Top Web Fiction is Back!

thedude3445 2021-02-18 06:40:41 UTC #1

For any novelists on Tapas, there's a huge new boon to the web fiction community--Top Web Fiction, the prose equivalent to Top Web Comics, has finally re-opened to new accounts and new submissions after over 18 months on hiatus.

https://topwebfiction.com/

The site now lets authors upload their own stories (before it was an approval process that took at least a month), and is very streamlined in general. Acquiring accounts is currently invite-only, but as long as you know an author on the site, they can send you an invite link. It's also great for readers who want to find new stories, of course!

There is a webcomic tag on the site, but I am pretty sure it is only for stories that have comic elements in them but are otherwise prose. I guess?

Anyway, it's really exciting news and I hope a lot of Tapas authors use the site to boost their stories.

You can test out how the site works with this handy link to some random story
https://topwebfiction.com/listings/hands-held-in-the-snow/

DasIstWunderblyat 2021-02-18 07:06:15 UTC #2

Great! I am always wanting to try it out.
Thank you.

Edit: it needs an invite. I am taking a U-turn.

thedude3445 2021-02-18 07:11:17 UTC #3

Oh yeah it needs an invite currently, but if you know an author with an account they can invite you very quickly.

DasIstWunderblyat 2021-02-18 07:16:38 UTC #4

Is the site good though? What kind of habitat is it and what kind of niche thrives on it?

I don't wanna beg and invest in things I will toss when it serves no use to me. Not to mention I know literally nobody that I have nobody to post there

thedude3445 2021-02-18 07:23:34 UTC #5

Oh, well currently the site doesn't really have an identity, because it has declined so much. The site's community consists of the readers of whichever stories use it; when Worm by Wildbow was the top of the top, many thousands of readers voted for it each week, and they voted for other stories they liked, and then a few other competing big stories tried their best to get up there too.

But since the site was basically dead for 18 months, it slowly lost most of its users and now it's down to only a few hundred votes a week. However, this new site change is going to be a huge boost, as long as the more popular authors across the internet decide to add their stories. It'll probably take a week or two but we'll see what kind of stories get extremely popular on there. (Hopefully tons of Tapas novels!)

DasIstWunderblyat 2021-02-18 07:45:12 UTC #6

As long as the more popular authors across the internet decide to add their stories

Ah, not me. Tough luck.
Yet, I will keep in mind on this site if I feel like gambling.

ivanskilling 2021-02-18 07:50:21 UTC #7

I've heard of the site before and found it interesting!
If it's ok with you, can I get an invite link from you?

mcarrowolga 2021-02-18 08:19:51 UTC #8

Alas, getting an invite is not easy. I tried writing to many authors from the list but didn't get a single answer, not just a simple no

DasIstWunderblyat 2021-02-18 08:44:43 UTC #9

I can imagine them being excited (or nervous) that somebody might be interested in their series. . . But it is just some outsiders wanting an invite.

Cannot blame anyone, hopefully this invite-only will be lifted as the site become developed. I just hope this wont be Toyhouse V2. Although being a pioneer is nice too.

rajillustration 2021-02-18 16:29:17 UTC #10

Why did it have a hiatus? Pandemic stuff?

thedude3445 2021-02-18 21:05:22 UTC #11

Yeah just PM me, but authors only get like 5 invites per day so I'm restricted for 12ish hours myself.

thedude3445 2021-02-18 21:09:17 UTC #12

Not quite sure... In the past, all stories had to be approved manually, which meant it took a long time and eventually the volunteers fell off. But the site finally got revamped after a pretty long development time, which is awesome.

kitkatxk 2021-02-18 23:52:29 UTC #13

Do the upvotes equal out to readers and link clicks over to the novels on tapas. Or is the equivalent a huge drop off? Because if you get 1000 boosts but only say like ten clicks isn't the whole think pointless?

Not trying to be rude. I have just never heard of this site. You said it was declining. It is invite only. But people here are saying they have had no luck getting an invite.

It makes me cautious. If there is no one on there to answer invites how is the site supposed to thrive and become more active. How are the clicks per story supposed to increase. Where are the readers coming from?

Is it all authors on the site trying to get stuff boosted. because there is a huge difference between author readers. And reader readers. The amount of time an author can devote to someone elses work is not as high as a regular reader. I know every reader is valuable and precious. But author readers sometimes*pfft okay* always have a lot on their plates so hoping that they will click through and fall in love then read 100 chapters of something is a bit of a huge ask.

Again not trying to be rude to anyone at all. I am just very curious and need more info.

futamikameko 2021-02-19 08:12:11 UTC #14

Nothing to you thedude3445, you're an amazing writer! You always do your best to support novelist and I appreciate that.

It sounds interesting but I don't know about it. It feels like a dead website trying to pull itself out the grave. How could this help boost a story if nobody ever sees what's on the website? It's already hard enough writing the story and promoting too. I'm sure most of us figured that out by now. From here how I view it... the only way I a novel reader could see topwebfiction is by your post here on Tapas. Not only that, it leads to a basic website that's unappealing to the eye.

To be frank, most writers want readers or at least an active community. But if readers don't know about an obscure website like this, how are they (the writers) supposed to catch the eyes of readers? Web novels are a saturated brand and there's so many online that readers attentions are pull to all kinds of websites.

What I want to know honestly... what makes topwebfiction more appealing to search through than any other place on the web that's more well known. Places like royal road, scribblehub, fiction.net, ect.(And even on these websites the chances your story reaches viewers is slim because there's just so many.)

I'm not trying to be cynical but...I can't help but be cynical now. I just don't know how this will help boost a story when the website is so much of a mystery wrapped in an enigma buried deep in the internets core that a reader would have to be looking for it to find it.

I already see 100+ novels uploaded in the past week with [Boosters 0] which doesn't make me feel motivated...

thedude3445 2021-02-19 09:23:27 UTC #15

I know what you mean here; whether or not the site has enough readers, rather than writers, is a big deal because if it's just a bunch of authors fraternizing then it isn't useful for helping new people discover your work. However, one big positive sign is that the popular story Salvos, which was just added yesterday, already has 200+ votes. How many of those readers voted and then looked to see the other cool stories on the list? Hard to say so far, but we will see soon. 200 votes for the top story is a huge decline from the olden days (the #1 story used to have thousands of votes), but it's also only been a couple days.

This is the issue that we don't quite know about yet. The site used to have an active community of voters, just like top Web Comics (which tends to be VERY helpful the people who use it), but since the hiatus it has declined by something like 90% or more based on the votes for the top story. However, I can at least say that my stories have gotten referrals from Top Web Fiction in the past couple days, which I hadn't seen in a long time for the stories that were on for a long time. So at least SOME people are already using the site for its intended purpose! I'm optimistic.

For this one, Top Web Fiction is not a hosting site on its own; it's an aggregator that basically unites all those sites together, plus stories on their own websites as well; you'll see stories from Royal Road, Wattpad, Scribble Hub, Tapas, Quotev, and any of that stuff, as long as enough people spread it around.

Now, the account thing is still annoying, but that's to prevent spambots, so it makes sense.

I don't know how the site will turn, but I'm gonna be optimistic about it, and also help Tapas users to use it if they want! (But I only get 5 invites per day so it'll be a bit slow )

futamikameko 2021-02-19 10:11:49 UTC #16

I have nothing to loose I guess. If you get any extra invites please let me give it a go. Some publicity is better than none. ^^

Now to continue drinking.