Advice on where I could start posting my story?

[Nelesnia]

So I recently started posting chapters of my book to Inkitt, mainly because I found it super user-friendly. I've just been using it as a place to put my story and am honestly not expecting to and also don't *really* want to get published by them. I've also just been made aware of the controversy surrounding the site - does anyone know of anywhere else I could put my book online? Wattpad comes up a lot when I search on google, but I'm hoping someone here will have some experience in this area ~ thanks in advance!

 

[pmmg]

Every site has controversy, I'd not jump ship just cause some found some. I would just be wary of all of them.

When you post your work online, you have be aware that in some places that's okay with the publishing industry, and in others that counts as publishing it. I am not sure which Wattpad is.

If what you are wanting most is peer review, well, there is not a lot of that on Scribo. Most sites that offer peer review expect you put in the effort to review others and earn your keep. That is not bad, if you are a beginner and want to improve, cause reviewing others is a faster path to improving your own writing. Scribophile is a peer review site with a lot of good tool for it.

 

[Nelesnia]

Every site has controversy, I'd not jump ship just cause some found some. I would just be wary of all of them.

When you post your work online, you have be aware that in some places that's okay with the publishing industry, and in others that counts as publishing it. I am not sure which Wattpad is.

If what you are wanting most is peer review, well, there is not a lot of that on Scribo. Most sites that offer peer review expect you put in the effort to review others and earn your keep. That is not bad, if you are a beginner and want to improve, cause reviewing others is a faster path to improving your own writing. Scribophile is a peer review site with a lot of good tool for it.

Thank you ~ i'm not necessarily going to jump ship *yet* because it's definitely a good dumping ground, for lack of a better turn of phrase. I'm thinking more long-term. Scribophile sounds like a good idea, I'll look into it

 

[ThinkerX]

Try Wattpad.

Wattpad - Where stories live

 

[pmmg]

If you publish on wattpad, be aware that the publishing community counts that as published.

Wattpad: What Self-Published Authors Need To Know

 

[Rosemary Tea]

If you publish on wattpad, be aware that the publishing community counts that as published.

Wattpad: What Self-Published Authors Need To Know

The same is true of all self publishing platforms, not just Wattpad.

As I recall, even posting a portfolio here at Mythic Scribes counts as published, so makes the work ineligible for any publication that only accepts unpublished submissions.

 

[pmmg]

Well… the key word being publishing sites. Sites like scribophile are peer review sites and posting there does not count as publishing. There might be some distinction as hidden behind a password and not open to the general pubic or such.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

Well… the key word being publishing sites. Sites like scribophile are peer review sites and posting there does not count as publishing. There might be some distinction as hidden behind a password and not open to the general pubic or such.

That's it, exactly. If it's posted somewhere that anyone surfing the internet can find it if they only look in the right place, it's published. Publications that only take previously unpublished works won't accept it. To not count as published, it has to be kept private.

Inkitt is just as public as Wattpad. Since OP's already been posting there, it won't make a difference in that regard.

 

[Prince of Spires]

To be fair, the fact that you've already published something only matters to a very, very small number of cases. And if your story somehow is a run-away succes it might even help you get a publishing deal, rather than hinder you. Simply put, the vast majority of stories submitted to traditional publishers are rejected because of the story. You might as well assume yours would be as well. And you can just self-publish the story and not care about what traditional publishers think. These days, it's a more viable way of publishing than traditional publishing for most people anyway.

So don't worry about any of that.

What you should worry about is the actual publishing rights. What does the company you publish your story on have the rights to? If publishing on a platform grants them the exclusive rights, then don't publish there. If they get non-exclusive rights which allow them to publish your story in other places then be wary of them. After all, that could mean your story becomes a succes, they publish it on Amazon and make truckloads of money and you get nothing. Especially if they get all rights, and not just worldwide english ebook rights. Just think how you'd feel if they get a movie made from your story, which makes them millions and you don't see a penny of that money.

 

[ladyander]

I wouldn't bother with Wattpad. Despite it coming up on searches everywhere and recommendations from content writers never used a writing platform in their life. To many writers in the web fiction circle, it's not a great platform.

Reasons not to use Wattpad is the very reason people claim it's good. There are too many writers and stories on there to stand out. There is zero visibility for new stories. It's like posting into a void for many writers. The audience is limited and skewed heavily towards favoring romance of any kind and fan-fics. And really, the way to get no reads on there is too exhausting and isn't really worth the work. Many people might say if you use whatever old strategy they used five years ago worked for them, but the platform has changed. Its golden days are over. There are many writers making an exodus out of Wattpad.

Ignore Webnovel. There is a whole host of unsavory there. They have been very predatory in the past, making some of the things that Inkitt has done in the past look like nothing. I do not know how they treat their paid writers now, but just note, you probably don't want to find yourself in a contract with them.

RoyalRoad would likely be your next option. I post there. But you thought Inkitt or Wattpad as skewed with romance, well RR is skewed with lit-rpgs and isekia stories. Romance doesn't do very well there, and there are a lot of genres that are dead on arrival. However, it's probably the only place where I've actually gotten an audience. It probably has the most visibility for an active writing platform for new stories. It really is probably the only strong fantasy platform. However, it's a niche fantasy platform. They don't care for a lot of traditional fantasy stories. If it fits into the audience's rather limited tastes, then you do better. RR had potential to be a good platform, but is really held back by its audience and their particular/picky tastes. They bleed writers who aren't working on the popular types of stories and for writers who don't adhere to certain tropes and conventions to the popular stuff.


Scribblehub is another big one. It's like RoyalRoad except they aren't as pick and accept explicit sexually content. And sexual content is what you will see the most. Which honestly, I don't post there because I don't want to be put on a list. Too much cringy sexual anime stuff.

Fictionpress isn't worth it now. It's just too old with a small dedicated user base there.

Then there are the small platforms:

Neovel
Fiction.me
Booksie
Moonquil


Neovel could be a good platform if there was actually activity on it. The visibility is okay. However, it's the case of too many writers, not enough readers. While they are always working to improve the site but they really need to get more people knowing that the platform actually exists.

Booksie has the same problem as Neovel, but they at least have the widest variety of genres and isn't limited to just novels.

Fiction.Me I'm currently giving a chance, but has the same problem. Has writers but no readers. A lot of platforms can't overcome this.

Moonquil, small community, I really can't say much about it other than that.

Quick edit: If you have any desire to try to make Amazon Vella to work, you can try it. I just don't see it going anywhere unless they improve it drastically. However, Vella asks for exclusivity and the work cannot be published before. I'm not sure about if you just started or not. I personally would have to start an entire new project just to test them out, and I don't have time for that currently.

 

[J.W. Golan]

Quick edit: If you have any desire to try to make Amazon Vella to work, you can try it. I just don't see it going anywhere unless they improve it drastically. However, Vella asks for exclusivity and the work cannot be published before. I'm not sure about if you just started or not. I personally would have to start an entire new project just to test them out, and I don't have time for that currently.

I've been releasing my latest novel on Vella, just to see what it has to offer. My observations and experiences have been mixed.

On the negative side, Vella doesn't offer many of the tools which have historically been available for promoting your work on Kindle. Can't offer a free promotional, for example. Can't use Amazon Advertising. Promotional sites which will promote a Kindle novel won't promote Vella. So on and so forth.

The authors who have "made it" on Vella have all been established authors who already had a healthy following, and could direct their existing readers to their Vella content. Most are Kindle authors with multiple titles to their credit, although I have seen a couple of Wattpad authors make their transition to Vella and who successfully redirected their fans to their Vella product.

On the positive side, Amazon really wants this product to work. They're trying to cut-in on Wattpad's market, so they are offering some incentives. On a per-page or per-word basis, the payout for Vella is significantly greater than what royalties on Kindle Unlimited would be - assuming you can attract any readers at all. As I said, promoting is much harder on Vella.

Amazon is also offering a "Kindle Vella Bonus" just for posting your story on this platform and attracting traffic to their site. That's right - you don't even have to have a paying readership. For the time being, they're offering a "bonus" just for being there. The formula for how the bonus is paid out isn't published, but it appears to be tied to the number of episodes (or words) published.

Any content published on Vella has to be new, or fresh content - not previously published elsewhere. What I did (and what I've seen more successful Vella authors also do) was to package a prequel to my series and publish it episode-by-episode on Vella. Thirty days after the last chapter is released, we can re-publish the completed novel on Kindle. So the opportunity remains to release the novel in a conventional form at a later date. In the meantime, the "bonus" for releasing the initial edition on Vella remains attractive.

 

[Nelesnia]

The same is true of all self publishing platforms, not just Wattpad.

As I recall, even posting a portfolio here at Mythic Scribes counts as published, so makes the work ineligible for any publication that only accepts unpublished submissions.

Thanks, this is good information to have

 

[Nelesnia]

That's it, exactly. If it's posted somewhere that anyone surfing the internet can find it if they only look in the right place, it's published. Publications that only take previously unpublished works won't accept it. To not count as published, it has to be kept private.

Inkitt is just as public as Wattpad. Since OP's already been posting there, it won't make a difference in that regard.

What if I were to remove it from wherever I've posted it? (Not that I'm planning to yet, just trying to make sense of stuff haha)

 

[Nelesnia]

I wouldn't bother with Wattpad. Despite it coming up on searches everywhere and recommendations from content writers never used a writing platform in their life. To many writers in the web fiction circle, it's not a great platform.

Reasons not to use Wattpad is the very reason people claim it's good. There are too many writers and stories on there to stand out. There is zero visibility for new stories. It's like posting into a void for many writers. The audience is limited and skewed heavily towards favoring romance of any kind and fan-fics. And really, the way to get no reads on there is too exhausting and isn't really worth the work. Many people might say if you use whatever old strategy they used five years ago worked for them, but the platform has changed. Its golden days are over. There are many writers making an exodus out of Wattpad.

Ignore Webnovel. There is a whole host of unsavory there. They have been very predatory in the past, making some of the things that Inkitt has done in the past look like nothing. I do not know how they treat their paid writers now, but just note, you probably don't want to find yourself in a contract with them.

RoyalRoad would likely be your next option. I post there. But you thought Inkitt or Wattpad as skewed with romance, well RR is skewed with lit-rpgs and isekia stories. Romance doesn't do very well there, and there are a lot of genres that are dead on arrival. However, it's probably the only place where I've actually gotten an audience. It probably has the most visibility for an active writing platform for new stories. It really is probably the only strong fantasy platform. However, it's a niche fantasy platform. They don't care for a lot of traditional fantasy stories. If it fits into the audience's rather limited tastes, then you do better. RR had potential to be a good platform, but is really held back by its audience and their particular/picky tastes. They bleed writers who aren't working on the popular types of stories and for writers who don't adhere to certain tropes and conventions to the popular stuff.


Scribblehub is another big one. It's like RoyalRoad except they aren't as pick and accept explicit sexually content. And sexual content is what you will see the most. Which honestly, I don't post there because I don't want to be put on a list. Too much cringy sexual anime stuff.

Fictionpress isn't worth it now. It's just too old with a small dedicated user base there.

Then there are the small platforms:

Neovel
Fiction.me
Booksie
Moonquil


Neovel could be a good platform if there was actually activity on it. The visibility is okay. However, it's the case of too many writers, not enough readers. While they are always working to improve the site but they really need to get more people knowing that the platform actually exists.

Booksie has the same problem as Neovel, but they at least have the widest variety of genres and isn't limited to just novels.

Fiction.Me I'm currently giving a chance, but has the same problem. Has writers but no readers. A lot of platforms can't overcome this.

Moonquil, small community, I really can't say much about it other than that.

Quick edit: If you have any desire to try to make Amazon Vella to work, you can try it. I just don't see it going anywhere unless they improve it drastically. However, Vella asks for exclusivity and the work cannot be published before. I'm not sure about if you just started or not. I personally would have to start an entire new project just to test them out, and I don't have time for that currently.

Thank you, this was super helpful. I might try Vella in the future - honestly at the moment I just want somewhere to post stuff as and when I do it, which was why Inkitt was so appealing. It's also super user-friendly

 

[Nelesnia]

I've been releasing my latest novel on Vella, just to see what it has to offer. My observations and experiences have been mixed.

On the negative side, Vella doesn't offer many of the tools which have historically been available for promoting your work on Kindle. Can't offer a free promotional, for example. Can't use Amazon Advertising. Promotional sites which will promote a Kindle novel won't promote Vella. So on and so forth.

The authors who have "made it" on Vella have all been established authors who already had a healthy following, and could direct their existing readers to their Vella content. Most are Kindle authors with multiple titles to their credit, although I have seen a couple of Wattpad authors make their transition to Vella and who successfully redirected their fans to their Vella product.

On the positive side, Amazon really wants this product to work. They're trying to cut-in on Wattpad's market, so they are offering some incentives. On a per-page or per-word basis, the payout for Vella is significantly greater than what royalties on Kindle Unlimited would be - assuming you can attract any readers at all. As I said, promoting is much harder on Vella.

Amazon is also offering a "Kindle Vella Bonus" just for posting your story on this platform and attracting traffic to their site. That's right - you don't even have to have a paying readership. For the time being, they're offering a "bonus" just for being there. The formula for how the bonus is paid out isn't published, but it appears to be tied to the number of episodes (or words) published.

Any content published on Vella has to be new, or fresh content - not previously published elsewhere. What I did (and what I've seen more successful Vella authors also do) was to package a prequel to my series and publish it episode-by-episode on Vella. Thirty days after the last chapter is released, we can re-publish the completed novel on Kindle. So the opportunity remains to release the novel in a conventional form at a later date. In the meantime, the "bonus" for releasing the initial edition on Vella remains attractive.

Thank you - I'll keep this in mind for the future

 

[Rosemary Tea]

What if I were to remove it from wherever I've posted it? (Not that I'm planning to yet, just trying to make sense of stuff haha)

It's still previously published, so won't qualify for any publication that only takes unpublished works.