125k Words and Not a Single Review

[DharmaCA]

Like the title says. I’m fully aware that I don’t write LitRPG, cultivation, reincarnation, or smut -- basically, I’m outside the mainstream on SH. Still, is it normal to not have received even a single review after posting 125k words?

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Reviews are rare, even for most well-written stories.
You're more likely to get chapter comments, honestly.
But you got the views, favorites, readers, you'll get there eventually.

 

[Our_Lady_in_Twilight]

Yes its pretty normal, especially since you don't have that many views. The general stats seem pretty positive though, your 'view to favourite' ratio is brilliant, as is your reader retention, so you might be fitting more the profile of a hidden gem thats going under the radar.

 

[Eldoria]

As a comparison of how 'normal' that is, I have written 165,251 words (94 chapters, genre: dark fantasy), and there has not been a single review on either RR or SH.

 

[Kay_Ship]

I have 435k words and only one review on SH. Got 4 on RR but one was complaining that my MC knew how to cook so... quality of reviews varies

 

[whitesculptor]

I don't think this is the correct site for reviews. People write them as if it was a comment that they like the novel, absolutely love it or hate it.
You'd be better off without any of that lowly unstructured kind.

 

[McPhoenixDavid]

Like the title says. I’m fully aware that I don’t write LitRPG, cultivation, reincarnation, or smut -- basically, I’m outside the mainstream on SH. Still, is it normal to not have received even a single review after posting 125k words?

I have seen stories here with multi million words with less than 20 reviews.

Review is not important. The question is how many people are reading the fic?

 

[DharmaCA]

So it’s true. Reviews are indeed rare.

Writing for free, I at least hope to receive constructive feedback so I can improve my writing. Writing without feedback is akin to unsupervised learning, I might end up developing myself in the wrong direction. If I were to critique myself, my current writing lacks character interiority. But I’m not sure, and adding interiority might just make my writing overly wordy.

 

[AnEmberOfSundown]

Over 200k words here, same boat.

 

[Lakstoties]

Over 800k words here, no reviews. So... Yeah, about par for the course on this website.

 

[FRWriter]

Can I be honest? The words are not responsible for reviews... readers are. You got 40.

If you don't engage in "Review swaps," a practice as natural as breathing on RR and relatively common on SH as well, you usually don't get a review with such a low number of readers.

Frankly speaking, my main story has like 20 Reviews, but I have 1.8k readers. So that averages out to 1 review per 90 readers.

So keep writing and sooner or later you'll get your reviews! You are almost halfway there. Also, in my experience, people are far more likely to read and review a story that already has a good number of chapters, so you'll probably soon receive a few.

This may sound harsh, but most people don't want to give you feedback or a review... they just want to read a good story. Only a small number of readers like to communicate with authors.

If you are desperate for feedback, there are a lot of people interested in giving feedback, in return for you giving feedback to them.

That's not a bad idea if you really want to improve and need at least some feedback for it, as long as you are both honest.

If I remember correctly, when I first published, I asked the people who were frequently commenting on my chapters if they would be interested in providing feedback. I think I got like 1 or 2 reviews that way. So if you have a few readers who frequently comment, you might want to ask them if they could give you more detailed feedback, preferably in review form.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Close to a million words and no reviews. *^^*
I really should endeavor to write more reviews in the new year.
Even though I can't get any, I can certainly offer some to others.
I have approximately 25 books in my reading list, and I'm caught up with almost all of them.
I think I'll write some reviews before 2026.

 

[FRWriter]

Close to a million words and no reviews. *^^*
I really should endeavor to write more reviews in the new year.
Even though I can't get any, I can certainly offer some to others.
I have approximately 25 books in my reading list, and I'm caught up with almost all of them.
I think I'll write some reviews before 2026.

Actually, a nice resolution for 2026. I'll try to write a few Reviews as well, especially for smaller stories I enjoyed that don't have many reviews yet.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Actually, a nice resolution for 2026. I'll try to write a few Reviews as well, especially for smaller stories I enjoyed that don't have many reviews yet.

I hope we all do that.
It really makes an author feel good.
Well, if it's a good review, I mean.

 

[FRWriter]

I hope we all do that.
It really makes an author feel good.
Well, if it's a good review, I mean.

I don't think anyone will be so mean as to give a story that hasn't received a single Review, a bad one. That would be soul-crushingly mean.

Usually, even if I dislike a story, I never rate it badly. In reality, even a 4/5 is dragging a story down, something most people don't even realize.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

I don't think anyone will be so mean as to give a story that hasn't received a single Review, a bad one. That would be soul-crushingly mean.

Usually, even if I dislike a story, I never rate it badly. In reality, even a 4/5 is dragging a story down, something most people don't even realize.

Yeah, I'll only review something I love.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I have written three reviews, two for Completed stories (one I had to revise after it was Completed), and one for a story in progress. If your story is still in progress, you are less likely to get reviews (and, from what I've seen, are more likely to see negative ones, to warn other readers away, than positive ones in those cases). So, it is pretty normal.
Only my one completed story has any reviews.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

After looking at your story stats, you've got a lot of chapters and favs, but not that many readers. It's only been on SH for two months, but just keep going with your story and try to engage w/ people in the comments of your chapters. As for feedback, I tend to get most of my feedback in my comments section of my chapters, anyway, so feedback need not always be in review form.

 

[DharmaCA]

Thx, guys.

 

[Esden-Noir]

Like the title says. I’m fully aware that I don’t write LitRPG, cultivation, reincarnation, or smut -- basically, I’m outside the mainstream on SH. Still, is it normal to not have received even a single review after posting 125k words?

It's not only on scribble hub. reviews in books in general are rare. And especially when someone is reading your book, they will likely opt to leave a comment rather than post a review. But atleast you aren't being review bombed for the mc being to "human"