In this article, we will address more practical ways on how to become successful as an author on the MyFavReads platform.

Treat yourself as a brand

You want your readers to see your name and say to their friends: “Oh, I love this author! I’m definitely reading her new book! You must check it out!”

That will happen if you build yourself as a brand.

Establish your identity, starting with a penname that will represent you. Use one profile picture that readers can recognize and associate with you.

Let your audience know you. Not your private matters, but things like:

• What motivates you to write?
• From where you get your inspiration?
• What’s the best part about being an author?
• How are you improving your skills?

Show them there is a human behind all those words.

With that in mind, fill up your MFR author’s dashboard with content which will allow your readers to get to know you.

Connect with your readers by responding to their comments and replying to their messages.

You will be pleasantly surprised to see how happy readers are when the author notices their presence on the platform. In return, you will gain fans who will be eager to see what else you’ve written.

Write, write, write

By writing regularly, your skill for transferring thoughts into written words will improve.

No matter how good your novel is, if your updates are not consistent, readers will lose interest.

Serious readers read daily and if you don’t deliver, they will satisfy their reading hunger elsewhere.

Once you establish a loyal fanbase, you can relax. But until that happens, to make your novel appealing to new readers, you should publish at least 1-2 chapters daily.

On MyFavReads, we recommend that every chapter is about 1500 words long, which means that you need to write at least 3k words/day. Keep in mind that chapters shouldn’t be too long either because the user should finish reading a chapter in 5-10 minutes. Think of your reader as someone who is waiting for a bus, or a person during their coffee break. If they have more time, they can read the next chapter.

Edit, edit, edit

It’s easy to end up with spelling errors where form and from get swapped and your spell checker doesn’t catch them because both are valid words.

Readers will catch those issues and find them annoying which will be off-putting to the point of giving you a negative review or stopping to read your book. Why would anyone pay for a faulty product?

“Lawyer Amanda strikes a deal” and “Lawyer Amanda spikes a deal” are two different things.

There are free tools that can help you flush most of those blunders, like Grammarly. Use them.

You should also avoid grammar mistakes like mixing tenses and articles which are easy to do when you are carried away with inspiration to write.

It’s best if you can hire an editor, but if you can’t, then you should read (and re-read) your chapter before publishing it.

Good practice is to write chapters in advance. Let them sit for a few hours, days, (weeks!?) before you edit them. Clearing your mind from the scene between writing and editing will help you look at the content with fresh eyes and catch issues before you publish them for readers to see.

Consistency

Set expectations and deliver on them. It doesn’t matter if you are updating your novel daily, or twice per week. What matters is that readers know when new chapters will be available.

The best way is to set a schedule.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 3 PM EST.

Your readers will appreciate consistency and they can plan their reading time accordingly.

Random updates will make them check the app a few times, and after several disapointments, they might move to something else and forget about your novel.

Consistency combined with good storytelling will give you a fanbase that will eagerly wait every day at 4 PM because they know that’s when new chapters will be available.

Know your audience

Do you know who will be reading your online novel and what they want to read about?

Suggestion: check the popular books MyFavReads platform.

Are top books in the genre of contemporary romance, fantasy, or are they about systems and leveling up?

Those books attracted and kept readers successfully, and there is no shame in looking at how they did it.

Pay attention to key points such as:

• Are their covers simple or busy?
• Are their titles one-two words, or descriptive?
• What about the synopsis?

When you pick a few trending books for your research, start reading to get an understanding of the content.

• Are those steamy werewolf romances?
• Or are stories about mysterious vampires?
• Or are books about domineering CEOs and secretaries in skimpy miniskirts?
• Or maybe it’s none of those as it caters to a teen audience, and there is no smut and gore?
• Are they written in the first POV or the third?
• What parts have the most readers’ comments?

This is not about copying other works, but about knowing what works in order to improve your chances of attracting and retaining readers.

Know what you are writing about

If you never drove a car, it’s not advisable that you spend time describing how your character is using a stick shift.

If you are faking it, readers will notice.

If your story has a specialized topic, spend some time learning about it. Don’t be the author who gets called out by readers for writing inaccurate things.

Of course, you can also skim over details you are not sure about, but if your male lead is a brain surgeon, and that is not relevant to the story, then you might as well give him a career of a receptionist or don’t mention his job at all.

Your readers want to know what they are reading about

Don’t invent new words or use obscure ones unless it’s vital to your story.

Mary (aka your reader) is reading your story on her phone during her coffee break, and she doesn’t have the time to check the definition of the word newfangled.

Too many unknown words will make the reading experience tedious, and it can make your readers feel stupid. Don’t do that.

Online novels are meant for entertainment, so entertain the reader!

Keep it simple and keep it relevant

Describe the setting and situations without suffocating the reader with unnecessary details.

The park was well maintained, filled with colorful blooms, the weather was sunny, the popcorn smelled great, the play area was packed with rowdy kids, all benches were occupied by gossipy aunties, and the freshly-cut lawn was covered with people who enjoyed the concert…

It’s amazing to transport your readers in the middle of that park, so they could enjoy the show with your characters. However, you don’t need to spend half a chapter on painting every detail. Focus on the parts that are important to the story. 

Too much info can cost you readers when they realize that three chapters later, nothing really happened in the story.

Final words

If you follow the advice given above, you will increase your chances of being a successful author.

Writing is a process where you learn and improve daily.

No one can guarantee that your first novel will be a hit. Maybe your second or third novel won’t be successful either.

However, if you keep learning, update your novels regularly, pay attention to what your readers are saying, and adapt as needed, you will see yourself growing.

Persevere and eventually, you will reach the point where you will enjoy the benefits of earning a solid income through MyFavReads platform as an author.  

Good luck!

This is the second post in the How to be a successful author on MyFavReads series. The first post is available here.