So, I have 3 books in my signature. One is on hiatus and is just a short story collection, so I will push that aside now.

Basically, whenever I advertise my books, people seem to go for Artist's Nightmare, even though that book is shorter and I even consider it worse than the other, since it was written earlier with less experience and skill. On the other hand, Glavas, my much more recent and more thought-out book, is usually skipped over. I want to know why that is. If you have a moment, have a look at the two books in my signature, their titles, covers, or even synopses, and please tell me, what seems (un)appealing about them?

I can try and give my opinion! But I'm not sure what you're talking about, since the new book ("better") has a lot more views, followers and ratings. 

Cover-wise, Artist's Nightmare wins. The color is appealing. I don't think black-and-white covers work as well as colorful ones. And it looks higher quality/higher resolution. Specifically, I don't like the yellow title in the black rectangle, it looks a bit iffy to me, the other text is much prettier. Next, what they show: a man standing amidst scorching ruins of a high-fantasy city versus a shadow of some guy, and a lute. The first one sounds more interesting, no? A clearer, stronger theme. The second might make me think of a wandering bard, slice-of-life story maybe. It's a bit vague. Also, I don't think I see many "bard MC" stories, I have no proof the concept is widely appealing.

Next, the ratings. Even if the second story has less of them, just seeing 5.0 is slightly more appealing than 4.2. Don't get me wrong, 4.2 isn't a bad rating, but it's not amazing either. I'd think of it as "above average" or "around average". The reviews on Glavas look better, though. (Normal, 5-star short reviews that look like they came from real readers.) All the other numbers look better too. 

Next, the titles. Artist's Nightmare is clearer (better). Kind of more in line with normal Royalroad titles. Oh, the MC is an artist in a fantasy world, but they're living inside a nightmarish world! An apocalypse of some sorts! (Apocalypses are decently popular.) "Glavas, my pleasure!" is completely confusing to me. I have no idea whatsoever what it's supposed to mean, which is not good. Glavas is a made-up word, or even a name. And I don't know the context of the pleasure. It doesn't tell me what the story is about, or anything relevant about the MC. The word pleasure lightly hints at romance?

Next, the blurbs. I do not think having questions in blurbs is very good: usually they are rhetorical. But the Glavas blurb wins out slightly: it's better structured, and the line breaks keep the paragraph from looking like a block of text. It's good that the blurbs aren't long, but they could be even shorter (which would be better in my opinion). "The mysterious dark force behind the curtain" is something so generic and vague it makes me want to read the story less, not more, but these are minor nitpicks. "Some people say... For some..." is vague and mostly irrelevant. Also Artist's Nightmare, where the MC is a writer in their own world sounds like it could be complicated or even convoluted to me. And it has the tinge of "oh, the MC is clearly the author self-inserting." (Maybe I am being too judgmental.) On the other hand, Glavas is an elf hunter MC that just wants to eat! He doesn't care about all the worldly stuff! Simple and effective premise, it makes him sound likable. No "plot" though, besides meeting a few strange new people. (So, it makes me think it is a Slice of Life, or Found Family stuff, which I don't read.)

Next, the tags. Glavas has Drama: more of a negative than a positive, in my books. Artist's Nightmare has Isekai / Progression / Reincarnation / Strong Lead. All good, though from the blurb I'm getting the feeling it will be quite unlike the other Isekai / Progression / Reincarnation / Strong Lead stories on Royalroad (not good). Also Tragedy, I think that's more negative than positive. So I'm not sure which has the better (more attractive) tags, probably Artist's Nightmare. Unclear.

That's basically all I got without opening the stories themselves to see the writing. Hope you find something useful in my brainstorms, I tried to give an unfiltered view of my initial reactions and subconscious thoughts. If Glavas was named something like "The Elven Monster Devourer" or "Elf Hunter-Chef" or idk, I'd expect it to destroy the other fiction in views, despite having a less pretty cover and worse tags~ Simplicity is underestimated.

From the title of each book Artists Nightmare is the only one that makes sense to me. I have no idea what 'Glavas, my pleasure!' means. Is it a pun or play on words but I have no idea what the book is about from that title. The second one Eigam scriptures has the similar issue for me, it doesnt tell me anything about it. I feel that the name the cover art and synopsis should work together to paint a very clear picture of what the book is about and pull the reader who likes that genre into it.

The synopsis of Glavas has nothing to do with violins and sounds lighthearted and funny but the cover says 'villainous musician' to me.

The second book  Eigam scriptures- the book cover says to me 'construction road signs' but the name and synopsis doesnt say that so I have no idea what to expect.

I think if you could get a cover and name that clearly conveys your genre you might have better luck. If you wanted to you could look at successful books in those genres and see what they have done and do your own version of that.

Good luck.

Ararara Wrote: That's basically all I got without opening the stories themselves to see the writing. Hope you find something useful in my brainstorms, I tried to give an unfiltered view of my initial reactions and subconscious thoughts. If Glavas was named something like "The Elven Monster Devourer" or "Elf Hunter-Chef" or idk, I'd expect it to destroy the other fiction in views, despite having a less pretty cover and worse tags~ Simplicity is underestimated.

Oh wow, thank you SO much! I honestly didn't expect anyone to go to such detail and length with their response, and it is absolutely amazing. You make some great points and I'll be sure to work on my books and their presentation based on that. Again, thank you very much. 

Some_Guy_In_A_Robe Wrote: From the title of each book Artists Nightmare is the only one that makes sense to me. I have no idea what 'Glavas, my pleasure!' means. Is it a pun or play on words but I have no idea what the book is about from that title. The second one Eigam scriptures has the similar issue for me, it doesnt tell me anything about it. I feel that the name the cover art and synopsis should work together to paint a very clear picture of what the book is about and pull the reader who likes that genre into it.

The synopsis of Glavas has nothing to do with violins and sounds lighthearted and funny but the cover says 'villainous musician' to me.

The second book  Eigam scriptures- the book cover says to me 'construction road signs' but the name and synopsis doesnt say that so I have no idea what to expect.

I think if you could get a cover and name that clearly conveys your genre you might have better luck. If you wanted to you could look at successful books in those genres and see what they have done and do your own version of that.

Good luck.

Thank you very much! You make a lot of good points and seem to share the same view as with others I have asked about this, so that is definitely something I will work on. :)

By the way, you need to generate your signature again to show the updated covers. I was very surprised when I clicked through and they look completely different from your signature. This will really skew any new opinions you may get.

I will nitpick a bit and suggest fixing the new title for Glavas to be Glavas! Hunter for Hire.

I also suggest putting your release schedule at the bottom of the synopsis.

The new cover is better but it doesn't really stand out in any way and seems like it might go against the tone a little bit after peeking at the reviews. Given that your MC is food driven (and thus super relatable lol) why not try a cover of him in a tavern eating a luscious meal or something along those lines? That would certainly get my attention fast...

Cymas Wrote: By the way, you need to generate your signature again to show the updated covers. I was very surprised when I clicked through and they look completely different from your signature. This will really skew any new opinions you may get.

I will nitpick a bit and suggest fixing the new title for Glavas to be Glavas! Hunter for Hire.

I also suggest putting your release schedule at the bottom of the synopsis.

The new cover is better but it doesn't really stand out in any way and seems like it might go against the tone a little bit after peeking at the reviews. Given that your MC is food driven (and thus super relatable lol) why not try a cover of him in a tavern eating a luscious meal or something along those lines? That would certainly get my attention fast...

Thank you very much. I didn't even realize the covers didn't update. Oops ^^;

Well, a different cover like that would certainly be better, but I can't really make art like that. Generally speaking, even generating an image of a food that would look good is not very simple. 

Cymas Wrote: By the way, you need to generate your signature again to show the updated covers. I was very surprised when I clicked through and they look completely different from your signature. This will really skew any new opinions you may get.

I will nitpick a bit and suggest fixing the new title for Glavas to be Glavas! Hunter for Hire.

I also suggest putting your release schedule at the bottom of the synopsis.

The new cover is better but it doesn't really stand out in any way and seems like it might go against the tone a little bit after peeking at the reviews. Given that your MC is food driven (and thus super relatable lol) why not try a cover of him in a tavern eating a luscious meal or something along those lines? That would certainly get my attention fast...

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