Strategic Production and Release
I often come across fics in my 'collection' on here that are one continuous storyline. They go on hiatus for a few days and within no time at all, because I will read other fics in the meantime, I forget what it was about and the entire new chapter makes almost no sense at all.
This often happens when people take a break in the middle of a mission or adventure for example. That causes all contexts and new names to be lost.
As a result, I often drop the fic because it clearly doesn't interest me anymore, as else I'd have remembered what was going on.
So, let's take a look at how WN goes to work
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What can we do, to get our newly published works noticed?
If I look at my own behaviour, then I notice that all the new fics and novels that I find, are through keyword based searches and sorting on the recently updated ones.
Why is that?
For me, its because the other options make little sense to me. Searching on power stones, collections and trending makes no sense when you are looking for brand new stuff.
However, does that even show up in the updated list?
Frankly, I'm not sure that it does so immediately.
So what can a brand new author do, to be found more easily?
If we look at publishing wise, then I think a good precaution could be to upload 2 chapters. Perhaps 1 is an auxiliary or prologue, and the second the first full chapter or simply your second chapter.
This also has several benefits. If you don't catch the attention and hook your readers interest in the first chapter, then they're likely to move on.
That's why your first chapter should always be made to do just that.
If we look at news articles, you'll notice that they're build up by doing exactly that.
1. Attention grabbing title
2. Summerised introduction paragraph
3. Detailed substance there of.
So how does this look if we translate it to a WN story?
Let's try!
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1. The end of the world as we know it
2. My Harley roared as I gunned it through the deserted streets, the apocalypse right behind me. Thousands of zombies, of the fast and mutating kind right on my heels. I had been a mere factory worker at J&J making medical implants hours ago when something went horribly wrong.
3. Somewhere something had gotten out, a patient zero, a bioweapon, an experiment. I don't know. All I knew was that my colleagues and I were producing silicone medical implants when suddenly my boss stormed in snarling, jumped across the room and ripped little timmy's throat out with his bare Teeth before charging at Monica, aiming to infect like a rabbit beast on a mission.
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As you can see, this format whilst not the most common one, does actually work. Even when writing, it pulled me in and almost made me forget that this was an random example and not a draft for a new novel.
This is the format that we read in blogs and the news papers. Sensationalism at its finest, and we swallow it up each day.
The reason that this works is because we have become impatient. The first 10 seconds we see something, we make a decision whether to continue for a little more or not.
We judge prematurely in 10 seconds.
This is why in my country, we aim for 30 second commercials with this same formula. Because after that? No one pays attention.
This lead to apps like tictoc where in the space of 10 seconds we judge a video. The beauty of tictoc is that we rarely do not watch a video in its entirety if it looks even remotely interesting, and stories are just like it.
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An honorable mention in this, is to NEVER waste chapters on baby and childhood periods if it is not necessary.
Usually that entire amount of relevant information from that time period to your story can be summerised into a single paragraph with the same level of effect.
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So make use of the update function, and apply 3 step sensationalism to the start of the story. What else?
Image.
There are stories on here that I just couldn't bring myself to read because of the cover image they used, and stories that I read that absolute werent worth my time, simply because the cover image was that good.
Your cover image is like product packaging. Webnovel did a good job of providing a neutral text based cover image for those who do not want to fork out the cash for an original cover and don't have the talent to make one.
One of the most important lessons I have learned when judging books by their cover is if they show characters on them.
In fanfics with the original characters, that's not an issue when they feature said characters because you already have that image of them.
In non visual original works however, I find that not showing a recognisable character, or face goes a long way to make the book look more mysterious and interesting.
Because the moment you place the face of a character, you trigger the judging part of the brains. Just like in tinder when you first open it and are picky. You swipe no more often than not. Untill you get so desperate to get a match that you are willing to chance it.
Thus, no matter how cool you think the cover character is. You want to hide the face or make it unrecognisable.
A good example to use is the cover used by: The Mech Touch by Exlor here on WN. The cover character looks interesting but since you can't see what they really look like under the Visor, it doesn't trigger judging mode.
It is for this same reason that I recommend to always choose either Iconic looking images, such as a grungy looking hand in zombie fics, or unrecognisable characters to people going for book covers.
Learn from your own bookshelve and see what sorts of covers the books you bought have. I am willing to bet, that most do not have a face on them and if they do, it's been stylized to be less confrontational.
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Okay, so:
- 2 posts
- 123 Sensationalism
- Mysterious book cover
What else?
- Publishing frequency.
If you write a story, but have too large a spacing in between posts, then you will loose readers. Even if you post 70 pages worth on the app once a month, you will loose readers.
The reason is that on WN you're not the exclusive novel or fic people read. You're one of the dozens at a time.
Thus, it's best to post a chapter of about 1500 - 2500 words (10 - 20 pages on the app ) with a few days in between each update then it is to post infrequently.
You need to remain in people's minds, and preferably release 2-3 chapters or more a week to do so. If you can't write that often or fast, then don't worry.
You can use timed releases, binge write untill your muse is gone and release each chapter whenever you time it. It's even possible to write now and set up a release schedule for next year!
In many cases, going about it like that, with a buffer time between you and when your story is due is better as well. It gives you breathing room, your fans won't have too much influence on your drive to write with shitty comments and you get to write the story you had in mind.
This is both self assurance and protection, a way to remove the stress and just work at your own pace, just the way you want to. No stress.
Just look at the earlier mentioned Exlor. He has a release rate of 3 chapters per day. That's insane! Yet he's able to do it because he writes ahead.
All the negativity and distractions are way behind him when he gets them, because he's already at least 40 chapters ahead. He does his own thing, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's further ahead than even that.
Finally, there is the legibility provided by proper formatting.
I'm not a star in that as you see, the Inkstone editor does not seem to corrospond with what my reader displays.
But I have a few simply tricks for you to apply none the less:
1. Small paragraphs of 2-3 sentences tops.
2. White lines before and after each person talking.
3. Never use capslock
4. Look at your favourite WN entry and copy their formatting.
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I hope these suggestions and ideas help you get your story out there. I know I'm not perfect and that most of this is based on self assessments and my own experiences both on the app and on my job in the visual creative industry.
Please share your thoughts and opinions, tips and tricks in the comments!
Have fun!