How do you gain readers for your fiction when you’re new?

[Mein_Fraulein]

Have you tried ritual sacrifice? Seems to work 90% of 50% of the time.

Must try.

 

[Xeoz]

Pray

 

[Makimaam]

Know your audience. Each website has different target readers and for SH, look up the most popular stories and their tags or tag combos. That’s the easiest approach. You can write for yourself without aiming at any popular tags but you should know that the path to popularity will be harder and will require persistence if you want to gain traction. Don’t be discouraged just because your story isn’t what’s trending. Keep writing.

A synopsis hooks readers and the 1st chap is crucial in helping them decide whether to add your story to their reading list. Polish it, again and again. In fact, polish the first 5 chaps. Use tags.

Maintain a regular update schedule. Aim for 3 to 4 updates a week or more during the initial release.

FYI: Your blurb reads generic. It uses a lot of words to say that something vaguely bad is going to happen and an ordinary boy will become the hero. Been there done that many times before. I wouldn’t read it if I stumbled across it.

 

[WhereIStand]

FYI: Your blurb reads generic. It uses a lot of words to say that something vaguely bad is going to happen and an ordinary boy will become the hero. Been there done that many times before.

In all honesty, I didn’t even think of the blurb as being an important part of traction. I tried my best to keep the summary more ambiguous until I have a clearer overall structural direction to head toward. I approached it this way because I’m still new to storytelling and don’t yet know what should be included versus omitted.

Since I’ve been contemplating changing the synopsis recently, I would like to ask: in what aspects does a strong blurb really excel? Does it introduce a unique element of the story early on?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Makimaam]

In all honesty, I didn’t even think of the blurb as being an important part of traction.

Think about it this way: the market is really, really diluted with many ai slops, so naturally readers are much more cautious when reading new authors’ work. This unfortunately raises the difficulty level if you want to stab at a genre that isn’t trending while being new.

The first thing a reader would look at, well, after the title, cover… is the blurb. If they like it, they’ll click on the first chap. If they like the first chap, they’ll add your book to their reading list or continue for a few more chaps and then add it. At least, that’s from my experience as a writer.

As for the blurb, I can’t tell you what to do because well, I’m not you and I didn’t plan your stories. My blurb did not tell readers everything, but it told them something they wanted, be it:

-unique voice, but it is difficult to have a voice, so you need a unique plot. By unique, I don’t mean adding five different made up jargons you create, but something that makes you wanna read it.

-Like, let’s look at this: In Tokyo, brilliant yet disaffected high school student Light Yagami finds the “Death Note”, a mysterious black notebook with rules that can end anyone’s life in seconds if their name is written in it, as long as the writer knows both the target’s true name and face.
—> Instant click. Because the premise was refreshing at the time and it was unique among stories.

So I really can’t tell you what’s best. You need to read your blurb from a reader’s perspective and decide what works best.

I hope that helps.

 

[Sunsetinapainting]

Write and hope for the best some body is gonna find it

 

[CanOfTuna]

Write comments on threads and forums to let people know you exist