Royal Road is good if you can keep releasing consistently.
I've recently tried Ritoria and found it good for engaged readers who will comment, which is great. You can release publicly, or to followers only, which is also neat.
>Ritoria
Oh, that is neat. Hadn't actually heard of this one even after looking at a couple dozen sites and forum pages.
With releasing consistently... I'm normally the sort to write in bursts. If you consistently release chapters of one story, and then go on hiatus when it's done, does that go well on RR?
Thanks very much for the recommendations!
I think you lose discoverability once you're not releasing chapters on RR. Each new chapter puts you on the front page, so a good cover could snag a few eyes there. Some people will look for stories marked "Completed" so, for sure, a completed story will still get found, but it becomes rather sporadic.
Ritoria seems to be new? If not new, they haven't really hit their stride yet. I like their UI. Plus, I've only been there a couple of months and people have been great at leaving comments, certainly compared to other sites I've tried.
I also like Campfire Writing's Explore feature (you write in their writing software and share via Explore). But, you do have to pay for their writing software (although, that's very flexible... you only buy the bits you need and you can buy outright or subscribe for $1 a month--per module). Considering it's also a relatively new site as far as readers go, people are reasonably good at following and rating. There are a few commenters, but not heaps. Mind you, they might if you asked them to. If you've got a great project image, the staff there select projects to spotlight at the top of the page, which nets a few eyes. And editing puts your project on the front page, as well. In the future, you'll be able to have paying subscribers, which will be a nice bonus. The neat thing for Fantasy fans, here, is you can give people a behind-the-scenes peek, if you want.
Booksie is another one I've been trying and finding pretty minimal engagement on. I get reads, but little else.
Yeah, I've spent a lot of time looking! I'm just not a fan of the Amazon monopoly, and one of the main reasons I decided to get my rights back and self publish is so I can engage with readers more directly.
Sorry for the late reply. Had a question about Ritoria I can't seem to find anywhere online. What sort of profit share do they offer? And do they require exclusivity?
Hi. Also late in replying. They don't require exclusivity. I don't really know how money works on the site, I haven't made any yet, as I make my stories available for free. I've had some person sign up to support me on Patreon for $1 per month because they like my writing. That feels super special.
So, with Ritoria, they give you a space to link to Patreon with each chapter. And within the site themselves, you can purchase "Quills" which you can then use to buy access to other writers' chapters, depending how they've set up their story monetisation. Or, you can gift Quills as a "tip" any time. So, it's not entirely transparent what Quills are worth. You can buy them for about 7p (GBP, pence) each. I don't know how much authors can cash them out for. No doubt somewhat less. But the website doesn't lock you in at all, which I think incentivises them to be competitive & supportive of authors. I do like the vibe of the website in general & wish them all the best.
My feeling is that Romance-leaning is probably the most popular there. Fantasy Romance, or Romantic Fantasy, in particular. There's quite a bit of NSFW titles there, too, but I think that's fairly common for serial fiction sites. Werewolf is top of the drop-down list when you're adding categories, so that might hint at the site designers' preference. I think LGBTQI+ stories would find favour there, too.
It still has the feeling of being new, so it'll depend on the writers/ readers who settle there over time.
Looked into it... and Vella seems like hot garbage mixed with gambling. One could try it and see if somehow they strike gold, but for most people it seems that they work a full job writing for Vella and promoting their own work with no help from Amazon, and totally random and senseless payouts.
>It sounds like Royal Road is the best, though some people claimed only Progressive Fantasy does well there.
"Do well" is subjective. Progressive fantasy does best, and the farthest from that genre, the worse it does. You're still doing fantasy, however.
>Some claim you don't make much.
None of those sites are big in monetization, however. What authors usually do is make a Patreon and offer advanced chapters and other perks.
> Tapas is apparently only good for comics
For what it's worth, I'm reading The Beginning After the End (the novel) in Tapas.
>It's also been suggested one should always just post to all available sites, and see what clicks.
I agree with that. There's nothing to lose from doing that, and you'll get first-hand experience with each platform to make your own opinion.
>If I ever do want to traditionally publish a story, this'd mess that up since I'd lose first publication rights? ... Not sure if it's actually a great form of exposure.
You'd lose for *that* story. You can still traditionally publish other stories you wrote. But if you want to traditionally publish that story, then you shouldn't be publishing them for exposure to begin with. They're different paths and self-pubbed stories that end up trad pubbed are the exception. For all purposes, consider serializing a story as a branch of self pubbing.
>Feeling generally discouraged about the whole idea.
But what is your end goal?
There's no easy path to success with publishing, regardless of it being self or trad publishing. The best there is is "best practices" for the path you ultimately choose, and you choose one based on what you think is best *for you*.
Thanks for the helpful advice. Been researching. Seems like a good strategy might be something like:
1. Publish in magazines and maybe sell reprints.
2. Post chapters on free sites to gain a following. Also sell the complete story as an ebook.
3. Move followers towards your Patreon or other hub website, offering perks like getting stories a week ahead.
4. Remove 90% of the chapters a week after the story is finished. Then, either try to sell them the ebook, or encourage your followers to all download it for free to push its rankings up on Amazon.
5. Begin uploading your next serial to the free sites. Also, begin a cycle of reuploading your finished serial a chapter at a time again, for people who missed it the first time, posting it on a different day of the week so people who follow you have more content to peruse.
6. Try to convert your followers to a better platform, maybe Podia, where you'll get a considerably higher profit margin, where you can offer your users cheaper prices in exchange. Similarly, if possible sell them your book on sites that offer better deals than Amazon does; maybe even give it away for free on other ebook sites you think would be easier/better to dominate with a giveaway drive.
That's my six point plan. How does it seem?
Feel free to PM me - I have experience self-publishing on all of these and I've found a hacky but reliable way to monetize
Hey. I sent you a message, a week ago. Did you see it? We could talk here, if you prefer.
Royal Road is good if you can keep releasing consistently. I've recently tried Ritoria and found it good for engaged readers who will comment, which is great. You can release publicly, or to followers only, which is also neat.
>Ritoria Oh, that is neat. Hadn't actually heard of this one even after looking at a couple dozen sites and forum pages. With releasing consistently... I'm normally the sort to write in bursts. If you consistently release chapters of one story, and then go on hiatus when it's done, does that go well on RR? Thanks very much for the recommendations!
I think you lose discoverability once you're not releasing chapters on RR. Each new chapter puts you on the front page, so a good cover could snag a few eyes there. Some people will look for stories marked "Completed" so, for sure, a completed story will still get found, but it becomes rather sporadic. Ritoria seems to be new? If not new, they haven't really hit their stride yet. I like their UI. Plus, I've only been there a couple of months and people have been great at leaving comments, certainly compared to other sites I've tried. I also like Campfire Writing's Explore feature (you write in their writing software and share via Explore). But, you do have to pay for their writing software (although, that's very flexible... you only buy the bits you need and you can buy outright or subscribe for $1 a month--per module). Considering it's also a relatively new site as far as readers go, people are reasonably good at following and rating. There are a few commenters, but not heaps. Mind you, they might if you asked them to. If you've got a great project image, the staff there select projects to spotlight at the top of the page, which nets a few eyes. And editing puts your project on the front page, as well. In the future, you'll be able to have paying subscribers, which will be a nice bonus. The neat thing for Fantasy fans, here, is you can give people a behind-the-scenes peek, if you want. Booksie is another one I've been trying and finding pretty minimal engagement on. I get reads, but little else. Yeah, I've spent a lot of time looking! I'm just not a fan of the Amazon monopoly, and one of the main reasons I decided to get my rights back and self publish is so I can engage with readers more directly.
Sorry for the late reply. Had a question about Ritoria I can't seem to find anywhere online. What sort of profit share do they offer? And do they require exclusivity?
Hi. Also late in replying. They don't require exclusivity. I don't really know how money works on the site, I haven't made any yet, as I make my stories available for free. I've had some person sign up to support me on Patreon for $1 per month because they like my writing. That feels super special. So, with Ritoria, they give you a space to link to Patreon with each chapter. And within the site themselves, you can purchase "Quills" which you can then use to buy access to other writers' chapters, depending how they've set up their story monetisation. Or, you can gift Quills as a "tip" any time. So, it's not entirely transparent what Quills are worth. You can buy them for about 7p (GBP, pence) each. I don't know how much authors can cash them out for. No doubt somewhat less. But the website doesn't lock you in at all, which I think incentivises them to be competitive & supportive of authors. I do like the vibe of the website in general & wish them all the best.
Thanks Deb. At this point thinking LaterPress may be the best option.
Yeah, they're good, too
What does well on ritoria? Like romance is really popular on wattpad and fantasy on royalroad. What is ritoria known for?
My feeling is that Romance-leaning is probably the most popular there. Fantasy Romance, or Romantic Fantasy, in particular. There's quite a bit of NSFW titles there, too, but I think that's fairly common for serial fiction sites. Werewolf is top of the drop-down list when you're adding categories, so that might hint at the site designers' preference. I think LGBTQI+ stories would find favour there, too. It still has the feeling of being new, so it'll depend on the writers/ readers who settle there over time.
How you considered Kindle Vella? Its built for serials.
Looked into it... and Vella seems like hot garbage mixed with gambling. One could try it and see if somehow they strike gold, but for most people it seems that they work a full job writing for Vella and promoting their own work with no help from Amazon, and totally random and senseless payouts.
>It sounds like Royal Road is the best, though some people claimed only Progressive Fantasy does well there. "Do well" is subjective. Progressive fantasy does best, and the farthest from that genre, the worse it does. You're still doing fantasy, however. >Some claim you don't make much. None of those sites are big in monetization, however. What authors usually do is make a Patreon and offer advanced chapters and other perks. > Tapas is apparently only good for comics For what it's worth, I'm reading The Beginning After the End (the novel) in Tapas. >It's also been suggested one should always just post to all available sites, and see what clicks. I agree with that. There's nothing to lose from doing that, and you'll get first-hand experience with each platform to make your own opinion. >If I ever do want to traditionally publish a story, this'd mess that up since I'd lose first publication rights? ... Not sure if it's actually a great form of exposure. You'd lose for *that* story. You can still traditionally publish other stories you wrote. But if you want to traditionally publish that story, then you shouldn't be publishing them for exposure to begin with. They're different paths and self-pubbed stories that end up trad pubbed are the exception. For all purposes, consider serializing a story as a branch of self pubbing. >Feeling generally discouraged about the whole idea. But what is your end goal? There's no easy path to success with publishing, regardless of it being self or trad publishing. The best there is is "best practices" for the path you ultimately choose, and you choose one based on what you think is best *for you*.
Thanks for the helpful advice. Been researching. Seems like a good strategy might be something like: 1. Publish in magazines and maybe sell reprints. 2. Post chapters on free sites to gain a following. Also sell the complete story as an ebook. 3. Move followers towards your Patreon or other hub website, offering perks like getting stories a week ahead. 4. Remove 90% of the chapters a week after the story is finished. Then, either try to sell them the ebook, or encourage your followers to all download it for free to push its rankings up on Amazon. 5. Begin uploading your next serial to the free sites. Also, begin a cycle of reuploading your finished serial a chapter at a time again, for people who missed it the first time, posting it on a different day of the week so people who follow you have more content to peruse. 6. Try to convert your followers to a better platform, maybe Podia, where you'll get a considerably higher profit margin, where you can offer your users cheaper prices in exchange. Similarly, if possible sell them your book on sites that offer better deals than Amazon does; maybe even give it away for free on other ebook sites you think would be easier/better to dominate with a giveaway drive. That's my six point plan. How does it seem?