How do you promote your Webnovel?

[KaraKuriKurari]

Hey there!

I have a question, how do you guys promote your novels? Since there's no YouTube videos that actually explains how one goes about to promote their Webnovel.
Do you just upload it and let it sit in the website?
Or you go around the forum or social media to promote your story? How effective is that?

Currently I'm working on a webnovel that I want to turn into a comic in the future.

Faith | Blurry Lines | Tapas

My writing is kind of weird not gonna lie...

[drcharlotterodricks]

Interact with creators on the forum threads.I post mine on twitter/facebook & my mom share's it on her whatsapp status XD

[milejdyvan]

How do you promote? You just did it with this post XD Anyway, will check out your story.

And as I like to say, every small writer needs to use every opportunity to promote, so here's mine

Individuality Book 1 - The Burning Rose | Tapas

[KaraKuriKurari]

I see, do you use any particular hashtag on twitter?

[KaraKuriKurari]

Thank you for considering on checking out my story! I'll also be looking at yours.

I'm just kind of new to Tapas, I used to only post fanfiction, and never realize that it's actually so easy to gain readers. T_T

[WolfUnderTheMoon89]

For me... just talking on the forums. uploading and twitter now and then. But twitter doesnt seem to so much. Uploading seems to do most

[crosswarrior7]

My main means of promotion has proven to be offering a one chapter exchange with other users xD

[MeltingCORE]

Hello! There are many ways you can promote your novel. Many of us have social media accounts for our work ranging from Twitter to DeviantART to Instagram. Just having extra accounts where you can cross-promote with your Tapas helps a lot. Having a website is nice too (although that won't generate a lot of traffic if you don't have much to share). If you're also an artist, having extra socials really helps. I say this because I'm an artist and writer - when I share my artwork, characters, and tidbits from my world, that always seems to generate interest in the actual novel series. Then I slap my Tapas links on all my posts haha! I also have a YouTube where I post storytime speedpaints and original music for my series.

And yes, talking with other creators helps! I occasionally see creators who are either too shy to interact with others or are afraid that interacting will somehow overshadow their own work. I advise new creators not to be afraid to interact - you'll gain readers and sometimes even make friends along the way! I know I have.

[Van]

Uh, just promoting in the forums, social media and on discord servers is pretty neat
(you also gotta be shameless while doing it uwu)

https://tapas.io/series/Mininini

[KaraKuriKurari]

Yes... I'm kind of a shy person so someone telling me to be a bit shameless about promoting sure is assuring in a way hahaha

[honeyandcreambutter]

A few things I've learnt from research:

• If you have a social media account (like instagram or facebook), link your web novel in your bio so people can immediately check it out when they go to your profile

• Try posting on twitter every time you update! Or go to a subreddit for web novels so you can post your updates.

• Try posting on different platforms (i.e. Wattpad, Scribblehub, RoyalRoad)! It might be a little bit more work than necessary (having to copy and paste multiple times) but the more people are exposed to your work, the better! I do suggest being wary of Webnovel/Qidian but if you're up for it, go for it!

• Finally, every creative work takes time to be acknowledged. My Wattpad novel only had 100+ views and maybe 3-4 comments spread out amongst 12 chapters during its first month. But after checking it again recently, I've gained 16.2k views and 70+ comments (thanks to the ranking system for the hashtags I guess?). The same goes for Webtoons. If it's starting out a little slow and you feel frustrated, step back and tell yourself that everything takes time to grow.

P. S. Also, try to remember that many readers (novels and webtoons alike) prefer to subscribe once there are more chapters out so they can binge read it in the future ^^ Truthfully, I only sub to something once it has over 15-20 chapters XD

[KaraKuriKurari]

I'm also an artist but I don't have a really large following, and I am leaning on the shy type of person so maybe that's why?

[rizamasuyama]

Make sure when promoting on Twitter especially that if you're going to post links and/or use hashtags that they not be in the original tweet (i.e make a thread where the first tweet is you giving the summary etc and then the second tweet in the thread with the links) because Twitter's new algorithm limits/hides posts with non-Twitter links and too many hashtags (don't get me started on how I stupid I think this is but lol).

Forums are also great, and any other social media you can think of! Below is a link to how I recently promoted my upcoming chapter update as an example

https://twitter.com/fujoshitings/status/1314227775818141696?s=20

[KaraKuriKurari]

This info is really helpful thank you!! I haven't thought of promoting through a Subreddit, the people there tends to be more engaging, from what I see.

I've tried uploading on wattpad, MangaToon and Webnovel. I'll try the websites you've suggest me. Also is Webnovel bad? I heard from a lot of people to be careful, but i never know the reason as to why do you think you can tell me the reason why?

[KaraKuriKurari]

I never knew about this! I'm still learning my way through twitter, and I only use it to stalk artists that I like most of the time.

[domisotto]

I pinned a post showing my novels’ quotes and links to my Wattpad and Tapas on Twitter, and I talk about other things. If people want to, they will check it out by visiting my profile.

The same with forums—I talk about what interests me, post quotes of what I am working on, and if anyone gets intrigued, they can click on my profile and see my story or stories. No obligations, no asking, because, well, why force it?

I tried to do more in the past, posting pretty quotes on twitter and Instagram with clever invitations to check out the chapters, but it doesn’t really yield results, except, possibly, that I now despise Instagram, while before I found it mildly bewildering. My accounts are small, and frankly, I don’t think people who don’t know me, see it.

I also doubt the world has that many people left who are not already here and who desperately want to read free web books.

Tapas already shows me in fresh when I update. From there, it’s up to people to check it out.

[KaraKuriKurari]

Yeah, I agree with you on hating Instagram, just looking at it makes my stomach queasy. I just can't stand looking at it, and rather avoid it, I don't mind twitter though, maybe because I try to stay away from the toxic part, or I'm just using it to stalk artist that I like?

And, I'm the lazy type, I'll post and let it sit in the website, if anyone stumbles on it then I'm really happy that they did and grateful for checking my story.

[honeyandcreambutter]

No problem ^^ Hopefully the lessons I've learnt will help you out in your journey! Reddit is surprisingly helpful in promoting your webnovel/webtoons! I've gained quite a few readers from posting there ^^ just try not to spam post every day or on other people's post otherwise some redditors might get annoyed

Here's some in-depth information on why Webnovel is a bad platform: Blog post

They provide a lot more information than I can! But for me personally, it's because they don't really cater to the authors. Not to mention, they don't offer the option to delete your novel unless you send in a support ticket (and their support is SLOW) Also, if you sign a contract with QD, they make you take it down on other platforms to make it exclusively available on their platform (no crossposting allowed) and you can't receive support from Patreon either.

[mcarrowolga]

Tuesdayserial is a nice place to promote webnovels:

Tuesday Serial

[drcharlotterodricks]

I watch all the relevant ones..so I stalk a bunch of creators and see what they use..Right now, I believe, writersgain is trending