What are the requirements to get in the Daily Snack and New & Noteworthy?

[Rhombik]

I've heard quite a bit lately that actually the Daily Snack and New and Noteworthy might not be super helpful for growing a readership necessarily.

Say you're not quite there yet, or even if you are, if you get into the Daily Snack, people will look, click and subscribe but it might just be because you're in the Daily Snack - and then they turn into a dead subscription which hurts your rates on Tapas.

I'm definitely guilty of just clicking stuff and never getting around to reading it. I need to be more aware of what I'm doing.

Whereas if you build your subs completely alone over a longer, much more painful time, they are much more likely to be truly yours because they found you and made the decision alone. I found the podcasts super useful because I wanted to get picked before and now I'm much more prepared to be patient.

Unfortunately I don't know super much about the Tapas criteria but my friends run a online writing thing-y and they always do a quick Google of anybody they're going to endorse in case they're doing or saying that might make the website look bad so I reckon your instinct to avoid drama is good. They told me that they won't take anybody whose bashing other writers, bashing their or other writing sites, not updating regularly, over-sharing, being negative a lot, etc etc so I also try to stay on top of my art related social media and make sure it's squeaky clean and friendly.

[joe_galindez]

I like things that are squeaky-clean.

[Rhombik]

I hear Duggan is squeaky clean.

[joe_galindez]

We like Duggan and his squeaky-clean things.

[Rhombik]

I believe you and I have turned so many threads into tangents now. This is our personal best: One post in and we're on Duggan again.

Perhaps he holds the key.

[spadesart]

they prefer episodic and mobile format comics

[Testaccount]

I understand that about comics, but what about novels? I've seen plenty of novels in the Daily Snack. Unless you mean they want novels with short, short chapters.

[Testaccount]

It's interesting you mention that, actually. I've checked out the stories (novels) that have been featured in the Daily Snack, and I agree with you.

I noticed that readers will vote on the first few chapters, but after that, there is barely any reader engagement. I also saw the chapters get only 1-2 or no comments, even if it got 200-800 views. That's small, and not that surprising since most readers don't comment.

Maybe slow and steady is better, but that's what I love about these healthy discussions. We can analyze the different paths to success and see which one is better.

For myself, I get a good number of comments when I update my mer story on here. The readers that did find me on Tapas seem invested in the characters and plot.

Thanks so much for responding to me =)

[Rhombik]

You're welcome though I'm not sure how helpful I was.

I am interested in how Tapas is making the novels work. It's too much of a time commitment for me to read novels on here so I was wondering how they draw in readers from their comic reading crowd who are used to breezing in and out.

Everybody I know who's published went via literary magazines so that's the greatest extent of my knowledge.

[Testaccount]

Your words were helpful =)

Ah, I'm trying to publish in magazines now. I'm hoping to get something published before the year is over.

I'm sure overtime Tapas will grow its novel readership, but it will take a while. I know only one website that dominates the online reading market, and right now they are huge.

[ISNEKO]

I wish I had any insight to lend you other than my usual "dumb luck" excuse for how I got in the Daily Snack three times.

[Testaccount]

No worries. I'm mostly just trying to figure out how novel writers can increase their readership here. It's all a learning game =)

My problem is I want to and try to understand everything.

[Rhombik]

My interest is piqued now. Yesterday I came across a "New & Noteworthy" that was a cover and a blurb.

[turtleme]

This doesn't exactly align with the topic, but since gaining more readership is everyone's goal here, I thought I'd share.

Tapas is currently in the process of adding "advanced" search options, meaning creators will be able to add multiple tags and readers will be able to use those tags to find novel that they're specifically looking for. The staff that I work closely with says that this should be up somewhere along the first or second quarter of next year. Again, I'm not sure exactly what this feature is going to look like except it's meant for readers to be able to find the specific genres they're looking for which also means it'd be easier for creators to be found.

Not even sure I'm able to share this, but yeah... haha

[dawgofdawgness]

This probably won't be very helpful, but the staff is always looking for novels that stand out. I think one of the easiest ways to pull this off is to write a strong first sentence (what's that called? a "hook"? I dunno. I write bad essays.). If your first sentence is "he walked down the stairs" heck, nobody cares. Write a sentence that smacks your reader in the face and yells at them to continue on with the story.

This is one of the more obvious examples but that's all I got.
I mean "strong first sentences" because I've seen a whole variety of novels in the daily snack - I've even seen a haiku. As long as it's interesting, you'll probably get noticed.

[Testaccount]

Thanks for sharing, and it sounds like they are trying to catch up to A03 and Wattpad. Both of those writing websites already use tags.

[Testaccount]

Thanks, and yeah, a hook is a big thing in the writing world.

[Testaccount]

A cover and a blurb? Do you mean there is no chapters posted and the story was still featured?
confused

[Rhombik]

Literally that. It was a comic with no comic pages.

[IdiotWithPencil]

I remember this article on amazons best sellers books program, the dude tricked the algorithim by making a book called my blank book(30 white pages or something), put it in amazon books section and asked 3 of his friends to buy the book in less than an hour... the book got to the top of the list and staid for a while... a blank book in the best seller section of amazon =P