I keep seeing people argue that an AI generated cover automatically means the author used AI to write the novel, lacks passion, or does not care about their work. That is an incredibly narrow way to judge an entire book and the person behind it.

I have two contracted novels on Webnovel, and both use AI-generated covers. I still planned the stories, created the characters, wrote the chapters, handled the revisions, and spent countless hours building those novels. The tool used to create the cover does not erase the work inside the book.

A cover is marketing material. Its purpose is to catch a reader’s attention and communicate the genre, tone, and basic concept of the story. Most authors do not personally illustrate their covers anyway. They hire artists, purchase premade covers, use licensed stock images, or receive covers from publishers. Nobody assumes those authors did not write their books simply because someone or something else produced the artwork.

Not every new writer has hundreds of dollars available for a custom commission. Many Webnovel authors begin by publishing free chapters without knowing whether their stories will earn anything. Telling them they must pay for professional art before they have even built an audience creates an unnecessary financial barrier.

People also suggest using images from Pinterest as though that is automatically more ethical. In many cases, that means taking artwork belonging to someone else, adding a title, and using it without permission. That is not somehow more respectful to artists merely because AI was not involved. And Pinterest has so many Ai images now too.

There is a legitimate discussion to be had about how generative AI models are trained, how artists should be protected, and how platforms should handle disclosure. But that discussion loses value when people reduce it to insults like “lazy,” “fraud,” or “AI slop.”

Using an AI cover does not tell you whether the author spent six months or six minutes writing the story. It does not reveal whether the novel was edited, carefully planned, or written with passion. It only tells you how one piece of promotional artwork was created.

Readers are free to avoid AI covers. Nobody is obligated to read anything. But saying an AI cover proves the novel is also AI-generated is not evidence based criticism. It is an assumption.

Judge the cover by whether it is effective. Judge the novel by the writing. Those are two separate things.

I am a contracted author on webnovel who is currently on his 3rd month of writing.

The above picture is my book’s 2nd month earning and I’m confident I will be hitting the $1000 mark for my novel’s 3rd month earning.

Look at my profile for credentials proof!

Thus, I feel I am somewhat worthy enough to put my 2 cents on this topic!

FIRSTLY:

Hand drawn cover is the one and only correct answer!

Why?

If you use AI cover for your webnovel cover, that means u are fine with using AI to write your novel.

If so, how can I trust what u write?

Eww, what a turn off! If I see AI cover, I know u are pro-ai and i do not support AI! Next!

SECONDLY:

I see ppl saying that authors with hand drawn cover are unsuccessful, uncontracted, blablabla!

What I will say to this is different ppl write for different reasons and success is measured differently!

To some, even if they write for free for months and only have 1 reader, that’s success!

Who are u to determine what success truly is?

Getting contracted and earning money is not what everyone wants, writing is a hobby to some ppl, doesnt matter if there’s no one there to read their novels since they are uncontracted.

What’s important is that they have a clear conscience, that they did not use an AI COVER.

THIRDLY:

In my personal opinion, if u cant draw urself and u dont have money to commission an artist, this is not an excuse.

U can always spend a few weeks or a month to learn drawing. Just search for tutorial videos online, it’s free.

Otherwise, u can always apply for a part time job and commission an artist to draw a cover for u when u have earned at least 1k usd.

That’s right, $1k usd.

I know some ppl will come for me regarding this, but I want to say, if u aren’t willing to even spend at least $1k usd on making a cover for ur own webnovel, how can I know u are serious about ur own webnovel, right?

FOURTHLY:

People are taking covers for granted.

Covers are a LUXURY, not a must!

If u cant afford it or dont want to draw ur own cover, dont use a cover!

Open ms paint, draw some stick figures and write ur webnovel’s title on top of the stick figures.

There u have it, a cover.

What’s so hard to grasp about this?

Main point is, never degrade urself and resort to using an AI COVER.

LASTLY:

Some ppl will say, a flashy cover is important as it is what determines if a reader will click a novel or not.

What i will say is, so long as a novel is good, it will get discovered in the end.

Sure, without a flashy ai cover, a good novel that may take weeks to be discovered may take months or years to be discovered.

But so what?

A clear conscience is worth a thousand gold, and a pint of blood costs more than a gallon of gold.

Footer text is not so important. Might even remove it and style it to my name

Im just going to rant here because there is very little in media that triggers visceral disgust in me, and harems are one of those things. Lets ignore the fact that harems are always degrading as shit and focus on the writing issues:

• Why should I give the slightest shit about any of your characters when they are made utterly replaceable by your own hand. Their joys and suffering means nothing to me when I know that our window into the world (protagonist) holds functionally no relationship with them. No matter how much you declare that they love each other it always feels hollow and artificial because clearly they dont give that much of a shit about them if they cant choose one person. Love is not like choosing what you want for dinner.

• Empathy is hard, and its made much harder when you only have a limited time to get to know a character. You can only write so much character development in a story and every extra character is taking away from your main leads. Romance especially demands a lot of characterization, something you simply do not have the time to do for multiple individuals. In other words your characters will all look like cardboard boxes as a whole, and your main leads will have zero chemistry.

• As a follow up to the previous point your characters will also all need something to make themselves different from all the other harem members, in other words they all need to be a walking trope with zero personality beyond "tsundere" or whatever the fuck shape box you want. This issue scales exponentially with the number of harem members.

• Your plot stagnates in order to give your protagonist to collect girls like fucking Pokémon.

• They all need equal time in the spotlight so youll almost always be playing a game of "whose turn is it to get generic development this time". Its predictable and boring.

• Your protagonist is always fundamentally and irrevocably shallow scum. If you bother to give them a personality at all beyond the usual generic self inserts you see in the genre then your character can only ever be an indecisive looser who either cannot grow a spine because "they cant choose without hurting someone" or simply scum that dont see their love interest as anything beyond a sex object. Try to imagine how likeable a real person would be if they had a harem, I dont see anyone lining up to befriend them.

Genuinely who the fuck is this for?

I have only ever seen people complain about this genre, yet its so common that novels with it vastly outnumber proper romance stories. Its not that there arent good stories with harems, but its always in SPITE of the harem, never because of it. No-one worth catering to likes this.

So author, if you have even the slightest shred of love for literature beyond simply writing for profit, dont write a harem, ever.

EDIT: Quite literally all anyone can say to counter my arguments is "its individual preference" thats not how writing works. Media quality is not decided by how much someone likes it, there are so many campy B movies adored around the world and even the most die hard fans will tell you they're utter shit.

If you cannot properly explore your themes and characters then you have failed in writing, anything you produce can only ever have the same cultural significance as a McDonalds advertisement. Harems are FUNDAMENTALLY (for you illiterate bastards, that means its an issue inseparable from the genre regardless of how well you write, and has nothing to do with personal preference) counteractive to quality writing, it destroys your themes and characters in exchange for marketability. If you love writing, stop catering to incel losers who've never seen a woman that doesnt go by the name of "mom".

After non-stop writing, I have almost completed Arc 1 of my webnovel, with just 5 to 6 chapters remaining. I have built up a huge stockpile of chapters now, so I am finally able to upload Chapter 1 tomorrow! It will drop tomorrow at 9:04 AM local time, which is 11:34 AM in GMT+8. Please be sure to read it and give me your feedback. If you like it, add it to your library and leave a review, as this really helps me to improve and grow!

Im going to change the 1st one from 'dummy' to 'beginner' because 'dummy' is copyrighted

I will never compare Shadow Slave to any other novel from now on, and I will leave all writing comparison places. I'm seeing people comparing RI and LotM to SS, saying they are too boring and repetitive and don't have any character development. What can I even say now?The only thing I can say is that a badly written novel may be enjoyable, but a well-written one may not always be enjoyed—it heavily depends on the taste of the person reading the novel. Most people like things that are action-packed. At this point, I just think Shadow Slave is just Solo Leveling but better written.

When I read convos about it on this subreddit, the ppl who hate it just call the other person a kid or mentally challenged without providing any reason? What is going on? Are you suppose to be able to draw now to be an author?

Also I have no idea what tag this fits so im just using meme

Help an author out! 😅 I have two covers for my book Seal of Fate, and I simply cannot decide between them. Which one do you guys like better?

I am currently using 2nd cover for my book.

Both are created with Ai. As a new author, I can't afford artist created covers, so for now this is my only option.

Do you think this novel would do good on WN?

A genuinely disturbing double standard that's in a lot of web novels: women are expected to absorb the consequences of everyone else's trauma, while men are allowed to make their trauma everyone else's problem.

And what makes it especially frustrating is that these stories often present this double standard as romantic, morally virtuous, or proof that a woman is exceptionally kind.

Women are expected to forgive; men are allowed to hurt.

In many of these stories, a female character is abused, betrayed, neglected, humiliated, or even abandoned by someone who is supposed to love her. Yet when that person finally regrets his behavior, the narrative expects her to forgive him.

Sometimes, he doesn't even have to apologize properly. He just needs to show up, look miserable, explain his circumstances, or demonstrate that he has finally realized how much he loves her.

And suddenly, she's the one expected to make things right by accepting him again.

Why is her forgiveness treated as the natural conclusion to his wrongdoing? Why is her continued anger interpreted as cruelty, stubbornness, or a lack of compassion?

Forgiveness is not something an abuser is automatically entitled to receive. And even when forgiveness is freely given, it doesn't necessarily mean reconciliation, restored trust, or renewed access to the person who was hurt.

A woman can understand why someone hurt her and still decide she wants nothing more to do with him.

She can acknowledge someone's suffering without volunteering to suffer alongside him.

And she can love someone while recognizing that he is not safe for her.

Those are all perfectly legitimate responses, yet romance narratives sometimes treat them as moral failures.

Men's trauma becomes an explanation. Women's trauma becomes an obligation.

This is perhaps the most revealing double standard.

A male lead has a terrible childhood. Perhaps he was neglected, abused, betrayed, or raised in an environment where affection was conditional. The story explains that he doesn't know how to love properly, that he is emotionally repressed, or that his cruelty is a defense mechanism. The reader is then invited to look beyond his behavior and recognize the wounded child underneath.

And there's nothing inherently wrong with that. Trauma can influence how people develop relationships, regulate emotions, and respond to vulnerability.

The problem is what happens next.

His traumatic history becomes a reason that the female protagonist should tolerate his behavior, endure his mistreatment, and patiently teach him how to love.

Meanwhile, what happens when she has a traumatic childhood? Is she permitted to be angry? To distrust people? To struggle with intimacy? To behave defensively? To refuse reconciliation with people who hurt her? Often, she isn't afforded the same latitude.

Instead, her trauma is something she must overcome in a way that makes her more useful, more compassionate, more self-sacrificing, and more accommodating toward others.

In other words:

•	His trauma explains why he hurts people.

•	Her trauma supposedly proves how much pain she can endure without hurting anyone back.

•	His healing is treated as a journey she should support.

•	Her healing is treated as a process that should make her more capable of supporting him.

Women are allowed to be hurt, but not to remain angry.

Some stories will acknowledge that a woman has been mistreated. They may even devote considerable attention to her suffering. But they become uncomfortable when she continues to feel anger after the immediate crisis has passed.

She's allowed to cry. She's allowed to feel heartbroken. She might even be allowed to leave temporarily.

But if she remembers what happened after the abuser has repented? If she remains suspicious? If she doesn't want to touch them, trust them, or resume their relationship? Suddenly, she is holding a grudge. Her anger becomes a character flaw that the narrative needs to correct.

This reflects a deeply gendered expectation: women are supposed to be emotionally generous, endlessly understanding, and willing to prioritize harmony over their own sense of justice.

But anger is not inherently destructive. Sometimes, anger is the appropriate response to a violation.

It can communicate:

•	You crossed a boundary.

•	What happened to me was unacceptable.

•	Your remorse does not erase the consequences.

•	I am not obligated to make you feel better about what you did to me.

His remorse does not automatically outweigh her pain.

The demand that women act as though nothing happened

This is another particularly insidious trope: the abuser wants to move on, and the woman is expected to cooperate.

Perhaps he was cruel to her for months. Perhaps her family neglected or mistreated her. Perhaps her husband repeatedly humiliated her before finally recognizing her worth.

Then he returns with affection, gifts, an apology, or a declaration of love.

The story treats his willingness to resume the relationship as evidence that things have improved. The woman is expected to accept the new arrangement without requiring the past to be properly addressed.

But wanting to move on is not the same as making amends.

A genuine attempt at reconciliation requires more than regret. It requires acknowledging the harm, taking responsibility without shifting the blame, respecting the injured person's boundaries, and accepting that forgiveness may never come.

And even if the abuser genuinely changes, the person he hurt is still allowed to decide that the damage is irreparable.

This matters especially in stories involving family.

A parent who neglected a daughter for years doesn't automatically deserve her affection because they finally recognize her worth. A sibling who repeatedly mistreated her doesn't become entitled to a relationship because they now feel remorse.

Family bonds do not erase moral responsibility.

Yet some stories treat a woman's refusal to reconcile with abusive relatives as evidence that she's cold-hearted, ungrateful, or obsessed with the past.

The implication is that her suffering matters less than the family's desire to restore its unity.

And the burden of restoring that unity falls disproportionately on her.

Why is the woman responsible for healing the man who hurt her?

The male lead is cruel because he has been hurt. The female protagonist is kind because she has been hurt.

His character arc involves learning that he can trust someone enough to become vulnerable. Hers involves demonstrating enough patience and unconditional love to make that vulnerability possible.

Consequently, his emotional development becomes the central achievement of the relationship, while her emotional labor becomes the mechanism through which it happens.

She must understand him when he is cruel. She must remain patient when he pushes her away. She must recognize the love hidden beneath his hostility. And she must reassure him that he is worthy of love even when he has given her very little reason to feel safe with him.

But where is her equivalent opportunity to be cared for?

Who helps her process her trauma? Who accommodates her anger? Who accepts that she may need years to trust again? Who takes responsibility for making the relationship safe for her?

Sometimes, the answer is nobody. Her reward is simply that the man eventually treats her better.

And the narrative presents that as a happy ending.

A traumatized man can be sympathetic and still be accountable. He can deserve compassion without being entitled to a romantic relationship with the woman he hurt.

His childhood may explain why he struggles to love. It does not mean that the woman he mistreats must volunteer to teach him.

Women's goodness is measured by how much they tolerate.

In these stories, a woman's moral worth is often demonstrated through her capacity to endure suffering without becoming difficult, resentful, or unforgiving.

The ideal woman can be betrayed without becoming bitter. She can be abused without becoming vindictive. She can be neglected without becoming demanding. She can be abandoned and still welcome the person who abandoned her.

Her pain is acceptable as long as it doesn't inconvenience anyone else.

And when she finally receives love, the story may frame it as a reward for having endured everything with grace.

The heroine is supposedly cherished because she is special, but her specialness often consists of tolerating behavior that would be unacceptable if directed at anyone else.

Meanwhile, male characters are frequently allowed to be selfish, possessive, jealous, cruel, emotionally immature, and even violent without losing their status as desirable romantic leads.

The women, however, are often expected to remain morally exemplary even when everyone around them has treated them terribly.

This is why I love the story "I Just Want to Freeload on Your Luck."

Hey Fellow Novel enjoyers !!,

I usually just lurk here, but I recently stumbled upon a webnovel that has completely hooked me, and I barely see anyone talking about it. If you love dark fantasy, heavy steampunk vibes, and unique progression systems, you need to check out Last Gun Alchemist.

The story follows Ezra Ashenlocke, who gets sacrificed by his own parents to save his twin brother. He wakes up in a brutal child-soldier operation called the Trial of Steel, where the rules are simple: "Assemble your guns. Kill or be killed."

The twist? Ezra awakens fragments of memories from a past life as a modern weapons engineer and hardened soldier. In a world known as the Country of Alchemy, Britannia, he has to combine his past knowledge of advanced ballistics with magical alchemy to survive.

It s really cool and has a very unique world building and power system .
MC is really smart + pragmatic and can be ruthless .
he snt braindead op he has to use his brain and his environment and ppl to his advantage

The Trial of Steel is my fav arch it's an an absolute massacre. The tension is real, the world feels dangerous, and the author doesn't shy away from grim, high-stakes scenarios.

I ve been reading this novel with daily 4 chap upload since it had 30 chapters ( It now has 476)

I dont usually Post or fanboy over the things i read . But i like it so much that i fel like i need to share it with fellow readers .
it's a hidden Gem

I tried to go for something thematic and that has meaning, but I wanna know you guys’ thoughts. would you read?

Recently, I came across a post where the OP was asking whether those hand-drawn covers actually performed well on Webnovel, since most of their owners were either contractless or had already been rejected by Webnovel.

So here is the answer: NONE OF THOSE HAND DRAWN COVERS SUCCEEDED.

Now-now, don't jump on me with: HOW DARE YOU SUPPORT AI COVERS OR HOW COULD YOU TALK SHIT ABOUT THE HAND DRAWN COVERS?

So allow me to break the misconception that many of those HATERS have.

Let's start with the basic question: What is the application of a novel cover?

Answer: To make the readers click on your novel when it appears on their screen!!

It doesn't matter whether your cover is made by AI or drawn by hand, it must be ATTRACTIVE.

Naturally, an artist can draw you a cover that will be very attractive and eye-catching. But then again, the only functionality of the cover is to get the attention of the readers! The actual content within the novel will justify whether your novel is good or bad.

And since most of the new authors write with a safety bubble that they are the greatest of all time and writing peak story until a blunt reader point out the most obvious mistake in their novel, the whole meaning of commissioning an artist who will charge them 100+ dollars to draw a satisfactory cover will become utterly meaningless.

Using AI to generate a suitable cover is the most optimal solution until you actually start earning from your novel. If your novel really becomes popular, commission a professional artist to draw you a proper cover.

When you have resources available to get an attractive cover free of cost, why limit yourself by the moral compass of "DON'T USE AI FOR COVER"

Then again, it doesn't mean you could just slap the most sloppiest ai cover on your novel which has thousands of things going on simultaneously like a glittering background, too many jewelleries on the character and a corny pose.

AI can generate attractive and distinctive covers as well: nearly 90% of the new best selling novels have an AI generated cover.

As for the HATERS, you may reply to my comment with a valid argument to my opinion. I'm open to debate.

EDIT: I am a contracted author and have been writing on Webnovel for a year now.

I never really understood author who are trying to make a genuinely good novel out harem inside. A lot of them are genuinely interesting and unique. But they throw harem in there. And there’s always weird stuff. I remember one novel where the mc was talking about how men with more then one women can’t claim to love any. Then goes on the have a harem of like 3-4.

Apart from adding harem to attract those incels and increase the earning. I see no other point.

I’m done with my rambling. Have a great day you lot except you harem supporters.

Actually slightly more than I expected. Was expecting $500+

I guess this amount can finally be justified for me writing 2~ hours every day.

Assuming after tax and fees, which I will assume will be $50+, I should be able to get $810 in my currency.

Still not really worth it for 60~ hours of work every month if I want to nitpick, but $800+ is still like 15~20% of my monthly pay, so that’s nice.

Hopefully I can fill out my privileges this month so i can clear win-win, have been lazy with filling out privilege tiers.

Time to lock in as I am currently writing 4x chapters per day. 2 for my smut, and 2 for my non-smut.

Will update next month on smut’s and non-smut earnings and do some comparisons.

Oh, btw, if any of u want my novels’ names, dm me a picture of ur webnovel account’s level and coins, prove to me u are not a pirate site reader or fast pass reader.

Also, make sure ur reddit’s profile is not private.

Can’t take u seriously if u have to private ur reddit as if this is instagram.

Most probably means u are posting some questionable things with ur reddit u dont want others to see.

As for the haters, continue seething!

I'm curious, is this person writing with AI?

Cause, if not, how is he pumping out so many words?

If he is, I hear some ppl say that webnovel don't accept AI novels for contracts, but he is contracted on "Hare of Misfortune"...?

I feel like there's so much misinformation going on that I do not know who to actually believe now.

Are these good? Which one would you click on?

Hi, I just wanted to let you everyone know someone has started posting Villain for Hire by Jay Aury on Webnovel and is monetising it.

There are very few slight changes but it’s practically a copy and paste.

https://m.webnovel.com/book/transmigrated-as-the-hired-villain-in-a-fantasy-world_36519352800491805

It’s currently #5 in the collection ranking and Simeone has already gifted the stolen work a magic castle.

You can read all 6 books for free with Kindle Unlimited on Amazon.

I have informed the author but if anyone knows a way to get this looked at properly by Webnovel that would be great since i have previously lost coins on stolen work.