Reading apps? These are starting to proliferate. I see a lot of ads on Facebook and Instagram about them. I lost count. The companies mostly come from Singapore.
I've gone to download a few of them and I also tried writing for some of them.
Pros and Cons.
What I noticed first and foremost is how they all almost have the same stories in them, but the names of the characters are different... and of course, the ad content is different as well. They attach photos, add a few lines of text...
Most of them are "bad" in a way that stories are clearly unedited. With many errors in every chapter or episode. Mostly word usage, grammar and spelling. They can turn off readers. I've been turned off many times.
Most of them don't have a Facebook page you can visit. The ads direct you to the app store where you can download it. Most also don't have websites. So... it doesn't have that "legit" feel on them. It's simply the app. You don't get any idea how they operate. Where do they get their stories? Are they plagiarized? Are they authorized?
Granted, some of the legit ones do have a few sub-apps. You will find that a few of them belong to the same company or group.
Anyway...
There are some that do have pages, social media accounts, websites, contact details and are actively recruiting writers for them. I've tried a few and they do have editors as well who will check your story. Some offer payments for you to write for them.
I've been to Dreame, Sofanovel, Booknet, Goodnovel...
Wattpad's there, but most of it are free to read and the quality is left to the writers.
So, what do I have to say about each of these that I've tried?
Let me take Goodnovel out of the way first. I haven't actually signed anything with them yet. The story I posted there was an old WIP and it's been getting sidelined as I worked on other stories. My first comment there is that... I think they don't do anything for your story. You have to market and share the story on your own for you to get reads. Maybe they do once you get signed or something. I don't know yet.
You can only see the count for "views" or "reads". No idea on how many readers you have.
Upside? Once you get a story exclusively signed, their program is tiered. You can earn depending on your word count. Minimum is 200 USD for 40000 words? It gets prorated, especially on your first month. Highest is 400 USD for 80000 words, if I'm not mistaken. Check them out. It's very enticing but I think they're also more strict compared to others. There are conditions for how often you have to update as well to be eligible for the income. Then, there's sharing of the profit from readers' payment, if your story starts generating.
Technicalities. To apply for a contract with them, your story must have 15000 words already. I don't think they provided the minimum for a completed story but I believe they're going for at least 50k-word stories. The longer, the better.
I'ma get back to them next year. I'm booked until February 2021.
I only have one story on Booknet. It's a completed story which I worked on for almost two months.
The good thing about Booknet is that... I think they do include your work in their carousel of ads. I made no advertising or marketing on my story but people have been adding it on their "library". You can see how many people added your story to their library, the number of reads and the number of comments.
By the time I completed writing it, I have 100 people who saved it on their library. After I changed the status to completed, I had more readers. As of now, I have almost 241 readers and 8440 reads (the story has 43 chapters). There's a good increase in stats within ten days after I completed writing it.
Technicalities. You have to have a free story that is 240000 characters long. And then, for your subsequent stories... you can sell them once you've had 100 followers, 80 consistent readers, and have filled out your information. You decide on your own pricing.
They don't pay you anything for the stories you post, except for your share in the sale of your stories, if you are selling them to your readers.
For the contests that they have, though, they do pay their finalists.
Most people think that the pay for these reading apps is low. Goodnovel has the highest from what I've seen so far.
But if you compare it to royalties from the sale of my self-published books, it's definitely higher. Which is why I decided to write for a few of them.
Dreame, their signing bonus is fixed at 50 USD (for 2020; it might change next year, who knows?). There are conditions like minimum word counts before you can get it.
And then, they have daily update bonus. Depending on your word count as well.
And lastly is the completion bonus, depending on the word count again.
Depending on how you do, the minimum you can get is 100 USD per story. Signing and completion bonus. If you do the daily update, you can get more. If your completed word count is longer than 100k, you can get more as well.
From your writer's dashboard, you can see the number of reads and how many people have put your story into their library.
They have this tab for income, so you can monitor how much you're earning if your story has been put on the pay-to-read program. You get a share of it every month when readers' pay "coins" to read the latter episodes of your story.
There are conditions on their pay-to-read program. Your story must have at least 500 likes (readers who saved your story to their libraries). More than 5 episodes. You get to choose from which chapter/episode you will start asking for "coins".
What I liked about it is that on the first working day of the next month, you get to see how much in total you've earned the previous month.
Having more readers? It's up to you, but when you get the story signed, they would run promotions for it, to help you get that 500 readers for you to get on the pay-to-read program.
They have different apps for different genres. Most of the romance stories are on Dreame. They have Ringdom for adventure stories. So far, those two are what I know.
Mostly romance stories.
If you have a story, you need at least 3000 words or four chapters before you can apply for a contract. An editor will assess your story and offer an amount which you can either accept or reject. Or maybe negotiate? I'm not much of a negotiator, you see.
Their model is subscription. Pay a monthly fee and read all you want. More like KindleUnlimited.
Downside? You don't get to see how many have read the story's exclusive chapters.
You do get to see the number of reads, though. No idea how many readers you actually have.
You don't know how much you earn until you get the payment or you ask your editor.
They offer daily update bonus as well.
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Well, there you go. Those are what I've tried so far. I might have missed a few things. You can check out the respective links to their websites and do your own digging and exploration.
What might I talk about next? I'm planning to explore Reddit and see how helpful they are.
Thanks. Enjoy reading. Enjoy writing. 💙
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