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.