Webnovel.Forum

Mookashea
Well, authors can't really delete reviews, only report them. Even then, I've only ever seen 1 star reviews get deleted, usually as part of a series of spam reviews on 1 novel from multiple accounts. I remember 1 story where a guy actually used like 30 different accounts to bomb the score of a story he hated. Then a fan of the story spammed 5 star reviews in response. Of course, the troll then claimed the author was doing it, resulting in other ordinary readers review bombing the story. In that case, all of the 5 star and 1 star review bombs were eventually removed multiple times, as the review bomber kept it up a while.

I agree authors shouldn't be able to delete reviews, which is how it already works. The report system can be a bit slow, but it does work overall.

Mookashea
If they're following the rating system as it is intended, then one star reviews should be extremely rare to the point of almost being nonexistent. This is because of the ratings for update stability and writing quality. For a story to score 1 star in update stability, it likely isn't being updated anymore, which means it also isn't popular and likely isn't being read by many (if any) new readers. So, assuming a story is being updated daily, then that right there bumps the overall minimum score up to 1.8 stars overall (5 star + 1 star in each other category divided by 5). Writing quality is debatable. There are quite a few non-native English speakers that have poor writing quality. But even then, if they can write in English (even if horrendously) then it likely deserves between two and three stars in that category depending on just how bad it is. Yet despite this, some reviewers leave 1 star in this category even if a story is written by a native-English speaker with decent grammar and story flow. I've also noticed that if you check the profiles of these low 1 or 1.5 star reviewers, they almost exclusively leave negative 1 - 1.5 star reviews on books. The other three categories of characters, world background, and story are all plausible for actually scoring 1 star since they are far more subjective. Even then though, how bad do they all need to be to score 1 star? This is why I say anything beneath a 2 star review is illegitimate, as the reviewer is either not making the review in good faith or not following the rating system as intended. That's not to say some of their written feedback within the review won't be legitimate, but in my experience that tends to be exception to the norm.

So, in summary, you only need 5 stars in update stability and 2 stars in a single other category to score an overall 2 out of 5. Going based off my own writing, it's really the 2 through 4 star reviews that are most valuable. On average, they tend to leave more useful information on both the pros and cons of the story. Reviews below 2 stars are usually either spam or trolls. Those that do leave legitimate reviews beneath 2 stars rarely, if ever, leave good and accurate feedback.

All of the above being said, I do believe the current rating system could use improvement. I sometimes question whether update stability should really be part of a book rating when it has no real impact on the actual story itself. I understand why it's included, but I don't really agree with it. I imagine that removing update stability from the review system would result in more accurate scores across the board, and a lot more stories would likely drop into the 3 star range if it was removed.

Mookashea
Multiple reasons.
1. Less popular novels tend to have an inflated rating. 99% of the time a book's rating will drop as it becomes more popular. This is likely because readers that pick up newer novels are the type of people more willing to encourage newer authors. Also, there is much less content to judge a book on at the early stages, and readers that only read the more popular books tend to be more picky
2. The rating system encourages higher-rated reviews. Even if a story is absolute trash, if it updates daily then there should be 5 stars given for that specific category. Many awful stories also have excellent writing quality, and many great stories have terrible writing quality. This all adds up to legitimate bad reviews usually scoring 2 or 3 stars. Combined with the good reviews, the scores naturally lean higher than on many other sites. Of course, some readers will give one star reviews, but their feedback probably shouldn't be taken as legitimate, as one star reviews are almost never made in good faith. How bad would a story need to be to score a single star in writing quality, stability of updates, story development, character design, and world background? Anything below an overall score of 2 stars is practically impossible if a legitimate review is being made in good faith.
3. Community. Different novel sites have different communities. For the most-part (and there are a lot of exceptions to this), Webnovel readers tend to be fairly friendly. They may be less harsh in their feedback in order to encourage authors and/or translators. Other novel site communities sometimes take the opposite approach, believing that harsh criticism is best for the author.

Honestly, I don't think Webnovel really has an issue with the rating system though. Power ranking based on power stones can be a much more accurate metric in a lot of ways. Also, once you're familiar with how books tend to be rated, then it's fairly easy to judge a book. Anything under 4 stars is probably awful except to the most dedicated fans, unless it's review bombed by trolls (which happens way too often). 4.1 to 4.2 star stories are usually just okay. 4.3 to 4.4 are probably around average. 4.5 to 4.6 are above average. 4.7 and up is reserved for the best stories. However, it's important to keep in mind the popularity of the book as well. The less popular the book, the less reliable these scores become. You can easily dock 0.4 to 0.8 stars from an unpopular book's rating to get a more accurate guesstimate of how good it's likely to be. This is because truly good 4.7 or higher rated books will likely rise in the rankings quickly, resulting in the score either adjusting to what it should be or it truly being good enough to maintain its high ranking while popular.

As a real example of the above, I like to use my book, Steampunk Apocalypse. It tended to hover around 4.8 stars in the first few weeks. This was because there was little content to judge, only dedicated readers were looking into the newest books, and new authors tend to participate in review swaps. Now, my book jumps between 4.3 and 4.4 stars pretty steadily, which I think is fair. I'm of the personal opinion that the beginning of my own book is pretty bad, but it improves drastically by the 2nd volume. But despite quality going up as I continued writing, the score dropped due to increasing popularity. Most poor ratings will come from the first 3 to 15 chapters, so this makes perfect sense. So now, I just pretty much assume any new book I read that isn't in the top 100 has a legitimate rating 0.4 to 0.8 stars below what is listed, and if I'm wrong, then the book will likely grow in popularity and prove it =p.

BabyTanuki
Didn't Macha's Journey use to be fairly popular? If so, then you could have applied for a contract through Discord. That's what I did after entering the top 50 in the rankings. Granted, ranking doesn't guarantee anything.

Unfortunately, piracy will always be an issue for easily-accessible goods like novels. Same goes for similar media like comics, movies, and video games. If a novel is ever pirated, all the copyright holder can really do is send a DMCA to have it taken down, which isn't a particularly tedious or troublesome thing to do. However, most piracy sites are hosted in obscure countries where it either isn't illegal or the creators of the pirate sites just don't care, so the DMCA will often accomplish nothing.

If it makes you feel any better, the fact that your book was free to begin with means that very few people were likely reading it on the pirate sites since they would likely be aware of it being free on the original platform. Also, most pirates aren't willing to pay for content in the first place, so it's a bit debatable whether it would really result in lost income or not. I know from experience though that it definitely doesn't feel good having your hard work stolen.

Ultimately, the best solution to piracy is usually ease of access to goods. That's why Steam killed most video game pirating and Netflix killed most movie pirating. Unfortunately, new platforms are starting to compete with these two services, resulting in fragmented services that divide up content, which is inconvenient for users. I imagine we'll start seeing a steady increase in movie and video game pirating over the next decade as a result. And so continues the ever ongoing war of piracy vs ease of access for the consumer >.>

KrampusHD
Those other sites for most books are piracy, and they have their own downsides. Skipping over moral debates, those sites usually just take chapters as soon as they're written. This means that if an author fixes errors, updates an old chapter, or rewrites portions of the book, then those changes likely won't take place on the pirate site. Just something to keep in mind.

Also, as another commentator said, those sites can't pirate if this site isn't profitable. Webnovel, translators, and authors get paid based on how many people buy their chapters. It's best to not encourage others to pirate even if you do so yourself. That way, things remain more profitable and you can continue to enjoy the books in the future.

Webnovel also has the subscription option now, granted it's only in beta for Android at the moment. I'd imagine this will solve the issue of cost for many readers.

Well, plenty of translated stories get dropped as well. Usually the less popular ones. Most stories that are both popular and translated won't be dropped though, and they're often finished before translation begins. It's a bit of an unfair comparison since I'm sure just as many Chinese novels are dropped as well, thus never getting popular and/or translated.

That being said, that's why I'm generally a fan of contracted original authors. Granted, I'm biased as someone that has been contracted. Regardless, the nice thing about contracted originals is that there are contractual obligations in place, so the author is far less likely to drop the story. At the very least, most contracted originals would write the minimum agreed upon word count and wrap the story up in a hurry. The more popular ones would likely continue until a satisfying finish.

Anyways, that's just my two cents on the topic =p

StokesEta

You could also gift a single novel 400 balloons instead. Then the author would sign in and see 400 notifications and be like wtf?
Lol.

Agreed. I'd like multiple libraries too.

Ideally, I think it should be divided into two main libraries between comics and novels. Then, allow the reader to put the novels and comics in four sub categories for each library. 1. Currently Reading. 2. Plan to Read. 3. On Hold. 4. Completed.

toothpastesmoothie
Another fun mixup could be the God pretending to be an ordinary human and participating in the olympics and such to earn prizes and money. Basically, make him a selfish cheapskate that rips off the humans too just for fun. Lol

YoTruly
My story:
https://www.webnovel.com/book/11594443706436005/Steampunk-Apocalypse!

Setting is a alternative future earth. MC is kind of lame early on but becomes cold/crazy as the story continues.

Lady_Liah
To be fair, I think Webnovel stops promoting all premium novels as much after their first few weeks. I was promoted like crazy during that time, and now it seems to be back to normal. I never entered the top 30 and usually hover in the low 40's, so I think it's pretty even promotion to most authors =p. I imagine it'll also become less promoted in the future as more and more originals are contracted, which makes sense. Books can't really be promoted forever =p. Though maybe they do continue promoting it occasionally in the future. I feel this also makes sense, as seeing the same book on the front page constantly will eventually lead to ignoring it, whereas if it vanishes a while and reappears, then it might seem more significant to those that have seen it before.

stupid_villain

Depends. How popular were you before the hiatus?

You'll probably need to update daily until you get featured on the Daily Updates section, as that would be the main way for you to gain new viewers at the moment. You could also participate in some of the review swap threads with other authors to try to get some feedback.

If you're confident in your story's quality, then you could write a few more chapters and then join the Discord to ask curator Edgbarry if your story can be featured on trending originals for a few days. That tends to be very good for views, and it can also be the make-it or break-it moment for novels to gain popularity. Worst case scenario is he says no if you ask him to feature it, so there's really nothing to lose.

Ultimately, it's popularity that determines if a story can get contracted or not. If your book becomes popular, then your chances go up significantly. However, only the most popular stories get offered a contract without asking. To my knowledge, most authors actively ask for a contract through Discord. Then they give you an application to fill out and they check your story's stats to make a decision on whether to offer one or not.

As for how popular you have to be? Hard to say, as that's up to Webnovel to decide. I actively asked for a contract with my book and got one. Around that time, my story had peaked in popularity somewhere around #40 in the original rankings after trending a few days. My book was also the #1 original in the horror/thriller section, which is kind of niche, so that may have also been a factor. Also, rankings can be misleading as well, as you could have a lot of dedicated voters and few readers or you could have the complete opposite with few voters and more readers. That's why there's a popularity list of rankings in addition to power stone rankings.

On an additional note, there are some stories that rise in popularity slowly whereas others instantly shoot into the top ranks. As an example, my book was originally the winner of the Steampunk writing contest. Despite winning, I only had 37 power stones and was rank 402 at the time. From there, I got trending for a few days as a reward for winning the contest, but even then I wasn't particularly popular. My books rank at the end of following weeks were: 172, 113, 97, 97, 86, 54, 40. It was around here that I asked for a contract, and I had gotten that high due to trending a 2nd time. I believe the 2nd trending was much more helpful, as I had more chapters and a good cover by then.
On the flip-side, I've also seen a book get insanely popular in a writing contest in its first week, managing to go so far as to enter the top 25. It immediately got contracted, but the book's popularity dropped like a rock after and I don't see it in the top 100 anymore despite it still being updated daily. So things can really go either way.

I hope all that info helps your decision =p. If you decide to write a new story instead, you may want to check out writing contests. They can be a big help for boosting popularity in the early stages. However, it's a double-edged sword, as writing a brand new story based on a new theme you didn't know ahead of time can easily lead to plot-holes and poor early chapters (what happened to my story). You can also write offline and off of Inkstone, and then wait for a writing contest theme to come along that your story fits. Then you basically get to cheat the system by entering with a well-planned story with lots of chapters, haha. However, that does require patience =p.

Bosy_Elselhdar
Looks like the book got taken down. Sorry to hear someone did that to your work, though unfortunately, it seems fairly common in the day and age of piracy.

If it makes you feel any better, those 16k views are not really 16k reads, as that's not how views work on this website. A view occurs whenever someone looks at the book's webpage, so 16k reads would only mean the page had been opened 16k times. And for this website, if a reader only reads 1 chapter, then comes back hours later to read another, and so forth, then each time it would count as a view. 16k views on this website is very little, and I'd dare to guess only a couple hundred people might have actually read it. Those that did read also probably weren't the types to buy books, as not many readers on this website are willing to pay for books. This doesn't really make the situation any better, but just thought I'd let you know.

AnWan
I don't really read that genre much, but here are some resources for it:
Webnovel Evolution writing contest #48: https://forum.webnovel.com/d/18670-writing-prompts-contests-47-48
Webnovel Gene Evolution writing contest #23 https://forum.webnovel.com/d/13294-writing-prompts-contests-22-23
Webnovel Evolved Beasts in Another World writing contest #5 https://forum.webnovel.com/d/9692-writing-prompts-contests-4-5
Novelupdates tag Reincarnated as a Monster: https://www.novelupdates.com/stag/reincarnated-as-a-monster/
Novelupdates tag Evolution: https://www.novelupdates.com/stag/evolution/

Hope that helps. My novel doesn't fit this genre, but I'll advertise it anyways =p
https://www.webnovel.com/book/11594443706436005/Steampunk-Apocalypse!

Tianwuxie
Weedman
They just added an elite subscription plan for unlimited chapters. I haven't tried it, but that might be what you're looking for. https://forum.webnovel.com/d/19228-win-50-ss-new-android-beta-version-test-revolutionary-change-forever

me321
Looked to me like the elite subscription is supposed to be monthly, with the 1st month being half off on price? I didn't see anything mentioning it being temporary.

me321
In the past, that would probably be your only option.
They introduced an elite membership subscription a day or two ago though. Not sure if it's only for Android at the moment or what though. https://forum.webnovel.com/d/19228-win-50-ss-new-android-beta-version-test-revolutionary-change-forever

Yozuka
That's not what it says though?
It says:
Authors sign a royalty contract with Webnovel. Authors will share the revenue earned from subscriptions on the website, direct sales from other platforms, and other monetization of the copyright. With the advantage of a continual stream of revenue, the standard royalty sharing is also the best choice to ensure an author’s long-term earnings.

It's pretty much a 50/50 split of revenue for a royalty contract for most contracted authors. That includes premium chapters in addition to if Webnovel sells the rights to another media adaptation such as a movie, anime, drama, comic, etc.

BrightDawn
Note: Not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

The copyright belongs to you unless you sign a contract with Webnovel.

Not sure what @Yozuka means, as he is incorrect in his last paragraph. The only way a story goes premium is if you sign a contract with webnovel, and that would typically give Webnovel your copyright. Perhaps an extremely popular author could negotiate the contract differently, but I've never heard of it being done another way.

AshlynRiter
It's not really important. It's just what you prefer to call the abbreviated form of your book. For example, for my book Steampunk Apocalypse! I used the abbreviation SPA! Look at my novel page and you'll see small white text in a back background next to the title that says SPA! https://www.webnovel.com/book/11594443706436005/Steampunk-Apocalypse!
Every book has a small abbreviation next to the book like that based on what the author made the abbreviation. To my understanding, it doesn't really do anything. If you're popular though, then fans will probably refer to a long book title as the abbreviation in discussion forums instead of the full title. Much like how everyone refers to Warlock of the Magus World as WMW or Coiling Dragon as CD.