Pros, cons, & audiences of every writing/webnovel site[a continual discussion]

[Paul_Tromba]

I am so glad that it was helpful! I hope your publication endeavors go well!

[TKOden]

I'm a High Fantasy author, and after doing some research, I've decided Royal Road will be my best fit. The story does have some loose inspiration from video games (grew up playing them) but it's not at all litrpg or isekai. Was wondering if anyone here might be able to give their experience posting there. This fantasy story is epic in scale, the first book alone will breach 300,000 words, so I'm hoping it'll find its audience on RR and maybe gain enough traction for the sequel to be traditionally published.

[Paul_Tromba]

RR and Questionable Questing would be good for your story as both have a lot of high fantasy fans. RR is more of a Litrpg site but it does have a large high fantasy audience. With 300,000 words, you should be fine so long as it is released consistently.

However, I would recommend not releasing the story on a webnovel site if you intend for it be a traditionally published series as many publishers will not even consider reading a manuscript if it has a webnovel release.

I hope this helps.

[CarltonIsaac]

Interesting subject matter.
I’ve been on a few of these sites. Some from way back in the early 2000s.

Fanfiction has a sister site for original works named Fictionpress. These two sites were really good for serious readers back in the 2000s but their lack of flash and thunder make the sites less attractive to today’s readers’ market.

Royal Road didn’t work for me the first time, and I deleted my account there in 2014. But I might consider trying the site once more.

The Submissions Grinder is a decent site to make some money off; if your submitted work isn’t among the high ratio of rejections they dish out every day.

Webnovel is a big no, no. Don’t care for their TOS.

Amazon is where I’d had the most success in terms of making money, mostly from print sales since I signed up back in 2016. And while KDP is good for making quick money from a vast readership base, the major con is that they allow people to leave low reviews scores after just reading a page or two.

The best source of making it big as a writer (if fame isn’t your thing) is Freelance work, for clients who publish in bulk on Amazon and other online sites.

[Paul_Tromba]

Thank you so much for this information! I shall update this as soon as I can.

[The_Chosen_Z]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[TKOden]

Sadly, this seemed like the most viable option. Traditional publishing houses won't even look at a debut author's work if it's over 100k words. And I don't believe I have the platform to have a successful self published work. Only other option I've considered was pitching a smaller novel of a different genre to get my foot in the door. The issue with that is that it's far less polished than this fantasy story and I'm far less passionate/motivated to complete it.

My goal with RR was to release something impactful that garnishes a ton of readers (every author's dream, I know) so that I'd create a big enough name for myself to successfully self publish the completed work and the following sequels. I'm very confident in the story itself, just wanted to make sure I chose the right outlet to actually get it in the hands of readers.

[The_Chosen_Z]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[Paul_Tromba]

If that is the case, I would suggest publishing on every site available except the ones where your genre's are hated or banned from. This will heavily increase your chances of getting more readers. It seems that you already have a pretty good plan otherwise. I did the same and it worked okay.

[TKOden]

I didn't want to surrender any ownership or rights away by releasing on other platforms, I know some own a portion of your story should you post it there. I'll look more into some author friendly places and might take that advice of putting it elsewhere. Thanks for your input!

[Paul_Tromba]

Fair. Stay away from webnovel then.

[cherrystark]

I seriously recommend making a long term plan beyond just looking for reads. I'm in KDP community and I know so many writers who go full on boss babe for their writing. Yes, they make decent money but managing their content is all they do. I know a lot of writers went to Inkspired after Vella went kapoot. Vella was the best deal monetarily for writers out of all the platforms. They thought that their loyal readers would follow them to multiple platforms, but they haven't. Now a ton of them are struggling.