Tapas Vs Webnovel: Share your experience and opinions

[Sadistic_Senpai]

I know Tapas has more audience for comics than novels. So, I was wondering if you have experience of posting your work on webnovel too? I haven't posted it there tho. Share your experience and opinions about the two. As a writer, which one you found more preferable for you? From the perspective of making money too.

[shfra13]

Can't really speak from experience, as I personally never use Webnovel, so maybe take my word with a grain of salt. Though, I knew of Webnovel when someone reached out on my Wattpad saying that my story can be monetized in webnovel (apparently it's not uncommon!). However, upon researching, it seems that Webnovel has quite a bad reputation. I'd suggest you research for yourself first. There are some threads in Quora and Reddit about it, I think.

[domisotto]

I posted there once, and was unpleasantly surprised that I cannot delete the novel from there. It also felt like a dead site with a bot vanity view increase. Tapas has alive community and I feel that people read my story. I had the warmest reception on Tapas vs Wattpad, Royal Road and Webnovel in my 3 years and 8 novels run.

My recommendation is to do Wattpad for high school fiction and stuff like teen pregnancy novels, BL and fantasy romances on Tapas and gaming fiction and fantasy old-boy-oriented action on Royal Road.

Webnovel and Inkitt feel too unsavoury to go to

[Sadistic_Senpai]

I first posted my story in wattpad. And I was pleasantly surprised that my story got popular pretty quickly there(it's bl). And I also found the readers more engaging/responsive in wattapd, which I love! So, I would say, If anyone wants to build a good readership, no matter the genre, wattpad is pretty good option. There, I was too reached by webnovel, dreame and other such sites. But after researching some, I was skeptical about posting to such sites, because I'm very much concerned about copyrights. Not able to delete your own work definitely sucks but about that I read only those who have been contracted will face that issue. It appears normal users have that problem too? And I also researched Tapas copyright policy too, and this site appeared much safer, open and easy with the option to monetize your work.

Thank you all, who replied, for sharing your thoughts!

[domisotto]

If you’ve made it on Wattpad, it is the biggest jackpot as far as I am aware. Maybe try leveraging it by pitching your story to tapas as premium if Wattpad didn’t offer you paid? Because if you made yourself noticed on Wattpad with new algorithms, you have a crowd pleaser on your hands.

Certainly disregard my advice, lol, it was intended for regular mortals, heh

[Sadistic_Senpai]

Hahaha! No, I don't think my story is that good for premium thing. I'm a novice writer. It's just that, with the popularity of Chinese-translated novels, there're good amount of people with preference for Chinese-themed stories, especially historical ones. Of course, there's also the fact that after posting some chapters on wattpad, one shouldn't be MIA for months; post some chapters every month.

There're certain type of audiences/readers with certain/special preferences in every platform. I could be wrong since I'm new in Tapas, but I don't think the historical genre is much popular in Tapas? Most audience seems young ones with the preference for contemporary. There're no statics, so I don't know. I guess I'll wait for a few months and see how things goes here.

[domisotto]

I don' know, my experience had been that BL plus either fantasy or high school is what hits the sweet spot. Most people don't really write actual historic fiction on-line, they just write fantasy with this or that country's flavor (not that there is anything wrong with it). Just like most people don't write strictly contemporary either, almost always adding supernatural or 'alternative world' element to it.

[WriterLinXiaolong]

There're certain type of audiences/readers with certain/special preferences in every platform. I could be wrong since I'm new in Tapas, but I don't think the historical genre is much popular in Tapas? Most audience seems young ones with the preference for contemporary. There're no statics, so I don't know. I guess I'll wait for a few months and see how things goes here.

I think you are right. Your genre is the same as mine. And I have tried to pitch the story to tapas before which unfortunately, they deemed it to be lacking the romance part (at least from what I gather from the email I received).

The only problem was that in danmei, the story almost never centred around romance. The plot is the one that moves the story, not the romance. And that, I think, wasn't what tapas was looking for because they assumed that wasn't what the reader in here was looking for too.

On another note, from my personal experience, webnovel is good to build on audience, especially for danmei. But that's all it is good for in my honest opinion. Their contract can be described in one word:

Spoiler

Disgusting. And yes, I have the contract saved.

As a writer, which one you found more preferable for you? From the perspective of making money too.

Tapas doesn't have that much audience for danmei yet. So naturally the views/interest isn't as much which mean you probably won't be making a lot of money here unless you can get the few loyal readers to donate inks/ko-fi.

If you are a new writer, I suggest you spread around your work and get those readership.

Chrysanthemum Garden has opened applications for original story. And if you read translated danmei, you should know that they are one of the best translation group.

Foxaholic also accepts original story.

Chaleuria is a bit strict, but you can try your luck. They can paywall your story after chapter 30 if I am not mistaken. And they also offer to help if you decide to sell your story as e-book. But you'll have to reach out to them for further confirmation.

PS: This is just something funny that I found. I make more money in ad revenue in foxaholic compared to the gift system in webnovel and I started that story in webnovel first

[Sadistic_Senpai]

Oh yes, I know about chrysanthemum garden and foxaholic. I think flying lines, too, accept original ones. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, experience and the info.

[hannahlaine]

As someone who posts on both... web novel sucks!... that is all thank you...

if the reason you prefer web novel is because you don't like how comic centered Tapas is, Wattpad and Inkitt are much better options over web novel. I am not sure how many people actually read the novels on Webnovel... because you will rarely ever actually get a comment...

[therosesword]

I'm one of those annoying people who read the fine print (too many years in entertainment contract work) and webnovel's small print made me nervous as did a lot of "talk" about it online.

The small print here didn't do that so that's why I'm here and not elsewhere.

[Prisim]

Their spamming tactics alone are the reason I'll never try webnovel, rnovel, xnovel, or whatever other name they go by. So far I've only gotten it once here on Tapas, but on Wattpad I'm getting multiple PM's a week (sometimes daily) with the EXACT same wording from multiple bot accounts. It is intrusive, obnoxious, and a disgusting practice for any company.

If you're looking to have multiple platforms to post on and aren't sold on Tapas, Wattpad would be the one I'd recommend even with all their current issues.

I can't talk about from a money making perspective since I've made a whopping $1.16 here thus far LOL however, the fact the opportunity is even open to me (after 7 years of Wattpad I was never given that opportunity despite having a decent fanbase) after being here little over a year gets thumbs up from me as far as Tapas goes.

That being said, the small relatively new state of novels on Tapas is actually a selling point because there won't be as much slush in the pile to compete with. Give it a try and see how you like it for yourself since we all have different goals we're shooting for.

[nostalgicroxas]

I suggest giving this thread a read

Does anyone else here use Webnovel? I've scheduled/posted a few chapters up on it to test it's UI and while I'm not a fan of it, I wanted to look at their data insights. The work itself says I have 325 views - not bad - but the insights page since Aug 14th says I have a 0.00% retention rate, reading rate, or anything. I'm assuming that means people are just clicking and leaving within 2 seconds of hitting it, or less, or they're just bot reads :thinking: I've never seen anything like this with s…

[yansusu]

I've already gone on several rants about webnovel in the other thread that @nostalgicroxas linked but since you mentioned you're writing bl, there's something else that I'd like to add and that's their attitude toward bl and LGBT+ as far as I've perceived it:

They recently had a post on their forums about how they don't tolerate bullying and want everyone to feel safe and welcome and that users should report such behavior. Now, as someone who has posted 3 bl novels there, let me tell you that I have gotten reviews and comments that have: vented about bl (still ok), ranted about 'the gays' (not so ok anymore), called me a 'fucking gay' (seriously?), spewed some toxic bullshit along the lines of who they'd like to go to hell (in a much more direct way and with literal meaning). I have reported these comments/reviews and the users that made them. Webnovel never got back to me, didn't delete the comments/reviews, didn't ban the users, nothing. They do not care at all if you are harrassed for writing bl or being LGBT+.

They originally didn't have bl novels but later added some (I believe three?) which received backlash from the community. This isn't necessarily on webnovel themselves but, yes, a large part of their audience hates bl and queers and will tell you so both in comments/reviews and the forums or anywhere else (and if they don't hate it, they at least don't want it clogging up the space for their het romances and harems). So if you want to post there, do expect to get more than average hate for it compared to other sites.
By now, they have also contracted some original bl novels but I don't think I've seen any new translations in the genre pop up. So clearly, bl isn't really a big priority for them in regards to getting a bigger variety to offer (they have at least two new translations every week so I feel like there should have been one every now and then - also, I don't think they have any translated GL?). They'll approach you sooner or later if you are high enough in the genre ranking though so actually getting a contract if you want one would be an achievable goal as a bl writer.

Speaking of genres: lol Your bl novel will be under the 'female lead' category. Because all gay men are apparently women now and/or only novels with female leads can have romance. Authors (and readers alike) were not amused when they made that change but webnovel never actually cares so tough luck.

The one plus that I'll give to them: The readers that actually do read bl on there are really lovely. Not super vocal for the most part (like, I get maybe two comments a chapter for a novel with 1k+ collections (aka following people) and exactly 0 comments on average for my series with 9k followers, lol) but those that do leave you comments are super nice and you can actually have conversations with them in the comments. Every now and then, you'll get a binge-reader that'll comment the heck out of your whole story which makes it feel a little like it's worth it. Overall, you might post into the void though no matter what your other stats look like.

Would I recommend posting on webnovel? Absolutely not. In fact, I'm personally in the process of taking one of the novels down. As in: delete it chapter-by-chapter because - as somebody mentioned already - you can't actually delete the novels. Neither can you delete your account if you have a novel on there btw, just in case you were wondering how fucked up it really is.

So. Rant over

[cavralcheriye]

This comment is probably late but to summarize the following:
Wattpad = lucky to those stories under the dreadful Romance, Love, Being pregnant and etc.. They do not care about other genre
Royal Road and Scribble Hub = have choosy readers and lucky to those stories under the new "Sci-Gi/Gaming/System/Cultivation" or all about gaming stuff.
Penana = 8/10. Mostly caters different genre. My Fantasy story florished there after 15 months while on the first three above never.
Web Novel = I am contracted unpaid author there and it literally taxing to compete under these mediocre genre thet mostly cater: Romance, Historical Fantasy, Love, CEO and stuff, "Cultivation/System".

Thank you.

[joannekwan]

[joannekwan]

Closed due to rez.