I started in 2020 during the pandemic as a total newbie! But, my first story gained a following pretty quick and my second novel was the "breakthrough" one. The contest story (third) is still growing but thats because it only has 30 chapters:sweat_smile:
It just takes consistant updates, investing in a cover, being passionate about the story/genre, and editing a ton (I hate reading my first novel because the way I write is not the same as now)
I just checked and my highest month ever was march 2022 with 49k views.