About | Submission guide
Web Novel Reviews: Update and Submission Guide
Join us, and get your web-novel out to a wider audience!
Last updated: 6 Sept 2022
Hello all! I’m writing to explain a few changes about how things are going to work at Web Novel Reviews going forward. It’s a big enough change that it seemed best to write a new submission guide.
At first, we had conceived of the publication as a kind of virtual book club on Medium, with a new novel every week.
And while that aspect has been a lot of fun, it is also limiting, as it means we can only focus on one writer at a time. It’s also hard to judge how frequently web-novels are going to land in our inbox, not to mention the admin involved in continually setting up a new weekly featured story.
What does this mean for readers?
For readers, we invite you to explore the web-novels listed in this publication in any order, and whenever you want to read them! There is no longer a weekly schedule.
You can also submit a review any time, and (hopefully) get some reads by doing so.
What does it mean for authors?
In essence, we are simplifying the format. We now invite you to:
- Submit a ‘contents page’ story about your web-novel at any time
or…
- Submit a short-form summary story that links to an existing contents page published elsewhere.
You won’t be ‘author of the week’, I’m afraid! However, the advantage of the new approach is that you don’t need to wait your turn. Your submission will never disappear into the archives, either.
Instead, we will curate a list of web-novels that will gradually build up over time.
Why share your work here?
There is a thriving community of fiction authors and readers on Medium, and we do best when we work together, reading and commenting on each other’s stories as part of a community.
Sharing your work here brings it to a wider audience, and what’s more, readers will be encouraged to write a review, and submit that to this publication, too.
You don’t publish your story here, so it’s no problem if it’s already published. If it’s an ongoing/incomplete story, that’s fine too.
There is really nothing to lose!
The process
The steps to follow remain much the same as before:
- Publish a set of related fiction stories on Medium (we interpret that as a story in at least 3 parts/chapters), or identify a suitable set of stories that you have previously published.
- Write a new summary article with links to each of your stories (like this) OR write a short-form article with a link to an existing list. Either way, it’s important that you create a new article for this step.
- Submit the summary article to this publication.
That’s it!
And of course, you can feel free to read and review as many other stories featured in the publication as you like.
You can also submit more than one web-novel/series. However, we ask that authors have reviewed at least one other story from the publication before they submit a second or subsequent piece of their own fiction.
When do I get my reviews?
The editors will also review every submission they accept, meaning that you are guaranteed at least one review!
We cordially invite any and all readers to submit a review article, however, there is no guarantee that they will find time to do so. If you want more reviews, we suggest you share your summary story/contents page on social media, and ask people to check it out.
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.
FAQs
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 The Kraken Lore for fantasy, The Dystopian Project for dystopian/post-apoc tales, The Mayhem for horror and comedy, Choose Your Own Adventure — Collaboration for interactive stories, and Imaginative Fiction Out There for pretty much everything.
Or just publish it independently!
FAQ3: Does my work need to be finished?
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.
Many thanks to fellow editors Jann Christoph von der Pütten, Kathy K and Samuel Kenneth Kauffman.