Hi, I’m looking for advice on how to encourage reader engagement. I tried my hand at writing on this site a few years ago and now I’m finally back! One thing I struggled with back then was getting reader feedback and I’d like to start the early days of my novel by knowing how to encourage this.

I love it when I get feedback on my work, be it positive or negative, as it helps me improve my writing and bring about a more enjoyable experience for my readers. I also love just interacting with people on the topic I am passionate about, so any and all advice is appreciated.

Here’s my book if you want to stop by and give some feedback, just chat to me about it, or want a new cultivation novel to read: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/53279/tales-of-cultivation :)

Thank you

Reader comments are always hard to  get. Even getting a "thanks for the chapter" is hard.
Try asking specific questions in the author's notes in the bottom, asking for opinions/advice. That'll encourage people to type.
But the easiest way IMO to get interaction is by adding polls. I guess typing is hard, but clicking a button is easy.

What Mad Sadie has said, polls are the best way to get reader engagement. After all it's a lot easier. When comments do come by thank them, try to strike up conversation about the contents of the chapter and give rep. Good luck for the future my friend. :)

You need followers first. Only a small percentage of followers give comments, so you need a lot of followers if you want reader interaction. This is the same case with other writing sites, and my experience is that RR has the most vocal community of readers, so this is the best place for interaction. However, you do need to get readers first. If you want more on interaction about writing, I guess you can try writers' groups instead?

Mad Wrote: Reader comments are always hard to  get. Even getting a "thanks for the chapter" is hard.
Try asking specific questions in the author's notes in the bottom, asking for opinions/advice. That'll encourage people to type.
But the easiest way IMO to get interaction is by adding polls. I guess typing is hard, but clicking a button is easy.

Thank you! I’ll try adding some polls once release rate slows down a little and people have time to vote. Also going to try and start a bit of a my thoughts/questions for the reader in the author’s notes at the bottom.

SilencetheHunger Wrote: What Mad Sadie has said, polls are the best way to get reader engagement. After all it's a lot easier. When comments do come by thank them, try to strike up conversation about the contents of the chapter and give rep. Good luck for the future my friend. :)

I will try and strike up some conversations with commenters if I see an opportunity to. Thank you!

Temple Wrote: You need followers first. Only a small percentage of followers give comments, so you need a lot of followers if you want reader interaction. This is the same case with other writing sites, and my experience is that RR has the most vocal community of readers, so this is the best place for interaction. However, you do need to get readers first. If you want more on interaction about writing, I guess you can try writers' groups instead?

Thank you! I’ll focus on getting out content for a bit to get some readers/ followers and start reaching out to my fellow authors/ looking for a writers group or two that suits me.

I’m curious, what kind of viewers:comments ratio is normal to expect? Obviously, it’ll vary depending on a lot of a factors, but what’s a solid number to be looking at? Like, right now I have around 750 views and 8 comments that aren’t mine, and I guess I’m wondering if that’s normal or not.

If you're looking to improve your writing, reader engagement isn't going to help. Reader reviews aren't going to help because a review has nothing to do with a critique. Search for additional assets or else try the link. There are lots of authors and editors out there offering their time for free or for profit, along with the host sites as well. If you dig around, there's probably something suitable for you.

40 Places to Find a Critique Partner Who Will Help You Improve Your Writing (thewritelife.com)

Kris Wrote: right now I have around 750 views and 8 comments that aren’t mine

Yeah, that sounds about right. Sadly. Sorry...

Mad Wrote:

Kris Wrote: right now I have around 750 views and 8 comments that aren’t mine

Yeah, that sounds about right. Sadly. Sorry...

Well, knowing that’s typical is still good to know! It suggests that I’m not doing anything super wrong even if I’m not doing exceptional well either.

Kris Wrote:

Mad Wrote:

Kris Wrote: right now I have around 750 views and 8 comments that aren’t mine

Yeah, that sounds about right. Sadly. Sorry...

Well, knowing that’s typical is still good to know! It suggests that I’m not doing anything super wrong even if I’m not doing exceptional well either.

Just keep at it and I’m sure that’ll you’ll do great. I had a skim of the first couple chapters of your book and I’ve set it aside to read when I get the time. It’s good stuff :)

DW Wrote: If you're looking to improve your writing, reader engagement isn't going to help. Reader reviews aren't going to help because a review has nothing to do with a critique. Search for additional assets or else try the link. There are lots of authors and editors out there offering their time for free or for profit, along with the host sites as well. If you dig around, there's probably something suitable for you.

40 Places to Find a Critique Partner Who Will Help You Improve Your Writing (thewritelife.com)

Thank you for the advice! That link is very useful and I’ll be using it when I look for a critique partner.

Mad Wrote: Reader comments are always hard to  get. Even getting a "thanks for the chapter" is hard.
Try asking specific questions in the author's notes in the bottom, asking for opinions/advice. That'll encourage people to type.
But the easiest way IMO to get interaction is by adding polls. I guess typing is hard, but clicking a button is easy.

I just added my first poll to my novel. Let’s see how it goes 🤞 

I think a lot of readers are also "ghost readers" - many of them might not even have an account, or might have an account but only use it to follow/subscribe to their favourite fictions and not to comment/interact. (Speaking as a ghost reader myself, most of the time!) Polls are a great idea! They might be a bit slow to pick up at first (and you need an account to participate in the polls, so a lot of readers might not respond just because they may not want to create an account) but hopefully they polls will create an easy way for readers with accounts to engage with your work.

As you gain more readers, you'll get more that are willing to engage. To gain more readers, I suppose you just need to keep going! Keep updating your stories, try to stay somewhat consistent, communicate with your readers (author's notes, comments, etc. - make sure to let them know if you're not going to be posting next week, for example, or if you're going to take a couple weeks' break, or the like), and so on. These are just some thoughts; I'm no expert at all! ^^' But I hope they help.

Step 1 get lots of readers. Some % of readers will follow & some % of those followers will comment. Most readers who comment on chapters will do so when you post a new chapter and they're caught up, so if you have a shit load of chapters you're not going to get as many comments because people are plowing through them.
Maybe workshop your synopsis, though I'm not convinced most readers read synopsis.
I would cut back your posting frequency. Get about 5k words up and then switch to daily chapters. Add a subtitle indicating your genre for more clicks. 

Also, reader feedback is worthless for improving craft. Feedback from most other authors? Also worthless. If you want feedback I recommend a dedicated group. There are discord servers and services that do this, like Scribophile.

If you just want lots of comments for serotonin, write a litRPG for free readers. 

HybaIsWriting Wrote: I think a lot of readers are also "ghost readers" - many of them might not even have an account, or might have an account but only use it to follow/subscribe to their favourite fictions and not to comment/interact. (Speaking as a ghost reader myself, most of the time!) Polls are a great idea! They might be a bit slow to pick up at first (and you need an account to participate in the polls, so a lot of readers might not respond just because they may not want to create an account) but hopefully they polls will create an easy way for readers with accounts to engage with your work.

As you gain more readers, you'll get more that are willing to engage. To gain more readers, I suppose you just need to keep going! Keep updating your stories, try to stay somewhat consistent, communicate with your readers (author's notes, comments, etc. - make sure to let them know if you're not going to be posting next week, for example, or if you're going to take a couple weeks' break, or the like), and so on. These are just some thoughts; I'm no expert at all! ^^' But I hope they help.

Thank you! They have!

spellbastard Wrote: Step 1 get lots of readers. Some % of readers will follow & some % of those followers will comment. Most readers who comment on chapters will do so when you post a new chapter and they're caught up, so if you have a shit load of chapters you're not going to get as many comments because people are plowing through them.
Maybe workshop your synopsis, though I'm not convinced most readers read synopsis.
I would cut back your posting frequency. Get about 5k words up and then switch to daily chapters. Add a subtitle indicating your genre for more clicks. 

Also, reader feedback is worthless for improving craft. Feedback from most other authors? Also worthless. If you want feedback I recommend a dedicated group. There are discord servers and services that do this, like Scribophile.

If you just want lots of comments for serotonin, write a litRPG for free readers.

Thanks! I'll look into those services/ servers