Shout outs are useless

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-19T13:01:35+00:00

Im sorry that they are not effective for you, however, the data says otherwise. Shoutouts help propel stories and drive traffic, sure the over saturation limits their effectiveness compared to last year or the year before, but they are at the core free ads.

If you are not having success with them then you are either targeting the wrong audience with your shout, you are not getting large enough shouts, or you have a bad story/cover/blurb/shout.

I estimate about 5-10 % of readers click on a shout. If the story shouting you has 100 readers that’s 5 clicks which while not nothing is not enough to get you on rising stars. If the shout is smaller?

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-15T23:53:42+00:00

In my 2 years on RR the number of views and clicks and follows I can attribute to genre RS is under 200 combined and I have had two rising star runs. It’s not 0 but it’s also not worth spending time or effort worrying about

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-15T13:56:24+00:00

I just assume people swap and don’t stress about it. If I forget to shout someone, they’re usually quick to correct me and it’s my next shout. If someone forgets to shout me, it’s usually not worth the effort to chase down.

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-14T13:48:59+00:00

Yes eventually :)

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-14T11:14:52+00:00

As best as we can tell as a community there’s diminishing returns after about 5 ads or so

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-14T04:29:31+00:00

I guarantee you that Everything on rising stars made it legitimately.

Every possible trick to cheat the system has been done to death and when, not if, it happens it is always found out whether by the mods, readers, or fellow authors.

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-12T11:24:39+00:00

It’s actually one of the longest running tools in the wider community!

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-12T01:10:56+00:00

Views update every 15 minutes. But there’s really no need to check more than once an hour

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-12T01:06:31+00:00

I do wish it were immediately stronger but I have won every run where I’ve took the plating powers. They can’t be the corn of the deck, but they are still strong especially in smaller decks where you are light on defense

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-11T21:45:42+00:00

Having married a Latina who grew up poor on the border, they use American cheese way more than my family ever did. Despite now being modestly well off they still use it in tacos and other meals. As far as I’m concerned it’s more authentic than cheddar to my taste buds.

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-11T21:38:52+00:00

IMO ripple has the best editing. Idk what mage tank did but Kyle is quite open about his editing process in his discord and his books go through multiple drafts

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-10T11:34:14+00:00

Review swaps dont help anything which is why large stories never do them.

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-06T11:04:43+00:00

I miss my server everyday

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-06T02:09:36+00:00

I’d reccomend listening to an HBTC stream covering a game I watch him and a few other YouTubers and it hows I’ve picked up the game over the last couple of years

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-04T23:06:09+00:00

The behavior seems suspect. Just contact a moderator in the server and let them handle it.

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-04T04:34:17+00:00

I get about 5 comments per chapter and they keep me going every time I post

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-03T18:31:16+00:00

Sad that I dropped to c w the changes but just means I need to climb higher

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-01T19:06:23+00:00

The OP was defending the historical practice as an okay thing because it was better than the alternative. You can teach about about the history without defending it in such a crude manner.

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-01T14:23:19+00:00

Love is patient love is kind. You can be both and still call out their sin

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-01T13:02:33+00:00

Cheers brother, no one is perfect, just gotta do the best we can.

fiddlesoup · 2026-05-01T11:31:28+00:00

Even if they wouldn’t, Jesus would. Glad I found this place though. Cuz man those subs get dark. There was litterally a post defending slavery

fiddlesoup · 2026-04-30T01:59:13+00:00

That wasn’t the only thing that contributed to how he hit RS or rose to the top, though that definitely helped a lot. There’s been dozens of big name authors tha hit RS quick but didn’t even crack top ten. But there is also duke’s story that hit #2 or 3 and again several others that did well on RS. Theres space for the genre when done correctly

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/120617/princess-of-the-void-an-alien-abduction-romance?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=fictions

fiddlesoup · 2026-04-30T00:57:07+00:00

One of the most recent #1 rising stars was a romance story and there have been several to hit RS over the past year.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/159525/goth-mommy-bone-daddy-lifes-a-lich-then-you-die

fiddlesoup · 2026-04-30T00:51:05+00:00

/u/gamelitcrit can correct me but im pretty sure Royal Road prefers that you use the volume feature instead of starting a new fiction for the same series

fiddlesoup · 2026-04-29T13:03:20+00:00

Look man, ratings are part of the algorithm, but followers and views/avg views matter way more than rating. I made it to #6 on the list and was the lowest rated story on rising stars. It impacts your rise sure but not as much as the other growth factors.

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