I dont understand the rankings

#1
When I was looking threw the rankings, I don't see any stories that aren't brand new or have thousands of followers.  How do I find stories that have more than 3 cpaters but are new enough that they don't have 3k followers ?  

I want to see some of the good "inbetween" stories.  How do I find them?

I feel bad for authors, how do the new guys get noticed and "compete" with the big stories?

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#4
'golrush' pid='830923' dateline='1512947552' Wrote: Wow , that sounds tough.  does it happen often?
Trending is quite a dynamic list, And it's possibly the one that is easiest to get on if you update often. It's still very hard tho, without doing some kind of heavy promotion drive.
This weeks most popular list tend to be the exact same stories that are the top rated ones, So I have personally stopped even looking at those.
My fiction

Cheers!

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#5
'golrush' pid='830917' dateline='1512921199' Wrote: When I was looking threw the rankings, I don't see any stories that aren't brand new or have thousands of followers.  How do I find stories that have more than 3 cpaters but are new enough that they don't have 3k followers ?  

I want to see some of the good "inbetween" stories.  How do I find them?

I feel bad for authors, how do the new guys get noticed and "compete" with the big stories?

I think this is also another reason for review swaps, because reviews generally help to boost your ranking as well. Generally, I believe that new authors tend to band together and help each other out in order to market their work to the greater audience. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, the passion for writing should come from within, so regardless of ranking I urge all authors out there to keep up their good work!

PS: If you're looking for new fictions to read I believe there's a tab called "new releases". Most of the new stories should be found there.
There's no such thing as time wasted, only people wasting time.

Check out my first fiction here: Sylph Resurgence https://royalroadl.com/fiction/8299/sylph-resurgence

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#7
Method, the First: 
- Go to Main Page of RRL, click on "Read" and then click on "Popular This Week."
- Go to bottom of page, and select the page you want to go to. 
* The less well-known stories will be in the later pages.

Method, the Second:
- Go to Main Page of RRL, click on "Read" and then click on "Active-Only Ranking."
- Got to bottom of page, and select the page you want to go to.
* The less-well known stories will be in the later pages.
* This is to find only the active stories being worked on, this removes "Hiatus," "Complete," or "Abandoned" stories.

Method, the Third: 
- Go to Main Page of RRL, click on "Read" and then click on "Search."
- Click the white "Advanced Search" button near top right of page.
- Select the genres and variables you want and then hit "Search."
* This allows you to find only what you're interested in and try to find less known stories.

Method, the Fourth:
- Keep checking the Latest Updates area of the site and look for new fictions with low chapter numbers.

Method, the Fifth:
- Go to the Forums and continually check the "Promote Your Web Novel" and "Recommendations" threads.
- Check users signatures on the forums as well.

Method, the Sixth:
- Post on a thread on the "Recommendations" area asking for new fictions.
* There are New Fictions threads and other people's suggestion threads there as well.

Method, the Seventh:
- Keep clicking here until you find something you like.

The Ramble-fest That Will Devour Your Sanity!

Hi golrush,

First off, I'd like to say thank you for seeking out the "good inbetween stories" on RRL and being willing to give new author's on here a shot. That means a lot and seems to be a rather rare sentiment on here. Most people only check out the Top 10, or the absolute newest stories and completely forget about the other 10,000+ on here, living in the shadows of obscurity.

I'm an author on here, but I also like to voraciously read as many of the stories as I can. I have the same interest in finding mid-level/low-exposure stories as well. Maybe it's seeking the 'diamond in the rough' kind of ideal, or maybe it's the fact that I write a low-exposure story and know exactly what it's like for most other authors on here. Both, most likely.

Everyday when I have some time to check things out on here, I have a set few rituals that I do to try and find those 'inbetween stories.' The first thing I check is the Latest Updates (as others have mentioned above). I keep my eyes open for stories that have a mid-range of chapter numbers in their titles. "Chapter Eight - Monster Ate Me Alive!" or something like that. My personal preferences is that I will click on quite a few stories and check them out. I'll give a look at the chapter, at the title page/synopsis, and see what kind of audience the story has.

If the story uploads more than two or three chapters in a couple days, I tend to avoid it. It usually signals to me that the author has either already written the story out and is uploading fast to get exposure, or that the material the author is uploading are really short, rough, and sub-par. I like being one of those readers that sees a story grow and gets to be part of seeing an author's vision come to life with input and support from readers. If someone has already written out a novel and is just spam-uploading it to get exposure, I avoid those stories. Also, I've found that if you leave a comment helping with critique or fixing spelling/grammar mistakes, those kinds of authors tend to be really oversensitive and cagey. They spent the last few months working on 'Mah Masterpiece' and now don't really want any input, they just want glorification of their vision. The other side of it being really fast uploads of quickly written material is that... Well... There's really nothing there. It's someone still putting their feet under them and scatter-shot pasting ideas to a page.

I also try to avoid stories that have more than 1,000-2,000 followers, because that usually means they're already set and 'popular' on here. If the story is great, regardless I'll give it a read and support, but I want to help out the less known stories and authors as much as possible. Those with a steady readership are already well off, what else could I do to help?

One personal bit that I have is that I like stories with defined and imaginative worlds. If an author posts up maps, character portraits, little interlude articles about the setting, those tend to draw me in more than chapter-after-chapter stories. I like seeing the world take shape. Another thing I tend to do is avoid the typical 'fare' of RRL. LitRPG/VRMMO/Reincarnation and the like. Unless the story really grabs me, I let it go, because I know certain genres are already popular enough on here to get a solid reader-base really quickly. I like finding the weird, the strange, or the obscure. Those stories where the author is pouring their soul out, or trying something new, or just having fun with an idea that might be oddball or different than usual.

The main way I like to find these kinds of stories is a bit involved but works for me. What I do is go to the main page of RRL. Click "Read", then click "Popular This Week." Naturally, you'll see the Top 10 on the site there. I avoid them like the plague. I scroll to the bottom of the page and immediately click on "Page Five" "5" at the bottom. That sends me far enough back that I don't have to see all the popular stories or the ones battering people over the head with their stories to get attention.

From there I continue page by page checking out the different stories and reading their synopses. I usually keep a wordpad window open when I do this. I scroll around for a few minutes every day trying to get further and further down the page count and see what stories are there. If ones meet my interest levels, I copy them to my 'To Read' list in Wordpad. Or I bookmark them in my browser. Or if they catch me and I want to know more, I go to them and Follow them (Bookmark) in RRL.

Another kind of way of doing this if you just want to keep to the stories that are being updated currently, is to check out the "Active-Only Ranking" and do the same thing. Avoid the Top few stories and make your way back. Or go straight to the last page and make your way up.

Yet another way to find a more focused set of stories that might appeal to your desires on a given day, or satisfy your hunger for a particular genre is to go to the main page, click on "Read" go to "Search." There you'll be met with those same godawfully popular Top 10 on your left. Avoid them like the plague again, and click on the "Advanced Search" tab at the top of the page. This will take you to a page where you can select the different tags you're interested in. Genres, and the like. Click on the ones you're looking for, then select the other details near the bottom. You can sort them by popularity, by readers, by number of pages and all kinds of particulars. Then click the turquoise "Search" at the bottom of the page. Voila! You'll find exactly what you're looking for.

One more way, although a bit random, is what Drew Walker mentioned above. Make sure to check the Forums now and then. Check out the "Promote Your WebNovel" Section for new stories whose Authors need some help and readership. Also check out the "Recommendations" threads as well as the people who mention their stories there.


The problem with depending just on Latest Updates is that you may never actually find those 'inbetween stories' you might be seeking. This might be because the author posts at a different time than you usually check RRL. Or maybe the author is doing a revision and won't be seen because they're changing chapters that are old for a long time. It's still a good way to try and find a new story to check out, but there are limitations.

There's also just clicking the 'Surprise Me' button under 'Read' on the main page. Sometimes lightning strikes and you get a really cool new story there. 90% of the time though, you're just going to find a story by an author that tried, never got any realy exposure, and gave up... Leaving the story in Hiatus or Abandoned status. It's sad, really.

As far as the "Trending Fictions" section is concerned, I spit upon it and trample it under-foot. A lot of people have misconceptions about how to get on that list. The main way a story gets on there is Reviews/Ratings. It doesn't matter how many readers are reading it, how much traffic it is getting, how new it is. What matters is that a lot of people are Review/Rating-spamming it at once either with positive or negative reviews.

I also think some nefarious activity is going on with "Trending Fictions" as well, but I'll keep my conspiracy theories to myself. Suffice to say, I keep seeing the same fictions on there over and over, and not all of them are getting the traffic they deserve.

That's one of the big deals on RRL right now, more than any other thing, Reviews/Ratings are paramount. The staff has made them too top-heavy for importance. It doesn't matter what kind of traffic a story is getting, how involved their readerbase is in comments/polls/input, or how hard an author works at getting their next chapters up. What matters the most is Reviews/Ratings from readers and that makes or breaks a story. That's the only way to get up in the slippery quicksand of Rankings, that's the only way to get on Trending Fictions, and that's the only way to keep people's attention right now.

Since Reviews/Ratings are so important, you'll find that the mid-level/low-exposure stories on here aren't getting any. That is to say, most stories on here won't get more than 10 written reviews, or more than 50 hidden star reviews. This causes a story to flounder as the author is constantly fighting an uphill battle to find readers. The only way around this seems to be review swaps, joining a clique that will leave reviews for you, or the possibility of an author doing something nefarious and collusive to find a way, which is a real shame.

Some readers realize their power with the Review/Rating system and lord over some early or new authors with it. Readers will camp out on a story and read every chapter, yet never leave a single Reivew/Rating on how they feel for the story. Some do this for the hipster value, they found their 'diamond in the rough' and don't want it getting popular. Others refuse to leave a Review/Rating until the absolute last point of a story because they keep saying it hasn't reached a certain threshold for them to "accurately review it." Others simply don't realize the importance it has to authors. Still, others more might have less than pleasant reasons, such as avoiding 'competition' because they write in a similar genre, or they don't want that story to compete with another story they're die-hard fans of.

The worst are readers who are fellow authors on there. Most authors never seem to favorite a fiction that isn't their own. They never leave Reviews/Ratings for others unless they get something out of it. And a lot of the more competitive authors will tank other stories if they're higher on the Rankings than them, or of a similar genre to them, just to try and get by them.

In short, if you read a story, the best thing you can do to help the author is leave a Review/Rating if you've read more than three chapters. Leave comments on their chapters. Share and suggest the story to others here on RRL or elsewhere. Make sure to Follow the story and if you really like it and read more than a dozen chapters, actually add it as a Favorite. That is, unless you like continually scrolling to cool stories only to find out they've dropped into Hiatus or Abandoned because no one other than a couple of silent readers ever noticed they existed.

Anyway, that's enough of a rant about this. I hope you find the stories you're looking for and make your own set of personal rituals to find the best ones for your interests. Thank you again for being willing to seek out the low-exposure authors on here and give them a chance.


The Responses to the Responses of the Ramble-fest That Will Devour Your Sanity!

Hi Necamijat,

I understand the lack of observable or demonstrable variables to measure an author 'working hard to get their next chapters up.' I don't expect anyone to be able to measure that. I guess the best way would be for the 'math' of the site to have a bit more focus on page count or something like that. Please understand, I don't know the weight that certain things have on the site when it comes to rankings and the like. I can only mention what I've seen anecdotally by observation, and I admit some of those observations might be odd or off-base.

What I have seen by watching some of the fictions in the Trending Fictions list, is that a lot of them are extremely heavy in Reviews/Ratings. What I've seen as well with stories is that Reviews/Ratings are very top-heavy when it comes to the 'math' of the site. I understand why they are, as Reviews/Ratings are very important. Yet, a lot of readers either don't know they are important and don't leave any, or they do know they're important and are withholding them on key fictions while aiming them only at the popular fictions which creates a huge separation in exposure. 

Those stories with 1,000+ Followers and 400+ Reviews/Ratings are lightyears beyond the poor bastard who only has 20 Followers and 4 Reviews/Ratings. The first story is going to get even more exposure and even more Followers/Reviews/Ratings whereas the second shmuck has to wonder why they're even bothering after a few months. I understand it's the nature of reality, but the 'math' can get harsh sometimes.

I was talking about specifically the Trending Fictions list. I understand that the Weekly Popular List is based on traffic. Those with more chapters get more traffic. Those with more followers get more traffic. Those who update more often, get more traffic. I'm not complaining about the Weekly Popular List at all. 

I'm not suggesting that anyone blacklist (actively avoid) the top stories on here. They're the top because they have the readers and that's great for them. My apologies if the 'tone' of my post was off. I mentioned that I tend to avoid the top fictions unless I really like them. The OP mentioned trying to avoid the hugely popular fictions, so I'm trying to mention ways to do so and find the less exposed fictions.

I don't abandon a story just because it got popular. I'm not a 'fic-hipster' and I don't suggest anyone else try to be one either. I know all the old stories that are popular on here, I've read them already. Some of them I follow, others I lost interest in. Personally, I only drop a popular fiction if I see the author losing their 'aim' so-to-speak. Some authors get popular, know they have a good reader-base, feel pressured with regular releases and their quality slides. Not every author is like that, but I have in the past dropped some because of it. It is up to each and every individual reader to like or dislike what they want.

Thank you for the strawman attack at end of your post, too. I may have my personal views about things. I will only report suspicious activity when I see it or have proof to mention to the staff here. I have never withheld a report of suspicious activity. Why would I zone in and complain about an author on here being successful? Why would I try to tank someone's story just because it's been on the Trending Fictions list about a million times in the last four months? Maybe that fiction is just doing something right. I can still have a personal view of "Smells fishy."

I'm open to a PM if you want to continue with any concerns. If you would like me to censor my earlier post, tell me so and I'll edit it down. My apologies for mentioning my own views of things.

* You seem to have edited your strawman attack out of your last post and replaced it with a bait comment. See above still concerning it.




SJ Reaver, I know, right?

Make sure your tinfoil hat is on tightly, mate. You never know when those crazy Reptilians from Rigel IV might pop-up and Bubbahotep your soul!

Only a $5 donation to your Paypal to get all the secrets of the Illuminati? Really? That's a bargain. 

And here I thought it was just one or two people making social media groups on FB and offering free e-books to their readers on there as long they kept spamming reviews. Or people paying people on Fiverr to leave reviews. Or people just making a bunch of alt-accounts like a lot of noobs do and get caught with now and then. Or people publishing their first book on Amazon with a bunch of ads in the back to make RRL accounts and keep voting for the fictions over and over.

A secret catchphrase is way easier! (Joking this entire post by the way.)




Tanaka Tomoyuki, there shouldn't be anything wrong with that at all.

Most authors on RRL or elsewhere have backlogs of chapters to post up. A lot of people and communities highly suggest doing so as it saves time and keeps the author sane. If you can't write a lot in a given time period, it can cover you through that period.

If you're regarding the comment I mentioned about people posting up a lot of chapters. My apologies for not clarifying. I have seen in the past that some authors have already written out a novel or web-series way in advance. Or some authors have already written and published novels elsewhere (say Amazon) and then post their chapters here on RRL to get exposure. That's fine, whatever an author wants to do with their material is their prerogative. If it gets them readers, great.

I only mentioned it because if someone is looking to be a part of the ongoing webserial or webnovel experience, like some readers do, they want to see it evolve in front of them. Even if those are old chapters that have been waiting to be uploaded forever. Some authors have posted stories here that were already written up and when readers pointed out plot holes, or spelling/grammar mistakes, or wanted to be involved with some ideas... The authors lost it on their readers.

The reason is, they already wrote out their 'masterpiece' and now they just want readers and attention. They don't want to change the story. They don't want the actual involvement of an audience. They just want people to buy their Amazon e-book that is already out. I was mentioning an anecdote of some authors I've come across in the past ages of RRL that were like that. Not everyone is. There are lots of authors that have already released their stories and are posting them here for extra exposure, extra readers, and who are open to their audience. Those authors are amazing.

I made the mistake of mentioning personal suggestions along with advice. I see that doesn't work now, will learn for the future.

*Added stuff for Tomoyuki:

The strawman comment is gone. Necamijat mentioned it now. I think we both had a miscommunication.

Yes, I'm generalizing or mentioning a view I have over individual cases I may have seen in the past. My bad, you've given me a proper spanking. I'm not strawmanning though, because I'm not 'putting words in someone else's mouth and then 'attacking' it.' I've intentionally never mentioned a specific story that I might have views on.

I didn't realize I'm -attacking- authors. If I am doing so, that's my bad and understand. To understand where I'm coming from, please feel free to click on any random assortment of fictions on this site and then click on their authors. You'll notice, with a great degree of success, that most of those authors have followed and favorited their own stories and very few authors will do the same to any other author on here. I'm just mentioning that I noticed this and maybe it would be nice if authors supported each other as readers as well as just those users on the site that like to stick as readers only. Again, not everyone is like this and there are lots of great authors out there that 'share the wealth' so to speak.

There was a really good post on the forums here that got buried a long time ago called "How to Support Your Authors." It went a long way to showing new readers what they could do to help the authors of stories they liked. It also mentioned some support that authors can give each other on here as well, whether they're a part of great groups like WRiTE or not. That's all I meant with that comment.

I never specifically said that other authors are selfish, that sir, is an example of a strawman attack. I will go back to what I said and see if I wrote anything like that and fix it now that you've brought it up. I don't think authors on here are selfish as a group. I know individual authors are individuals and may have whatever personality they wish to have. Some might be selfish, others might be selfless saints. Who knows?




Necamijat,

My apologies for the strawman attack thing. I didn't know where you were going with your earlier comment. Thank you for clarifying it.

Was what you were mentioning concerning the Trending Fictions, that exposure through there is based on Reviews/Ratings in a given period rather than overall? An example being that a story can get 4 reviews in a day and then pop up in the 'math' that the Trending Fictions is looking for, because that was a decent enough change for the story in a set period. Rather than a story having 600+ reviews/ratings overall and then camping out on the Trending Fictions for months at a time?

I think that was the miscommunication. I thought it was the second example and not the first. My bad for mixing that up. I thought it was overall reviews mixed with new reviews. So those stories that already have huge review libraries behind them will keep getting new reviews and will keep dominating that place. If a new fiction with only a few readers can get 4 reviews and that's enough to pop up there, that's great.

Each of those leviathans started out on RRL when it was still young and the reader-base and author-base was more tightly knit though. I mean those huge leviathans that occasionally pop up in the Top 10-20 regularly. I understand that every new story can soar to high places and get lots of readers if they work hard and have a story that the RRL readership likes. That's why RRL is great and way better than other places (Wattpad as an example).

Still, RRL was a different beast when it was younger. Back when it was still more of a forum-structure and people could get exposure easily by just being a part of the community. That's where a lot of the leviathans got their start. Right now, for a lot of new stories, it's completely hit and miss. Some people get it, and other people get buried. It's the nature of a community that is growing as fast as this one is. All I wanted was to bring a slight bit of attention to that.


The original "Support Your Authors" thread mentioned in the "Ramble-Fest That Will Devour Your Sanity." (Sadly, now defunct and in need of a revival.)
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"If you like pie, eat pie. If you don't like pie, have cake instead." - Someone Wise

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#8
Quote:Text
It doesn't matter what kind of traffic a story is getting, how involved their readerbase is in comments/polls/input, or how hard an author works at getting their next chapters up. What matters the most is Reviews/Ratings from readers and that makes or breaks a story.
More text

@SovereignofAshes
That's... wow.
Tell me, how would you make a list of people that work hard at getting their next chapters up? Or a list based on interacting with the readerbase?
The first is flat out wrong, as the weekly popular list actually tracks traffic and traffic only, measuring the total number of views in that period.

Moving onto the parts of the long post I didn't want to quote to save space:
Actively avoiding top stories seems like a wild shot. What do you do if that fiction reaches the numbers you avoid in the first place? Do you abandon it because it grew too popular for you?

And about the trending fiction conspiracy theories: Do tell me more.

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#9
The Trending Fiction list is put together by the lizardmen illuminati from their headquarters on the dark side of the moon.

It took me a month to get onto it, but for a small donation of $5 to my paypal, I'll give you the secret catchphrase to tell one of the admins and you'll get on there in a week.

'golrush' pid='830917' dateline='1512921199' Wrote: When I was looking threw the rankings, I don't see any stories that aren't brand new or have thousands of followers. How do I find stories that have more than 3 cpaters but are new enough that they don't have 3k followers ?

I want to see some of the good "inbetween" stories. How do I find them?

Here you go.

Advanced search -> pick the number of pages you want -> sort by descending release date.

Quote:I feel bad for authors, how do the new guys get noticed and "compete" with the big stories?

1) Update on a daily or alternate day schedule.
2) Write something people want to read.
3) Have a nice cover.
Total Words: 596,800; Highest Ranking: #260; Unique Followers: 6,084



RE: I dont understand the rankings

#10
Quote:Those stories with 1,000+ Followers and 400+ Reviews/Ratings are lightyears beyond the poor bastard who only has 20 Followers and 4 Reviews/Ratings.

And a fiction with 400+ Reviews has almost 0 hope of making it into trending fictions more than once, while the person with 4 ratings can.
The system isn't built to discourage novelty but is only as useful as the people using it.
Yes, it's extremely hard to compete with the leviathans that are on Top20, that's undeniable. But each of those leviathans started out as a 20 follower, 4 review fiction.

I have edited my previous comment due to possibly negative connotations that I would rather have not used, and I do apologise for that. The edit was not supposed to be a bait comment as much as a general inquiry into your thoughts on what is wrong or what is happening in that particular case.

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#11
This became a whole other kind of beast from what the original intent of the post was.

So, to get back on track, use the "advanced search", that way you can look for fictions of the genres you like and find even the less famous ones.

Or look at the forums, a lot of fictions that get self-promoted in the forums don't end up in the trending or weekly popular lists, so you might find something you haven't read there yet.

Another way is to ask for recommendations for something you'd like to read.

Or you can always try your luck with the surprise me button, but that one rarely gives good results.

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#12
I'm going to clarify how trending works since it seems to cause most misunderstandings.

The system aggregates the total amount of stars (ie. the sum of all ratings/reviews) on the fiction within the past week, then compares that number to the total number of ratings and reviews that fiction has, possibly as a similar aggregate of stars. If I got the concept correctly when it was explained to me, it also tracks the number of reviews those aggregated stars came from and uses that in the equation as well. It blurts out the number that results via the formula used, then compares and sorts the entire RRL fiction list according to that.
That's the 'trending' list.
Finally, the system retrieves a small sample of the top of that list and caches it to show on the main page.

The end result is that a fiction needs to get exponentially more reviews and ratings to stay on the trending list for more than one iteration, and that a fiction with more reviews needs a substantially larger number of reviews than a smaller fiction.

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#13
'Necamijat' pid='831193' dateline='1513855413' Wrote: I'm going to clarify how trending works since it seems to cause most misunderstandings.

The system aggregates the total amount of stars (ie. the sum of all ratings/reviews) on the fiction within the past week, then compares that number to the total number of ratings and reviews that fiction has, possibly as a similar aggregate of stars. If I got the concept correctly when it was explained to me, it also tracks the number of reviews those aggregated stars came from and uses that in the equation as well. It blurts out the number that results via the formula used, then compares and sorts the entire RRL fiction list according to that.
That's the 'trending' list.
Finally, the system retrieves a small sample of the top of that list and caches it to show on the main page.

The end result is that a fiction needs to get exponentially more reviews and ratings to stay on the trending list for more than one iteration, and that a fiction with more reviews needs a substantially larger number of reviews than a smaller fiction.

Stories that are relatively small still practically never get on the list without a really massive influx of reviews though.
I've seen stories go from 2 or 3 reviews to 10 - 15 reviews in a week and still not make that list, despite that being a pretty large relative influx of reviews.
Without a massive boost in the number of reviews from off-site exposure or a writing group, it becomes impossible to reach that list.
This is clearly evident if you take a closer look at the review/chapter/reader ratios of those stories that do reach the list. They have so many reviews relative to their followers that it's quite ridiculous compared to other stories. Granted, those ratios seem to fix themselves after a week or 3 on the trending list, but it's still quite broken and unfair to authors whos social engineering skills are lacking.
I don't think it's cheating, just an advantage people with a previous following or lots of friends bring with them, that can give their stories a massive boost up the lists for little effort, or writing skills.
some stories on the trending list have been truly atrociously badly written sometimes, and that is usually reflected in the kind of reviews they get once they hit the trending list.
My fiction

Cheers!

RE: I dont understand the rankings

#14
I did have a startling observation to contribute after X-mas. as the X-mas time slows many major stories down and the good social engineers take some time off, the chance to get on the list apparently increases a lot, even allowing a fairly new story with only a few reviews to hit the list.
Granted it was only for a few hours before being overtaken by a larger story, but still, it got on the list, along with a couple of others less known stories. It's mostly back to your regular programming today ofc.
It does show that it's not impossible to get on the list if you are willing to do some review swaps at times when the site slows down.
My fiction

Cheers!

Re: I dont understand the rankings

#17
As an avid reader, I do agree with reviews being a huge influence.  That said, if you want good reviews, here's my advice.

Do not just write & post your first 30 chapters.  You should write the first 30 chapters before posting anything.  Once you have read through them and edited it twice, then start posting.

You can do many things with your time while you post the first 30 you already wrote, read, & edited.  You can get ahead on writing with less editing, but I would suggest after writing, go take a shower or eat a meal then reread it before posting a chapter.  Something at least 15 minutes or longer of time.  You could also promote your book in various ways by talking to people you know who might be willing to read it and leave a review for you.  Plus, already having 30 chapters ready to go makes it easy to keep an early regular schedule until you've caught up with your current chapter of writing.

Either way, most reviews are written fairly early on in a story once a reader passes their make or break point.  If you get a bad review over an early chapter, I highly recommend going back and fixing it if there sufficient reason to do so that you're willing to make.  It is your story regardless of what others say, but feedback can be good for your story.

Re: I dont understand the rankings

#18
Hey guys how do you get or encourage readers to come give feedbacks and comments to help you improve your series and chapters based on suggestions? So I just posted my first series, and have the Prologue, Prelude and first 4 chapters live now. I am just looking for reader feedback to see how things are going so far or if changes or revisions should be made to improve. Would love to get more comments hearing what readers are thinking so far. What is the best way to get more readers and encourage this on my chapters? 

Re: I dont understand the rankings

#19
Richard Keenan Wrote: Hey guys how do you get or encourage readers to come give feedbacks and comments to help you improve your series and chapters based on suggestions? So I just posted my first series, and have the Prologue, Prelude and first 4 chapters live now. I am just looking for reader feedback to see how things are going so far or if changes or revisions should be made to improve. Would love to get more comments hearing what readers are thinking so far. What is the best way to get more readers and encourage this on my chapters?
There is a thread here on getting more interaction with readers: https://www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/106901. Has a mixture of responses from authors and readers, so hopefully you find it useful. 

Just be careful about getting what you wish for as some of your readers' feedback (imo usually the minority) might be critical, so be prepared for that. Some of the feedback might seem to be not be very helpful and may only help prepare you for the possibility of getting some pretty harsh feedback while at a more conventional day/night job (especially if it is in a stressful, high-pressure industry). Though if you have a sufficiently thick skin already, you might be able to find some of the more constructive feedback that could help you further improve as a writer and provide options that you never considered before and maybe inspire you to think of different ideas entirely.
I sometimes think, therefore I sometimes am?