just dies. Somewhere at three digits number of chapters it seems people give it a read (I'm not saying they stay as readers) just because there are 100+ chapters available.

                      Also, scrapers will increase the number of "views" the more chapters you have published since each chapter "read" counts as one view. A robot digging up everything you've published once a week will obviously inflate that number the more chapters you realease.

                      That's why it's of interest to look at the ratio collections versus views.

                      For example my main novel runs at an abyssmal 1000:1, but it's still the story that by far attracts the most one-off views. Compare that with a short story, one chapter long, that I published here as well. The 43:1 ratio is absolutely fantastic, but that's still easy to get since I have under 2000 views in total there.

                      In short, don't panic about the number of views unless you're up to some 200 chapters published and still fail to reach 100k views.

                        StenDuring I've just hit 10k views and got a editor to work on my grammar mistakes I can for sure notice the leap at the beginning since it only took me 3.5 days to hit that 10k

                        The think I look at as far as readers and collections is the retention rate because at least that way I know what % of that viewer base is staying to read my novel (about 45% right now sadly) but I'm still getting about 9 collections a day so it's not all terrible.

                        Another start is the daily read (CHS) which I have a 80% on, and the daily read time average. I try to factor all that in to see if I fant predict where my reader base will be at during the 30 day goal I have set for myself (100k views, 250 collections, 80 PS)

                        My chapters are also only 1.1 - 1.5k words so I'm able to put out multiple chapters a day.

                          Its my first time writing a novel. I published my work it was on dec 20 , 2019 and now i got 32+k views , 63+ collections and 13 reviews. Thats not bad right? I dont have an editor to check on my errors still Im so happy

                          I just started to write my novel here last December. My goal is to be a contractor here. But too bad, I did not advertise my novel well in my first month, cause of Christmas season and new year. I'm not aware as well that you got a chance to be ranked under NEW in your first month. I lost my chance to get more exposure. So I really advice those less than a month novel to advertise it well and have a goal of top 15 under NEW. You'll got a great chance to have more readers.

                          I wanted to ask though, what is considered 'good' (like views, collection, powerstones) for an author who just write his novel for two months? It will be a great help if I knew so that I can have a goal every week.

                          I'm currently on week 2 of publishing (started updating on the 4th) and have done daily updates. I feel like that's what got me the number of reads I currently have (sitting at about 7.7k). I personally prefer having a high number of collections over reads, but eh, that's not really happening lmao (1:193).

                          I think my book has a bit of an identity crisis. It's so many things that I can't really determine what to advertise it as. It's a CEO novel, a historical one, a fantasy all rolled up into an adventure romance.

                          I think the biggest thing here is like was previously said, the audience. I have my book listed under fantasy romance, because to an extent, it is. I've been looking at my analytics and I'm surprised to see a number of my readers are male.

                            ValKree I'll be the worse writer. As I have 7 wip online that hasn't been worked on for weeks. 😅

                            I'll finish them. But I realized I have to one at a time. Before I was rotating through chapter updates. But my life changed dramatically last year. I currently can't do that routine for the time being.

                            That's another point. Writing should be flexible to life changes too.
                            So it's ok to write at a pace of comfort and convenience. I see it. As long as there's a regular update rate to completion.

                            Sounds like you're on a routine. Keep writing.

                                ValKree I'll be the worse writer. As I have 7 wip online that hasn't been worked on for weeks. 😅

                                I'll finish them. But I realized I have to one at a time. Before I was rotating through chapter updates. But my life changed dramatically last year. I currently can't do that routine for the time being.

                                That's another point. Writing should be flexible to life changes too.
                                So it's ok to write at a pace of comfort and convenience. I see it. As long as there's a regular update rate to completion.

                                Sounds like you're on a routine. Keep writing.

                                    Veronica8 I hope I can keep the routine, but who knows what will happen. My goal right now is promoting my novels after a year of having barely any views. As long as someone is willing to read my works, I'm happy.
                                    I love to draw also, but that hobby takes up too much time in an already timeless life. I turned to writing although progress is slow and I know exposure is going to help me write better. That's going to be fun.

                                    Avalondra If they're truly male, I would squeal in delight. Fantasy romance usually include epic creatures and fights, perhaps they could be looking for those elements? Still, really cool to see males reading what is typically for females.

                                          ValKree funnily enough, I'm currently in the "CEO Romance" arc of the novel. One of my reviewers said I did voodoo to make them like a romance, so I'll take it XD

                                            ValKree yeah. like how females read cultivations with male MC to look for interesting plots and exciting fights. Got cha! ;)

                                              ValKree I love to draw also, but that hobby takes up too much time in an already timeless life.

                                              That's cool you can draw. Writing can be a happy medium for art I guess.

                                              I cheat with digital stuff.

                                                  ValKree
                                                  Is that stranger than a male trying to write fantasy romance? I tried to change things up a bit in the 2nd volume of my transmigration novel. It's nowhere near full blown romance, but I definitely start bringing the ship (and the drama). Would love input to see how well I pull it off.

                                                      ValKree

                                                      And here this male writes teen romance. For rather obvious reasons I also consume copious amounts of similar romance anime and manga, or else I wouldn't be able to play around with the tropes.

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