Seeking Advice: Navigating ScribbleHub vs. Royal Road & Increasing Visibility

[its_Ace]

Hey ScribbleHub Community,

I'm relatively new around here and have been trying to find my footing on this platform. Having previously published on Royal Road, I've noticed some differences between the two, particularly in audience preferences. Royal Road seems to lean heavily towards litRPG genres, while ScribbleHub appears to have a vibrant love for fanfics among other genres.
Given these observations, I'm reaching out for some advice on a couple of points:

1. Platform Differences: For those of you who have experience with both platforms, how would you say ScribbleHub differs from Royal Road in terms of community engagement, genre preferences, and overall vibe? Understanding these differences could help me (and others in a similar boat) tailor our content better to meet the community's interests.
2. Increasing Visibility: One challenge I've faced on Royal Road is gaining visibility amidst a sea of incredible stories. Is ScribbleHub similar in this regard? What strategies have you found effective in capturing the interest of readers here? Are there specific tags, genres, or community activities that tend to draw more attention?

Any insights, tips, or personal experiences you're willing to share would be greatly appreciated, looking forward to your responses!

Cheers,
Ace

 

[RiaCorvidiva]

Ooh, ooh, I can answer this one.

RR tilts heavily toward fantasy, especially progression fantasy and LitRPG. SH, by contrast, is far more open to romance and LGBTQ stories, including (possibly even 'especially') those with copious amounts of sexual content.

SH's visibility is based on a far more robust tagging and genre searching system, while RR's visibility is based more on algorithmic rankings, especially the 'Popular This Week' and 'Rising Stars' lists. SH gives a lot more front page visibility to stories on latest updates as well - I've found that I tend to be on front page of SH for 60-90 minutes when I release a new chapter, while getting more than 20 minutes on RR's front page is rare. I've heard it said that RR's system helps the very tip top stories get a massive amount of views, while SH's gives a flatter amount across the board as a result of this. In general, I'd say that's largely consistent with my experience.

in my experience, I get more comments on RR than on SH - pretty much never get comments or general 'engagement' on new chapters here, whereas I have a few relatively frequent commenters on RR. Not sure if that's consistent for others or not.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Welcome. Since you are new, I advise you to look at this thread. https://forum.scribblehub.com/threads/tutorial-for-new-users-of-scribble-hub.13141/ You will find various tips and even guides.

RR is more serious, SH is more chill. RR will give more feedback, SH less. Difference in content guidelines gives SH for more variety. There are specific tags that draws more attention here, but the best way to get visibility on SH it to simply be consistent, and update for a long time.

P.S. Don't bulk upload. Your story will be flagged as spam for a day or so, and you will lose your time on latest update.

 

[Satansoul]

Welcome to the GL empire, Ahem I meant SH.

 

[Glitched]

Yeah Scribble less criticizing and more open in general. Will see a lot more romance, specially gl and/or gb. RR is more borderline in what they tolerate, but they do give more feedback, even if it is negative. I post on both and do just fine.

 

[its_Ace]

Ooh, ooh, I can answer this one.

RR tilts heavily toward fantasy, especially progression fantasy and LitRPG. SH, by contrast, is far more open to romance and LGBTQ stories, including (possibly even 'especially') those with copious amounts of sexual content.

SH's visibility is based on a far more robust tagging and genre searching system, while RR's visibility is based more on algorithmic rankings, especially the 'Popular This Week' and 'Rising Stars' lists. SH gives a lot more front page visibility to stories on latest updates as well - I've found that I tend to be on front page of SH for 60-90 minutes when I release a new chapter, while getting more than 20 minutes on RR's front page is rare. I've heard it said that RR's system helps the very tip top stories get a massive amount of views, while SH's gives a flatter amount across the board as a result of this. In general, I'd say that's largely consistent with my experience.

in my experience, I get more comments on RR than on SH - pretty much never get comments or general 'engagement' on new chapters here, whereas I have a few relatively frequent commenters on RR. Not sure if that's consistent for others or not.

Thank you for the heads up! And sorry to answer back only now, I'm still trying to find a way to log in SH daily, lol

Welcome. Since you are new, I advise you to look at this thread. https://forum.scribblehub.com/threads/tutorial-for-new-users-of-scribble-hub.13141/ You will find various tips and even guides.

RR is more serious, SH is more chill. RR will give more feedback, SH less. Difference in content guidelines gives SH for more variety. There are specific tags that draws more attention here, but the best way to get visibility on SH it to simply be consistent, and update for a long time.

P.S. Don't bulk upload. Your story will be flagged as spam for a day or so, and you will lose your time on latest update.

Thank you so much, this is very good to know, I was literally about to bulk upload

Welcome to the GL empire, Ahem I meant SH.

Thank you for the welcome!

Yeah Scribble less criticizing and more open in general. Will see a lot more romance, specially gl and/or gb. RR is more borderline in what they tolerate, but they do give more feedback, even if it is negative. I post on both and do just fine.

Thank a lot for answering! I see now, I'll try to do that and see how it goes, appreciate the insight!

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Hey ScribbleHub Community,

I'm relatively new around here and have been trying to find my footing on this platform. Having previously published on Royal Road, I've noticed some differences between the two, particularly in audience preferences. Royal Road seems to lean heavily towards litRPG genres, while ScribbleHub appears to have a vibrant love for fanfics among other genres.
Given these observations, I'm reaching out for some advice on a couple of points:

1. Platform Differences: For those of you who have experience with both platforms, how would you say ScribbleHub differs from Royal Road in terms of community engagement, genre preferences, and overall vibe? Understanding these differences could help me (and others in a similar boat) tailor our content better to meet the community's interests.
2. Increasing Visibility: One challenge I've faced on Royal Road is gaining visibility amidst a sea of incredible stories. Is ScribbleHub similar in this regard? What strategies have you found effective in capturing the interest of readers here? Are there specific tags, genres, or community activities that tend to draw more attention?

Any insights, tips, or personal experiences you're willing to share would be greatly appreciated, looking forward to your responses!

Cheers,
Ace

Summary:

ScribbleHub:

RR

 

[Obsoleteness]

Note to self: Stay away from RR

 

[Jaymi]

Have been using both platforms for years as both a reader and author.
Scribblehub has a friendlier environment where people tend to engage a lot more with your stories. I've seen stories get 3 times more comments with only half the amount of readers compared to RR. But reviews are more common on Royal Road.
I feel like Royal Road readers expect higher quality stories and don't show mercy to those that don't meet their standards lol.
As for genres, yeah LitRPG and reincarnation work well on RR, and Fanfic/smut/SoL on Scribblehub, but anything can be successful no matter what platfrom you're on, an interesting story will always do well.

 

[RiaCorvidiva]

Scribblehub has a friendlier environment where people tend to engage a lot more with your stories. I've seen stories get 3 times more comments with only half the amount of readers compared to RR.

This part surprises me. I don't think I've gotten a single comment on my story on SH in the past three weeks, but well over 50 on RR in the same time.

 

[FatElf]

I don't think RR is bad, just different?

There is def some stuff I don't like there, such as the lack of certain tags, the amount of ppl willing to half star rate bomb your story just because there is something there they don't like.

 

[Corty]

This part surprises me. I don't think I've gotten a single comment on my story on SH in the past three weeks, but well over 50 on RR in the same time.

Commenting is very chapter-dependent, but I also consider it to be rare here; I totally agree. Most people are usually only here to read, which is fine. I have no problem with that ofc. I am happy as long as the views counter goes up at a steady rate.

 

[RiaCorvidiva]

I also consider it to be rare here;

Says the person getting double-digit comments on almost all of his latest chapters.

Do I just exude an aura of unapproachability? Do I give off a feeling that I'm going to peck someone's eyes out if they comment?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Commenting is very chapter-dependent, but I also consider it to be rare here; I totally agree. Most people are usually only here to read, which is fine. I have no problem with that ofc. I am happy as long as the views counter goes up at a steady rate.

View attachment 24841

 

[Corty]

Says the person getting double-digit comments on almost all of his latest chapters.

Do I just exude an aura of unapproachability? Do I give off a feeling that I'm going to peck someone's eyes out if they comment?

Start dropping in heavy cliffs And some author's note, thanking them for reading or commenting on the story yourself. A few nudges to make them begin sharing their thoughts.

And I wasn't complaining; I am just pointing out that the comments are rare. You can halve the numbers because I do answer all of my comments, even if they are a blob. So the comment numbers are not 'representative'

I meant the overall view counts. The newest the chapter, the lower the view numbers, as not everyone reads it at release. At least half of the readers are binge-reading most of the time.

 

[Deleted member 76176]

Do I just exude an aura of unapproachability? Do I give off a feeling that I'm going to peck someone's eyes out if they comment?

It's more like they are Corty's loyal reader base he has cultivated over the years, which I do think would be a bit unreasonable to expect in such a short duration. And it's true that average SH users don't usually engage outside if they have good relations with the author; it'll take time, so be patient, I suppose.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I meant the overall view counts. The newest the chapter, the lower the view numbers, as not everyone reads it at release. At least half of the readers are binge-reading most of the time.

 

[Corty]

You were supposed to follow my train of thought, SG!

 

[Deleted member 146224]

Says the person getting double-digit comments on almost all of his latest chapters.

Do I just exude an aura of unapproachability? Do I give off a feeling that I'm going to peck someone's eyes out if they comment?

The chapter that motivated most people to comment for me was the one where I introduced an pos Prince. People wished him dead, which resulted with a few comments

And some author's note, thanking them for reading or commenting on the story yourself. A few nudges to make them begin sharing their thoughts.

Also memes. I guess writing mostly comedic thing helps, but I try to meme on the contents of the chapter, which is either hit or miss, but some people get a laugh or two and they will comment.

 

[Corty]

It's more like they are Corty's loyal reader base he has cultivated over the years, which I do think would be a bit unreasonable to expect in such a short duration. And it's true that average SH users don't usually engage outside if they have good relations with the author; it'll take time, so be patient, I suppose.

Ah. Yes. That is also true.

Here is my old novel's comment count: