Since this guide to succeeding a scribblehub. I should probably talk about it a bit.

Scribblehub is a webnovel platform that emerged from NovelUpdates. While NovelUpdates deals with translated works from Asia, Scribblehub is its own entity for people to post on.

Since Scribblehub is the sister site of NovelUpdates. That means many of the demographics of NovelUpdates on here are very similar. In general, the type of people who read Webnovels trend to be young and tech savy. They are also bookish and particular in personality. Otherwise, they would only read published works. Most people who read webnovels/fanfic read it because they can’t find anything similar on the professional market.

Despite this fact, the different platforms all have their niches. Webnovel is popular for Chinese- style cultivation novels/Wuxia, Fanfic.net and AO3 are for fanfic, Wattpad is popular among teenage girls and appeals to their demographic(lots of K-pop fanfic and shoujo style novels). RoyalRoad is mostly power fantasy novels and has a lot of young men who like western fantasy but are also anime curious. Wordpress type webnovels are usually for the fans of traditional web serials like Worm.

In Scribblehub's case, this website appeals to anime fans and anime fanfic and cultivations/wuxia fans. This is probably due to the influence of NovelUpdates but this website had a slightly older and more picky fanbase than other sites.

It’s important to think about this when considering where to post your story. While I believe a good story is enough to get popular it is harder to write outside of the demographic. The current “meta” on Scribblehub is isekai and Girl-Love. This is likely due to the larger than average queer population on the site.

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The best part of Scribblehub which I enjoy is the fact that it’s very noob friendly, when writing a book, you will have a set amount of time on the front page just for making a book, and every time you publish a chapter you will be on the front page as well. It’s a very forgiving algorithm that allows you to get a lot of exposure really quickly.

That is a lot more than a website like Webnovel or Wattpad will give you. It rewards those who update frequently.

The trending page is also very nice, it allows even small novels to be displayed for an entire day. I’ve been on it too many times to count so I am well versed in it.

Trending is a result of upswings in both readers and views over a day that is higher than average for your novel.

There are certain cutoffs. Like having enough chapters and enough views but I think most people who are persistent and update frequently can get trending.

Regardless, your goal should not be to get trending but to get a proper baseline. This means having a certain critical mass of readers so your book doesn’t get buried and stays large enough that it can sustain itself.

I would say that this point is around 500-600 readers. This is where you are large enough to show to readers that a novel is worth reading.

The thing that some new authors don’t understand is reading habits. Reading a webnovels is a large commitment that readers willingly make. This means that readers typically don’t want to read webnovels that are one, low popularity and two, lacking chapters.

In other words, slow growth is expected and normal for a new webnovel especially when starting out. Once you’ve reach around 20-30 chapters is when you can see the staying power of your novel.

I typically skip this phase by prewriting around a week worth of content so I can upload daily and stay on the recently updated page, but I do know of authors who grow naturally.

Speaking of an updated schedule, good writing will only get you so far. When writing a web serial you need to update not only regularly but also frequently. I see too many novels which are releasing one chapter a week and fade into irrelevance. The most important thing to a webnovels success is fanning the flame of novelty. When you post a new web novel there are several tags that work in your favor. The rising section, which is connected to trending should be your first goal. Just getting on this tag will help you gain readers external to the newly updated pages.

Secondly, to write a good web novel you need a good cover. I will be honest my covers are clickbait, I put anime girls on them because that’s what sells. Personally, I would like I Don’t Know but it Seems Like I’m a Deer! To have a different cover, but I gain more popularity with the current covers I have.

Cute girl + Properly formatted and fitted font text will do wonders to setting you apart from other authors on this site. I prefer to use sans serif fonts because it is easier to read especially in smaller print.

I am not an expert on graphic design but I have done enough that I feel confident in my sense of design. Making a cover is a skill, but you can do it very simply just by making something that looks pleasing to the eye use the color wheel and make sure the font matches the tone of the book.

My last point will be related to tags and synopsis lines.

Tags are important and you should use as many as possible, but make sure they are relevant.

Synopsis are little more tricky. I like to describe them using the cocktail dress analogy. They should be long enough to cover the important bits, but short enough to keep you guessing.

The synopsis of your book should NOT be a plot description. It is a teaser, a little blurb that makes someone intrigued enough to read your book. Most importantly it needs to be short!

Anything more a paragraph and readers will roll their eyes and skip over it. Mystery is good and brevity is key to maintaining it. You want the reader to be intrigued enough that they open the webnovel and start reading it.

Telling the whole prologue is just going to make them bored.