Recommended sites to post novels of certain genres?

[Katzalcoatl]

I heard of scribblehub, RoyalRoad, and HoneyFeed are good sites but do they automatically post on certain dates of preloaded chapters like tapas?

How easy are they to use?
And which other sites do you guys recommend to publish on?

Btw not wattpad already investigated all cons and pros so decided to exclude it. Although it is a great site from what I hear mostly fan-fiction thrives there.

I would greatly appreciate sites that like sci-fi/action cyberpunk style (for one work of mine) and other sites for romance GL (for another work of mine).
The sci-fi work is meant for people over 18 due to violence. It is safe on every other standard.

I also have a work that is mainly psychological so if anyone knows where to post that as well it will be great.

[Crusoe]

I have been mirroring my novel on honeyfeed and wattpad. Because you don't want wattpad, I'll give my thoughts on honeyfeed.

Honeyfeed is mostly popular for lightnovel style works in whatever genre. Shorter works seem to thrive on there and works with anime/manga style covers. So I think your GL might do well there. However, the community isn't that big yet, so at best your work will get a couple thousand reads. You can also post your other work there but royalroad seems to be more oriented towards that genre.

Honeyfeed does not have scheduling available or authors notes per chapter but it also has a lot of pros. Every newly uploaded work/chapter gets a little while on the frontpage which helps reach new viewers and comments are shown on the sites frontpage as well. It's very easy to use.

[Katzalcoatl]

Awesome can I post images? Like on tapas? For maybe ads like ko-fi?

I did think of going on wattpad at first but I saw new works get barely any spotlight. Now honeyfeed attracts me a lot with those pros. It may be a small community but hey gotta start somewhere no?

[bulgariansumo]

I post here on Tapas, Royal Road, and Wattpad.

RoyalRoad thrives on LitRPG. LitRPGs are stories where JRPG-based systems are front-and-center. Things like levelling up via experience points, character builds, dungeons, anything where numbers are climbing up. Progression fantasy is also popular there. From what I gathered, it's basically any fantasy where the main character gets noticeably stronger over time. I've heard of sci-fi and cyberpunk books doing well there, but anything that isn't LitRPG has a bit of an uphill battle in store.

Heavy romance is kind of frowned on, but GL is generally received well there. And as long as you tag your story with the appropriate warning, most violent content should be fine. Sexual content is the big no-no on that site.

Royal Road has, in my opinion, the best UI out of any writing site I've seen so far. It has limited genre tags similar to Tapas, but there's a wider variety of them. There's also limited subgenre tags, with even more options to choose from, though there's no dedicated GL tag (for admittedly weird reasons.) You can preschedule chapters. Royal Road has a pretty in-depth search system, and there's a way to see newest releases. If you want to grow an audience there fast, it's best to build up a backlog and release daily to take advantage of the new release section. Even if you're writing in a less popular genre, it's easiest to get seen there from my experience.

I've only seen scribblehub once or twice. Most of my knowledge of it is based on what people from Royal Road have to say, so take it with a grain of salt. Scribblehub has kind of the same demographics as RR in terms of what's popular there, but way more smutty in an anime kind of way.

[Katzalcoatl]

Thank you @bulgariansumo it seems my second novel might work there since it has heavy influence in japanese works. It does not have a system LitRPG but it is inside a videogame. MC gets stronger very slowly mainly controlled by the other main character who is fully op but gets stronger over time. Now I wrote from MC perspective who is being limited and controlled by the other main character. So I might do well there in that sense. Who knows might not be their cup of tea or it might.

(NOTE: It's hard to write about something without spoiling the story or using the summary. As you can see I am very protective about my work until it gets officially released.)

As for my GL novel it is mostly influenced by korean works so it might not thrive but heck I'll share it and see if it works.

Both of my works include villainess so that might get some people interested or it might not.

Thanks for all the information.

[bulgariansumo]

No problem, glad to help! A few other things I should mention:

1) You can post pictures there.

2) I don't know if you plan on publishing traditionally or through Amazon or anything like that, but I should warn you that Royal Road does fall victim to scraper sites. I've yet to see any that a potential publisher could search for through Google, usually they have really bad SEO, but that is something to watch out for.

[Katzalcoatl]

Can't do much about those sites.
It is what it is.
But do you know how often scrapper sites copy the works on royal road? Or do they like only copy popular works?

Just trying to measure if the risk of a scrapper is worth getting a fan base on RoyalRoad.

If I do publish it will probably be on amazon with a hardcover book design unique and with some extra content. My plan is to let my work be free except the ko-fi options to get support. And only releasing a premium book offer on amazon or something like that.

[bulgariansumo]

I have no idea how often scraper sites copy from RR. I think I've heard of two of them from other users. One of them had my story, which isn't popular in the slightest, and I think it was a slightly outdated version of it at the time. So that particular site didn't copy too often. I think I've heard that having a more popular story carries a higher risk, though you might be better off asking someone else on RR about it (there's forums).

That sounds pretty similar to my own plan. I want to have at least one free version of the story up, even if I plan to publish through Amazon or KU. If they want exclusivity, then I'll just have to earn money some other way, like Ko-Fi, Patreon, etc.

[cherrystark]

@bulgariansumo If you plan on bringing your work to Amazon, you can't have a free version up anywhere unless you plan to drastically change the free version so it's not "technically" the same story anymore.

[bulgariansumo]

Ah, thanks for letting me know!

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Scrapper sites work on almost every work regardless of popularity. Like everything.

If you immediately get a mysterious view after publishing, that's probably one. It does not copy your series and rather act as a repository. I heard it is to enhance site's SEO or something.

[Katzalcoatl]

So Royal Road is not recommended?

[DasIstWunderblyat]

If you don't mind scrappers, you can post there.
Recommended or not, it depends on many factors and your own end goal. Some factors have been covered by posters above.

It is a bit a hassle to set up your new series on RR as you have to prove it is yours, and wait for approval before you can have it published to the mass. Same with deleting, you have to contact the site moderator or admin I think.

Also RR have rating and review system, which many people on Tapas prefer not having. You can exchange reviews for feedback and readership (though it can be hit-or-miss). It also can be abused and results to your series being downrated for no reason, or for petty reasons (e.g. being romance or BL)

[Katzalcoatl]

Yup, I saw some people get spammed by bots to get voted down for no reason. It seems some readers in royal road are very critic to things they don't like.
But the scrapper site is a problem.
Can't say I am enthusiastic of posting in a site that has obvious security issues. But who knows might try it later on.

[cherrystark]

If you're based out of the US, I recommend Amazon's platform. It's pretty straightforward and you can earn a little money without having to jump through all the hoops other platforms due to qualify for revenue.

[Katzalcoatl]

How does it work? Do you have a link I could use to see more information?

[cherrystark]

Yeah. It's pretty straightforward. You set up a KDP account so you can get paid. Then you upload the story. Chapters have to be between 600-5000 words, which equates to 6-50 tokens. You get paid based off the tokens spent on the chapter.

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GR2L4AHPMQ44HNQ7

[Katzalcoatl]

It's actually pretty good. I only saw regular amazon books. Not kindle vella. The downside is that kindle vella does not allow you to have your work posted for free elsewhere if it is behind a paywall it is fine. That being said. I will check it out before deciding to post on tapas or kindle vella.

Edit---
It seems kindle vella is only available to read for people in the US.
Tapas will give me a larger audience in the sense that my novel can be read outside the US.

[cherrystark]

Which is fair. I opted for KV because I'd gotten to the point on Tapas where people start thinking "what next for their webnovel". Pitching to premium wasn't the best option for me for that particular story. But I have a Vella now that I wish I'd posted to Tapas in hindsight because people don't see the humor in it that I do. If I found the right story, I'd definitely post it here on Tapas.

[Katzalcoatl]

It seems you can't be an author on kindle vella outside the US for now. But I will keep an eye out if they ever go global.