Haven't put my fic up on there yet, I want to get my next chapter out first... as it is, though, the content is pretty good... the only issue is in scale so far... the number of fics are growing slowly, however that'll speed up exponentially once there's a critical threshold of stuff on there, especially since a good deal of what's on there isn't on RRL...
Right now the site is a bit of a mess, but that's because the coding is getting done slowly. I think the first developer sort of disappeared off the face off the earth, so Travis has has to get new ones. They're working on some back end stuff first (including the editor you put your fiction up with), and will then work on things like sorting new releases, and popular titles etc. I've been posting my book up there, but as I'm not known, it's not like people look for it. It's nice to get in some practice though. Overall, I think when it's working as intended, it's going to be awesome.
I thought it was about time to give it a shot there. I'm going to post a new work there first then on my Wattpad.
First, I will say the forums seem very disorganized to me. All groups seem mashed together, so I think I'll be sticking around here. For at least that section of it. The create book function is very similar to how Wattpad does it, but it isn't as clean or finished feeling. More updates as I explore it further.
The forums are super hard to work on - they do separate out but there's a dropdown on the top left that is how you chose sub groups. If you have suggestions for anything on the site, give a shout. We (Book Brawl peoples) would love feedback. That being said, traffic is low across the board. We haven't pushed out a ton - but we've also got a lot of the analytical stuff on a dashboard. Like RRL, Book Brawl hopes to eventually bring that to an author level so that authors can watch traffic on their own like WordPress does.
Good to know. I hope things don't come off as offensive though. I'm just posting as I explore it since it doesn't seem many people are using it from here, and I'd like to give a play by play. Knowing who runs it, I'm giving it a shot for the same reason I plan on giving Portal Books one. I respect the people that created it.
There's a few author investors and a few authors who are going to take on a community ambassador type role. We're a bit intermingled. I'm in the mix because I've spent years on all sorts of web serial aspects and poke my head into anything and everything when I have time. From a design standpoint, I absolutely love about 80% of the forums here - there's so much value for any game oriented site, which Book Brawl has - and f I have my way, we'd follow suit - while still trying to be original of course. I don't like the idea of copying work, but I do love how the achievement system and forum layout work here. The forum that Book Brawl uses has an achievement system as well but it's ....not friendly to use. At all. But aside from that - I don't really get defensive anymore on the internet. I have two kids and 3 hours of commuting each day. Internet drama is more like popcorn amusement....so it's unlikely anything passable you say would bother me. Some of those book reviews have...pushed my thresholds a lot as well.
That's a topic for another thread - but the RRL ones are under my FrustratedEgo user name - and the rest on Amazon under Stephan..or Audible...or Goodreads. I get a lot of deep love or utter revolution due to vaguely realistic depression as a character flaw.
Am I the 20% you don't like about the place? ;p Just kidding. If you guys ever want to work on a project together, let me know.
I'm not sure where we're at on the current project. The website dev team is paid and I don't have the right software on my surface to plug in and start editing the code for minor fixes. I've been tempted - but day job, writing, and editing on top of that? eesh...so feedback is super welcome. I'll pass it on. But RRL took at least 2 years to go from translating site & fan fiction to slightly public site for original work - and another 2 years, if I recall - before it got completely overhauled in both look and design. Before that it was a fancy BB - with every single chapter of a story being a BB post...and the stuff on the front end was a page built to link all the forum posts together. There's a lot of "labor of love" that goes into RRL even reaching where it is now. BB's investors hope to avoid some of that by using money to hire professionals, rather than vague partners who were learning to code. So, it's a business from the get go - rather than a fan site that turned business. Either which way - any feedback you guys have, I'll pass on. The hardest part is just time passing while content gets added.
Whether I copypasta from RR or Word, the line between paragraphs gets deleted, and I didn't see a "source" button in the editor. .-.
I know the editor has been update a few times from the original - I'll see if a source version is on the list somewhere.
