In this blog post, I will be covering my opinions and rating of several e-publishing platforms. Webnovels are in the rage and e-fiction apps are popping up all over the place. I've been scouted by many of them and I tested most of them with the help of my very kind cousin who assisted me with the mass uploading for a few of my works.
This first part will be covering FL (Female Lead) story types often indicating Romance genres and LGBTQ+ genres.
For those of you new to writing Web Fictions / E-fictions, there are two main categories of them namely Female audience orientated and male audience oriented.
I have included links to all these sites so you can click on my title subheading to check them out. Without further ado, let's begin the roasting.
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1. Webnovel
User Interface: 4/5
Dashboard Statistics: 4/5 (More stats available for exclusively contracted works.)
Ease of Use: 5/5
Reader Comment Tracking: 4/5 (Does not allow you to view gif comments on PC yet.)
Story Visibility: 4/5 (After 4k words, your original story gets vetted by an editor for more views. If the story is not vetted, the visibility will be close to none.)
Tags: 4/5 (Up to 10 and you can create them.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 5/5
Chapter Editing Ease: 3/5 (See Aitsuji's thoughts.)
Chapter Deleting ease: 3/5 (Only available for free and non contracted works. Can only delete one at a time and not in batch.)
Story Creation Ease: 5/5 (As long as your account does not have more than 20 ongoing works, you can create on the spot and use the cover maker for a stand-in book cover.)
Story Removal Ease: 1/5 (Does not allow stories to be unpublished or deleted.)
Scheduling Function: 5/5 (Easy to use and reliable.)
Aitsuji's Thoughts: Writing on the platform can be risky save no auto-save function exists. For free to read, you will not get Bold and Italics function in writing either. For exclusively contracted works you cannot edit uploaded and locked chapter past a 100 word +/- range. Chapters also cannot be deleted once contracted.
Recommended: 4/5
2. Moonquill
User Interface: 5/5 (Very clean.)
Dashboard Statistics: 2/5 (Very basic dashboard statistics with reads per book only. Does not have break down of demographic of readers etc. Could be because I'm not a signed author with them.)
Ease of Use: 4/5
Reader Comment Tracking: NA
Story Visibility: 2/5 (Site reader pool is small and older books get more featured and views. Moonquill claims to try fix this algorithm but no changes seen as of blog writing date.)
Tags: 2/5 (Limited up to 5 tags of fixed genre by Moonquill)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 4/5
Chapter Editing Ease: 4/5
Chapter Deleting ease: 5/5
Story Creation Ease: 4/5 (Does not have a cover maker)
Story Removal Ease: 5/5
Scheduling Function: 4/5
Aitsuji's Thoughts: It's good for publishing but no for visibility and community interaction. It is similar to Wattpad and created by unhappy Webnovel writers. They have some sort of publishing contract authors that they help authors publish in paperback. I don't know the details of the program but you can check it out here.
Recommended: 4/5
User Interface: 5/5 (Simple design and straightforward.)
Dashboard Statistics: 2/5 (Very basic stats in numbers similar to fanfiction.net with reads, followers and word count.)
Ease of Use: 4/5
Reader Comment Tracking: 4/5
Story Visibility: 3/5 (Number of reads or new writers and non contract works are lower as marketing priorities are not offered for their works. Even contracted works frequently marketed rarely cross 100k reads in total.)
Tags: 3/5 (Plenty of tags from categories to choose from maximum 10 tags. No self created tags.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 3/5 (There is a 5,000 word chapter limit)
Chapter Editing Ease: 4/5
Chapter Deleting ease: 4/5
Story Creation Ease: 4/5 (Need a book cover made for upload, no cover creator.)
Story Removal Ease: 3/5 (Available for non contracted books only.)
Scheduling Function: 5/5 (Has an auto scheduling function after a 1 time set up.)
Aitsuji's Thoughts: I like the scheduling function here the best although that word limit could be annoying. No fan fictions here, original stories only. Dreame and RIngdom share the same backend platform for publishing as they are both owned by Stary Writing. The contract application process is smooth although their editor turnover rate is very high.
Recommended: 3.5/5
4. Wattpad
User Interface: 3/5 (Does not support mobile publishing.)
Dashboard Statistics: NA
Ease of Use: 4/5
Reader Comment Tracking: 3/5 (It is a feed in the inbox for all likes, comments, chapter updates. Can be very messy when you have many stories and many readers. It is possible to miss some of them even if they give you emailing options to email you new comments. Replying to those comments are a bigger headache. WEbnovel wins in this aspect.)
Story Visibility: 3/5
Tags: 5/5 (Virtually have never seen a limit to them and their tags have ranking for searcher recommendations. You can make your own tags too.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 5/5 (Has bold, italic, underline and alignment functions)
Chapter Editing Ease: 5/5
Chapter Deleting ease: 5/5
Story Creation Ease: 4/5 (No cover creator.)
Story Removal Ease: 5/5 (Can unpublish or delete entirely)
Scheduling Function: NA
Aitsuji's Thoughts: I actually loved Wattpad although they have room for improvements. It is no surprise I started with fan fictions there and many other e-fiction editors scouted me from it.
Recommended: 4/5
5. Tapas
User Interface: 4/5
Dashboard Statistics: 3.5/5 (Although not as detailed as Webnovel, it is the second best stat dashboard I've seen since Webnovel's breakdown. All your crucial information to see your story's performance are there.)
Ease of Use: 4/5 (They have rather strange layouts and concepts but when you get accustomed to them, it's like windows moving to using a macbook. You don't go back.)
Reader Comment Tracking: 4/5 (They can be seen and replied to by clicking on notification bell. The fact that reader comment and writer chapter update notifications are separate in this site makes it much better than Wattpad.)
Story Visibility: 3.5/5 (For FL, this is your go-to site. It is very LGBTQ+ friendly as well. With the right tags, you can grow your audiences very fast. Readers are also likely to follow you out of the site like Patreon to support your work.
Tags: 4/5 (Up to 10 tags but you have the ability to create tags on the site.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 4/5 (Has a 15,000 character word limit)
Chapter Editing Ease: 5/5
Chapter Deleting ease: 5/5
Story Creation Ease: 3/5 (Cover creation is a challenge. No cover creators and they need specific size, no using pirated images if possible.)
Story Removal Ease: 4/5
Scheduling Function: 5/5 (They have a yellow dote marked on the calendar for days with a scheduled chapter for easier reference.)
Aitsuji's Thoughts: Personally, I like the Tapas community because they embrace original creation like no other. For niche authors like me, it is paradise for creation but not necessary earning. The FL department for this site is booming but maybe not for ML though I will cover this in part 2 of the blog.
Recommended: 4/5
6. Goodnovel
User Interface: 3/5 (The uploading interface is pure cancer.)
Dashboard Statistics: NA
Ease of Use: 2/5
Reader Comment Tracking: 3/5 (Neutral as I do not have comments to track as of blog date.)
Story Visibility: 2/5 (Only for contracted works, they will publish it to the app. Non contracted works are left for web reading only that does not pull readers because GN markets mostly for in-app reads.)
Tags: 3/5 (UP to maximum 7 tags. No creating tags.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 3/5 (Bold and italics options available. Copy and pasting to site from other sources may incur paragraph spacing errors.)
Chapter Editing Ease: 4/5
Chapter Deleting ease: 4/5
Story Creation Ease: 3/5 (No cover creator. GN also does not allow cover that looks sexual, has cigarette or tattoos or violence.)
Story Removal Ease: 4/5 (Can hide or delete story. Not sure if it is applicable to contracted works.)
Scheduling Function: 2/5 (This is the cancerous part. The visibility of the publish later button is bad. The scheduling calendar is also difficult to manage with scheduled at fixed time.)
Aitsuji's Thoughts: Honestly, they have some good schemes but they copy Webnovel and Dreame too much for me to like them. The website design and user interface leave much to be desired for me.
Recommended: 2.5/5
7. AnyStories
User Interface: 4/5
Dashboard Statistics: 1/5 (Too basic, only tracks your payment per book, nothing else.)
Ease of Use: 4/5
Reader Comment Tracking: NA (On web, not applicable. Might be on app but I don't have the app. Last I checked, for ios only.)
Story Visibility: 3/5 (Not a huge reader pool.)
Tags: 4/5 (Maximum 10 tags, fixed tags.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 3/5 (Chapter title no more than 25 words.
Chapter Editing Ease: 4/5
Chapter Deleting ease: NA (No options available.)
Story Creation Ease: 4/5 (No cover creator.)
Story Removal Ease: 3/5 (Can unpublish but not delete.)
Scheduling Function: NA
Aitsuji's Thoughts: Hated how this had no scheduling function or chapter unpublish or delete function. The draft section is also a mess, does not sort by update date. The website also has typo errors. Very unprofessional in my eyes.
Recommended: 1/5
8. Novel Cat
User Interface: 3/5 (Very messy to find what I need. Badly aligned side bar.)
Dashboard Statistics: 1/5 (As of date, does not allow me to select my book to view stats. Even if I did, I would only see earning data and not read data.)
Ease of Use: 3/5 (It takes a while to get used to this bad design.)
Reader Comment Tracking: 3/5 (Not tested the function yet but there is a comment moderating tab.)
Story Visibility: NA
Tags: 1/5 (Only 1 main genre fixed tag per work.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 3/5 (Has to be approved by editor before you can publish the book and chapters. has a 3,000 word limit.)
Chapter Editing Ease: 4/5
Chapter Deleting ease: NA
Story Creation Ease: 3/5 (Requires editor to approve a story that can take some time. No cover creator.)
Story Removal Ease: NA
Scheduling Function: 4/5
Aitsuji's Thoughts: The barrier for publishing a story n this site is too high. I won't recommend going through that hassle. Just go for something easier with a bigger reader base. Communication with the editors who contact you is also difficult. You don't always get replies.
Recommended: 2/5
9. MoboReader
User Interface: 3/5 (Very basic and clean.)
Dashboard Statistics: NA
Ease of Use: 4/5
Reader Comment Tracking: NA
Story Visibility: NA (I cannot see anything from the PC backend. I don't have the app downloaded to know.)
Tags: 2/5 (Only 1 tag of fixed genre per book.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 4/5
Chapter Editing Ease: 4/5
Chapter Deleting ease: 4/5
Story Creation Ease: 4/5 (No Cover Maker.)
Story Removal Ease: 1/5 (Option is there but you cannot click it. Maybe only for blank books without chapters or on editor contacting.)
Scheduling Function: 4/5
Aitsuji's Thoughts: Honestly an unexplored territory for myself.
Recommended: 3/5
10. ScribbleHub
User Interface: 4/5
Dashboard Statistics: 4/5 (Is a linear book stat. Breakdown for each book is available.)
Ease of Use: 4/5
Reader Comment Tracking: 3.5/5 (Similar to Wattpad, all in one notification bell that you need to go into individually.)
Story Visibility: 3.5/5 (Has an established reader base to read regular works there.)
Tags: 4/5 (Maximum 9 genres to choose from a list.)
Chapter Uploading Ease: 5/5 (Has all the things you would use in Microsoft Docs.)
Chapter Editing Ease: 5/5
Chapter Deleting ease: 5/5
Story Creation Ease: 4/5 (Cover Maker not included. Cover change requires admin approval for publishing. Might have some delay.)
Story Removal Ease: 5/5
Scheduling Function: 4/5 (Be careful not to hit publish immediately. Set the date and time first.)
Aitsuji's Thoughts: Might consider using this more but I simply just don't have the time to maintain so many platforms. It was recommended to me by an author pal who thought Godfather World might be loved more. She was wrong. The first commenter for that was a salty brat with a god complex. Nonetheless, a great site I might look into moving my works. They don't have contracts I think. You'd need to make a Patreon and divert readers.
Recommended: 4/5
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That's the end of part 1. As of date, these are the sites I have works on and more may come up in the future but I wouldn't know. Also, just to clarify some things before I get people asking me questions.
1. No, I do not actively monitor these sites. The common ones I get on are just Webnovel, Wattpad and Tapas.
2. I do not know about the various sites and their contract offers even if most of them approach me with such things in their messages. I refuse to sign with platforms that have not proven their sincerity to me and most of them do not have the potential to market me in my eyes.
3. The genres I recommend posting on these sites for my part 1 blog are only romance related. I do not know if posting non-romance works will do well because some of these sites do not have genre options for non-romance. Those that do will be seen in my part 2 blog.
4. Yes, I can do a site demonstration. In fact, you should subscribe to my Youtube for it. I often do content like this. The blog is a mere summarised version. I should update links to everything here including the YT live stream testing as well as part 2 of the blog when it is out. If links are not here, please look for me on discord.
With that, I hope this list was useful if you're an author considering trying e-fiction or someone who is looking at starting your writing journey. Unlike traditional publishing and self-publishing, the barrier of entry for the writing world hardly exists for new e-fiction writers.
Honestly, this is also why I find most books on e-fiction trash to read. However, as many of these reads are free, I cannot be complaining. Every writer has to start somewhere and thank goodness I started mine in the fanfiction world.
Until next time, don't catch a cold.