New Author Seeking Advice: What strategies actually worked for growing your readership on SH?

[MissRiWrites]

Hi everyone,

I’m a new author currently working on mystery, sci-fi, psychological genre, and I’ve really been enjoying the process of getting my story out there.

I’m currently at 11th chapter, and while I’m enjoying the writing, I’m finding the "discovery" part of being a new author a bit challenging. I’ve read a few general guides, but I’d love to hear some current insights from the community here. Just for reference this is my story Before the Storm Gathers – Prana

Specifically, I’m curious about:

• Consistency vs. Quality: Do you find that a rigorous daily upload schedule is the biggest driver for new growth, or is it better to focus on longer, higher-quality chapters?
• Engagement: Aside from just replying to comments, what are some ways you’ve found to foster a dedicated readership?
• The "Discovery" phase: Are there any specific things (tags, cover art, synopses) that you think made the biggest difference in getting your first 100 followers?

I really value the experience on this platform and would appreciate any "lessons learned" or things you wish you knew when you were first starting out.

Thanks in advance for your time!

 

[Enjen]

Commenting to get notified. I'm also curious about this!

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Posting chapters consistently with good chapter titles, having a decent synopsis, and having any cover. You probably won't get much traction outside of the first week of posting for being in the new series area of the front page, and after posting 30 or more chapters.

 

[MissRiWrites]

Posting chapters consistently with good chapter titles, having a decent synopsis, and having any cover. You probably won't get much traction outside of the first week of posting for being in the new series area of the front page, and after posting 30 or more chapters.

That's actually a good piece of advice thanks Mr. Representing_Tromba

 

[DarkCrinkle]

For engagement, I find doing polls every few chapters, each time there's something you want to ask for their opinion on, relevant to the story, or just simply getting to know what their general thoughts. I kinda notice that most of the readership here are pretty much silent readers, so yeah~ just don't go crazy and spam them in their profile or something.

 

[Makimaam]

Step no. 1: Look up the pinned posts and recent posts on this forum. The trending stats post is interesting to read.

Step no. 2: Don’t write like a customer support chatbot. Especially on this forum.

 

[Intermundium]

Hi everyone,

I’m a new author currently working on mystery, sci-fi, psychological genre, and I’ve really been enjoying the process of getting my story out there.

I’m currently at 11th chapter, and while I’m enjoying the writing, I’m finding the "discovery" part of being a new author a bit challenging. I’ve read a few general guides, but I’d love to hear some current insights from the community here. Just for reference this is my story Before the Storm Gathers – Prana

Specifically, I’m curious about:

• Consistency vs. Quality: Do you find that a rigorous daily upload schedule is the biggest driver for new growth, or is it better to focus on longer, higher-quality chapters?
• Engagement: Aside from just replying to comments, what are some ways you’ve found to foster a dedicated readership?
• The "Discovery" phase: Are there any specific things (tags, cover art, synopses) that you think made the biggest difference in getting your first 100 followers?

I really value the experience on this platform and would appreciate any "lessons learned" or things you wish you knew when you were first starting out.

Thanks in advance for your time!

In my opinion, keep consistency and quality. Try to find a balance there. Speaking from personal experience with my second novel— not the highest quality but decent enough + being consistent each week.

Dedication? Replying, answering questions or theories. Polls can help, or do chapters with trivia.

Keep the tags consistent with your novel, and do as much as you can that is related. Cover art find something that's eye catching and unique. (Look at popular novels for example.) And the synopsis is one of the important parts. Write one that will get people to question and get curious about your novel. As for my second novel, followed the standard genderbend tag route for it and that grew to one hundred the first couple weeks and now at a steady three hundred.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Step no. 1: Look up the pinned posts and recent posts on this forum. The trending stats post is interesting to read.

Step no. 2: Don’t write like a customer support chatbot. Especially on this forum.

That's because step 2 does involve using a chatbot with a similar format.

 

[MissRiWrites]

Step no. 1: Look up the pinned posts and recent posts on this forum. The trending stats post is interesting to read.

Step no. 2: Don’t write like a customer support chatbot. Especially on this forum.

Oh man, you caught me. I’ve been using some AI tools to help me structure my thoughts because English isn't my first language, and I clearly overdid it. Sorry for the chatbot vibe! I’m just a new author trying to learn the ropes. Thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely keep it more casual from now on.

 

[Kurayami]

Read my story and emulate me.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Oh man, you caught me. I’ve been using some AI tools to help me structure my thoughts because English isn't my first language, and I clearly overdid it. Sorry for the chatbot vibe! I’m just a new author trying to learn the ropes. Thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely keep it more casual from now on.

I figured, I had a feeling it's because english isn't your first language on your other thread. Just be careful, otherwise people will assume you're a bot and your story is ai-generated.

 

[MissRiWrites]

I figured, I had a feeling it's because english isn't your first language on your other thread. Just be careful, otherwise people will assume you're a bot and your story is ai-generated.

Alright! though I don't think Ai can generate the story as complex as me but Thanks for the advice AliceMoonvale~

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Keep them in a cool, dark place. Feed them lots of manure and ...
oh wait, that's how to grow mushrooms. Never mind.

 

[Makimaam]

Oh man, you caught me. I’ve been using some AI tools to help me structure my thoughts because English isn't my first language, and I clearly overdid it. Sorry for the chatbot vibe! I’m just a new author trying to learn the ropes. Thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely keep it more casual from now on.

Since you took my comment with grace, I would add one more thing. It’s true that no AI can “generate” an entire serial, so you are correct there. But in readers’ perceptions, having AI word your story for you, rewrite for you, or polish it to the point where it becomes noticeable is still considered “AI-generated”, even if it is technically “AI-assisted”.

There are many successful AI-assisted stories here and on RR, don’t get me wrong, but they are usually heavily edited until the AI influence is almost unnoticeable. That, at least, is something I and many other readers can look past.

 

[worldismyne]

Seconding Makimaam's point. There are humans that could beta read for you and help with grammatical structure and word choice far better than an AI can, since a beta can ask you what you're trying to say and with what tone.

As for other advice I found helpful...

Have your story in your forum signature.

Be patient, there's a spike in readers at ch 20, 50, and 100, as well as when the novel finishes.

Consistency AND quality, you need to find an upload schedule that works for you while building audience trust (some people upload once a week, others five times a week) but if your chapters are poor quality, people will drop.

I've read in many threads that a majority of SH readers are passive readers, and that's true of fanfic sites as well, but people are more likely to engage in the comments with someone that sounds human, even if they're writing in another language in the comments.

As for the discovery phase, if you go into your story stats, you'll see what tags people searched to find your stories. You can always scroll down the tag list and find anything that fits. If this is your first book, the stats will show you what readers are looking for and you can tailor your next story more to the audience you've gained.

Try to summarize your story with your cover. A lot of people will have their main character, and an art style that hints at the tone. In my case, I looked at a lot of late 2000s fantasy novels and took a picture that emulated that (while still hinting at what will happen in the story). If you use an AI cover, you will have people skip over it. There's a forum on here to request cover artists to help you out, or to commission.

And try to summarize your story in the title. Part of why there are so many "Reincarnated to x world" or "I became x character" titles, is when scrolling through the list of stories, that's all a reader is going to see. For longer titles, a lot of authors put them on the cover (the trending page only shows the first 2-3 words of a title)

 

[Bimbanana]

Getting new reader: Good cover, better synopsis, great chapter counts
Keeping the reader: Story. Thats all.