About Medium’s Book Club: ‘Web Novel Reviews’
Come join, read, discuss — and share your fiction!
A book club can be a great way to meet people, discuss great fiction, and broaden your reading horizons. It can even be life changing.
So, what about a book club on Medium — and one that discusses your writing?
There is a thriving community of fiction authors on Medium. Some are sharing web-novels chapter by chapter, or writing a series of interconnected stories.
These pieces are perfect as the focus of a book club (or ‘reading club’) here on Medium:
- They are accessible, being free for members to read within this site
- Medium already has built in ways for us to comment and critique, meaning that…
- … authors get feedback, and can improve their writing.
I’ve said it before — Medium is better than Amazon for developing your writing skills!
So, what do I need to do, exactly?
The book club is free to anyone on Medium, and will be hosted on the publication ‘Web Novel Reviews’.
However, writers won’t publish your fiction here — you’ll just list it (see below).
Readers will get the chance to read a new writer’s work each week, and will be encouraged to write a review, and submit it to this publication, or just to comment on the reviews of others.
Why does the club run this way?
We see various mutual benefits of this model:
- The author’s fiction should get new reads, claps, and comments.
- Readers will get reads, claps and comments on their reviews.
- It will have a ‘book group’ feel, forming a community and introducing us to new writers.
- Authors will get lots of constructive feedback.
Everyone wins!
Readers, this is what to do:
Every week (beginning with the weekend), Web Novel Reviews will choose an author’s work to feature. You will know who has been chosen because we will publish an ‘announcement story’ every Saturday/Sunday, and also share this on Twitter.
All you need to do is read, but we would warmly invite you to write a review of the fiction, and submit it to this publication.
(Alternatively, you can publish a review elsewhere, and list it as a comment on the announcement story).
Other readers can then comment on each review, generating lots of fun discussion!
Writers, this is what to do:
Do you have a web-novel or other relevant set of fiction pieces to share? You just need to follow these steps:
- Write and submit a review. We ask that authors have reviewed at least one other story before submitting their own.
- Publish a set of related fiction stories on Medium (we recommend 5–10 stories/chapters), or identify a suitable set of stories that you have previously published.
- Write a summary article with links to each of your stories (like this) OR to a single list containing the stories. Either way, it’s important that you create a new article, even if its very short!
- Submit the summary article to this publication.
That’s it! Once you have submitted, you are in the line, and we will choose you/your story as one of the weekly ‘book club’ picks. Authors will be chosen in order of when they submitted their summary list of stories — no favoritism!
Where do the ‘reviews’ come in?
As mentioned above, we will choose an author each week in turn. When your turn comes around, we will announce that the book club is focusing on your writing.
We will then invite any and all readers to submit a review article. If readers don’t have time for a full review, they can simply comment on the reviews of others — or directly on the stories!
Wait — I don’t want people to criticise my work!!!
Don’t worry. Everyone is at a different stage of their creative journey, and we understand that when authors are new, they might need a gentler critique.
We therefore gently suggest that you mention in your summary story what kind of feedback you are looking for.
FAQ1: As an author, can I submit horror/erotica?
Every type of fiction is allowed, but make sure you label it appropriately so readers know what they are getting into. See more here:
FAQ2: Do you publish the web-novels in this publication?
No. At the current time, this publication is just for the summary stories and reviews. If you are looking for a publication to host your web-novel, we recommend Imaginative Fiction Out There or The Mayhem. Or else, just publish it independently.
FAQ3: Does my work need to be finished?
No! There is no pressure to have a “finished” novel, and most web-novels will end up longer than the 5–10 chapters you actually share with Web Novel Reviews.
The feedback may help you to get an idea of what is working for readers, and help you to progress with your writing.
FAQ4: What if my web-novel is way longer than ten chapters?
That’s fine, but we recommend you limit what you share to 5–10 chapters. After all, readers only have one week to read and comment.
If they enjoy the story, then hopefully they will carry on and read later instalments too!
Hopefully that explains the purpose and running of the new Medium book club, Web Novel Reviews!
Questions? Leave them in the chat. And remember to request to be added as a writer to the publication so that you can submit your fiction or reviews.
Tagging some of the first supporters of the Medium book club idea: Angie Mangino, Robert Welborn, Ben Ulansey, Kathy K, Linden Schneider, Jann Christoph von der Pütten, Micheal Woodruff, FJCMontenegro, Samuel Kenneth Kauffman and Cathylouise.