Good novels are not popular. How do we fix that?

Sex sells in almost any context. Follow that rule and it all becomes simpler.

 

My few cents(for good novels that have a hard time finding success):

Promote! - This can be key. Make & keep people aware of the story. If an author, have the story on as many sites as is comfortable to manage.

Be Responsive and Communicate - TL/Author Team, the more active the team the more 'free' promotion there is. In addition, communicate when there are issues, this can head off many of the problems that arise between TL/Author & Readers.

Be Smart on Launch - For translations, there should be enough chapters to get people involved in the story. One of the worst things you can do (IMO) is launch with too few chapters so people don't get a chance to get invested in the novel and readers may quickly forget the story.

Decide Best Method to Monetize - Novels that appeal to fewer people can still be very successful, especially via the patreon model where a few dedicated readers can sustain a novel. If using a patreon, have incentives that are achievable. I.E more weekly chapters, if the # of subscribers reach a certain point and/or more chapters per tier. If you have the license rights, don't ignore eBooks since eBooks(aside from the earnings they bring in) can create more exposure to the story, leading to more patreons, or readers on the websites.

Quality Matters - Nothing has to be perfect, but the better translated/written a story is, the greater the chance it will appeal to more people. Try to find a balance between speed & quality. For authors, this can be even more important, since quality can be the diff between a mediocre rating(3 stars) and a higher rating(4 or 5 stars).

Likewise, use the readers for proofreading! - A sneaky(smart) thing you can do is use your patrons (if there is a patreon) as proofreaders. They pay YOU to proof chapters for you. It can be amazing and satisfying for both parties. If no patreon, look for the dedicated readers who post corrections.

Keep on top of corrections. - It's less intimidating & easier to stay on top of corrections if they are done regularly (a day or so after each release). The added benefit is that newer readers will suffer fewer distractions while reading and likely become more involved in the story. Never underestimate the powers of immersion or the aggravation of broken immersion!

Consistent Release Rates - Regular release rates help maintain interest in a story. It doesn't always have to be 14 chapters/ week either. Just something that can get people anticipating a release. If it's only twice a week, that can also be alright, as long as it's consistent. Do what is manageable, work to avoid burnout!

Realize that Success Takes Time - Few novels/translations are successful from the get-go. It takes time to build up a loyal reader base. Likewise, have reasonable expectations.

 

You need to be as shameless as possible. Promote the heck out of it, even if the situation doesn't really allow for it.
Praise the good parts to heaven, but omit all the other parts.
Diss other series for doing X worse than the one you translate (pretty effective, though a bit scummy).
Add T&A in your promotion material to trick people into reading it, most people won't mind that there's no booty if the story is good enough.

 

Ai-chan read that as "no need to spank me". Loli butt indeed.

Ai-chan doesn't think @Wujigege can be any less shameless than he already is. Ai-chan can assure you that Wujigege has been very shameless and obnoxious to the point that Ai-chan stopped posting in his threads because it made Ai-chan looked like Ai-chan had nothing better to do.

 

Well i am one of those who seek novels to read based on its storyline, summary, how good the delivery of translation and how can i understand what's going on in the story itsef etc ...
Well I don't know for others though?!
And translator need a lot of support to keep their passion , to keep going, and i salute them for their work even sometimes we over criticize them ...

 

So basically your sole example of a "good novel that isn't popular" is your experience with translating just a single missing chapter that you split in 3 parts?, years after the rest of the story had been translated?
Not necessarily saying the argument is wrong, but you are using a pretty disingenuous example for it.

 

There are many examples

 

Then bring them up in your arguments instead of always half-assing your threads.
Though I guess this is more of a self-promotion thread isn't it?, you don't even bring up a reason why the promoted novel would fit this argument.

 

This is not an academic forum. You have already made up your mind, regardless of what I say.
I don't even know why you bother to reply to my threads .
I apologize for removing you from my ignore list.

 

Hahaha, I am scared of your posts. I am still scarred by your tentacle rape post.
Funny enough, I am not promoting My Castle, My Castellan.
I am translating the novel for me to read personally, it doesnt matter if there are zero readers.
My point is that good stories are not necessarily popular and wont pay the bills.
It is just reality.
PS My Caste My Castellan is getting translated for me for "free". So it doesnt matter if its popular

 

Why?, for the simple reason that it frustrates me to see thread titles that seem like it would be a good discussion, just for it to just be click-bait for shameless advertisement.
Also I can ask you the same thing, why bother replying to my posts when you already claimed to have put me on your ignore list before? lol

 

I'm interested in this topic.. so I'd like to share my opinion..
it's sad that a lot of good novels not necessarily popular but the novel with loli butt got a lot of attention. but personally I agree with @Kuro_0ni and @checkm8,
for me, what caught my attention to read a novel at first is: cover, title, and synopsis.

cover, if I see a novel with good illustration I will want to find out if the story is as good as the illustration. we can't deny that people tend to like something beautiful.
title that can grab attention is a good title. for example give a title with familiar word like 'transmigration' and add unique taste like 'as carnivorous flower'. Well, I'm sure it will work somehow.
synopsis exists to give reader idea of what the contents of the novel are. so a good synopsis is important to make people curious and makes them want to know what is the real content of the novel. unfortunately sometime i find a good novel with crapy synopsis and it really make me hesitate to read it at first. maybe translator can make their own synopsis to make it up. ​

title, cover and synopsis are like the packaging of a product. the more beautiful and unique the packaging is, the more people will be interested and pay attention to it. and this is the first step to lure people to read a novel.

next step is review. and this is the real advertisement for a novel.
after a novel gets my attention, usually I will read the review. and it becomes a little tricky. not all the review accurate coz people get different taste and preference. but it can't be denied that review has a significant role to make a novel popular. if the review is good even novel with an ugly cover, crappy title and synopsis, it still can become popular.

but the most important is still the content coz however much you advertise your novel if the contents are not good enough it won't work.
lastly keep up release rates and don't make people forget a novel ever exist. unfortunately, a lot of good novel doesn't have an update for weeks even months really makes my heart hurt for waiting.

 

There are only two reasons why good novels are not popular.
A) They're not actually good.
B) They haven't met the right target audience.

 

Totally agree to your comment, here is my 2 cents worth read a few stories here rated as 1-2 star story as very engaging worth my read, while quite a lot of 3-5 stars that I've read turns out to be garbage. This no rating rule seems to apply to the CN novels only. While the Japanese & Korean rating actually appear to be much more reliable. Except from self promoting site won't name them.

 

Sometimes readers quit because they can't wait for the explanation or miss the explanation and made up their mind the novel sucks.

Name drop in recommendation threads, that is how I found a few novels.

 

The other day, someone gave a rating of 3 on a review for a novel I've been translating, saying that the synopsis didn't make sense, even though it was clearly explained within the very first chapter of the novel.
I mean, okay?

 

First impressions matter, so get a synopsis that isn't so cheesy? I'm not sure if that'll help, and of course people's tastes vary. Nonetheless, I'd be more concerned about giving a vague summary of the conflict rather than trying to impress your viewer with poetry.

[Edited for syntax error]