Webnovel.Forum

So I uploaded a novel called As the Petals Fall. I would really appreciate it if you guys checked it out. Have a great day and btw the one with the ellipses is a spam...cause you know no delete novel option exists on inkstone.

NineNeatherBird Okay, now that I have survived my cable going out here, let's take a look here.

Something to keep in mind: of the 84 Originals in the Popular list, at the time of this writing yours is at #33. Not too shabby, especially given we don't have an extensive toolkit for exposure beyond the "Latest Updates" page and people finding you under other categories/tags.

Tagging

Which brings me to the first thing (and this one goes for everybody): if you haven't already tagged up your novel from your main page, do so. It doesn't show the list of tags to other people on the page, but they'll still find your novel when searching tags. Especially make sure that if any of the top 12 "Suggested Tags" applies that you've tagged it. Each tag is another page you show up on that people can find you when looking, but make sure it's actually true for your novel.

Synopsis

Next up: Your synopsis has the flowery lines of poetic prose thing going on, and it actually makes it read in a stilted manner. Your synopsis exists to tell people why they should read your novel, and if it is difficult to read/understand, their first takeaway is that your novel is going to be difficult to read/understand. My suggestion is as before: view it as an elevator pitch (30 seconds to sell me on your novel spiel) first and foremost.

As something to keep in mind for an advanced technique for "selling" your novel, the first 150 characters of your synopsis are the ones people see when scrolling down the categories/tags; they should clearly say something interesting enough for the browsing reader to want to click through and see more. The three things people see when browsing the lists are your cover, your title, and your synopsis: make sure all three are on point to maximize your potential.

As a general note to other people reading, there are two primary misfires I see in folks setting up their synopsis. The first is the "let's get poetic" thing. The second is the "let's ask a whole bunch of questions at the start" thing. The first I've gone over before, it's just confusing. The second is a problem because you are outright inviting your reader to say "no" and move on to the next novel in the list. I get why people do the question thing: it makes the novel look mysterious. But you have to have your reader intrigued before you can mystify them. Ask the questions later in the synopsis, not front-loaded.

Bold Strategies

Now, for you in particular there is an additional hurdle you have thrown up for yourself: you have a novel with multiple simultaneous optional viewpoints. Your synopsis includes instructions on how to figure out how to read your novel. This introduces a level of difficulty that requires investment from the reader; I'm pretty sure you're going to get some "bounces" (people who get to your front page and turn around and go elsewhere) because of this. There's no recommendation I can offer for this, just a note that it is going to impact the size of your reader pool.

Which brings me to another general advice point: we all do things that will cut down on our pool of potential readers. Using my Devourer of Destiny as an example, I have an unapologetically wicked protagonist. This is going to turn off some folks. I do invite folks to stick around and see if the handling of the characters interests them anyway, but I cannot force people to want to read about a straight-up murderer. I am okay with that. The takeaway here is that you have various artistic choices to make with your novel, and only you can decide what's important enough to stick to your guns for. Everybody should have something about their novel that will turn off some amount of readers; to have it otherwise is to be writing trite marketing pablum, not a novel. Take a look at your own novels and understand these things and their importance to you, the writer. Make your own decisions and make sure you're okay with the invisible costs.

The Beginning

Okay, back to things we can work on, I'm next looking at the first part of your first chapter here. I know you said you may cut the chapter entirely; that's up to you, of course. Whatever you do with your first chapter, understand that the first "screen" or so of text should capture the reader to keep scrolling down and reading more.

Your first paragraph is an omniscient third person infodump. This rarely works out as a first thing because you've immediately broken the rules and started telling us things instead of showing them. It's clinical and dry. Other visual media like film and television get away with introducing this with a narrator because they have something going on in the background that looks interesting. You only have your text, and so you shouldn't do that.

Your second paragraph makes for a better first paragraph. It immediately has stuff happening. This is good. The main problem with it is that your verb tense shifts halfway through, starting in the present and then going past tense. Just stick with past tense from the outset; the tense shifting thing is unconsciously snapping the process of immersion right in half, so you want to nip that in the bud.

It is extremely important that you run through the first few paragraphs for issues like the tense thing, because you are establishing an expectation for the level of the novel's quality here. You should obviously be running everything through some sort of checker in the end, but the start is where typos/grammar/syntax will turn people off, the most extreme folks running to review "this is a crime against the English language" and such.

Whether you cut the chapter entirely or not is up to you. Just make sure to address these concerns for whatever your start is.

Parting Stuff
You're in a pretty good position on the chart, all considered, but can do a bit more to improve it. If you get some extra time, look at the folks around you and see what they're doing better/worse and try to learn from it if you can.

Of course, there are some things you just can't change outside of just the deliberate artistic choice thing. Some folks came into the opening of Inkstone with chapter stockpiles. A few are works and authors from other sites with existing fanbases that are transplanting over here. Both of these are huge advantages in getting eyeballs on the chapters (which is what determines popularity). There's currently nothing we can do for it other than continue to steadily produce and hope it all equalizes as all the numbers rise together and as the site adds things to support us.

That's that for now, sorry if adding in the general advice for everybody makes it confusing but I figure that's the cost for taking up page space that other people have to read. Now I have stuff to catch up on since my cable's back. ;)

WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL I was really hoping there would be a complete ranking system stack8ng translated and original novels together. It would be really interesting for instance to compare the top original novel and see where it end up on the list.

Rhueless Me too! It would be nice if they could be separated so it's easier to find them all. But I'm also quite happy that I'm slowly getting readers anyway! xD. I know it takes a while since I don't have a stockpile of chapters and most people wait till they can binge, me included.

Bigbear yeah like this we won't mix chinese novels with original novels from readers

Elsx It's difficult to be a man after travelling to the futur = IDMTF
Something like that I guess

WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL I hope you guys make a thread specifically to show off the new original book covers the artists make. I dont want to bury myself searching for them in the genre section.

ImperfectInfinity
1. You can post it elsewhere since you own the copyright. This will only change if you monetize your work through Webnovel by signing a contract with them, which you will know the limitations when offered one.

2. Shouldn't be a problem. Though do choose the proper rating when submitting your novel so that people will know that it contains such elements.

CKtalon Thanks I went with the 17 or above, the other ratings are a little more confusing. Is Restricted more or less severe than 17 or above?

WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL What are the benefits that author gets when their novel is published on your platform?

NewCultivator So far? Exposure?

ImperfectInfinity I assume that's the highest.

Ohmygeerald nice

kcgrabin I'd guess that it's selected internally since they have popular and not so popular novels there. Probably picking the ones with a pretty cover and decent score so it would look nice on the home page.

Kulha that makes sense

How do you title volumes?