There's a problem with shout-outs.
As a reader, they're about as ignorable as bad ads, and they can even be more annoying than normal ads because they take up so much space! Anything that detracts from the reader's experience of your story puts you at risk of earning their eternal annoyance.
This guide defines "mini-shout" styles that look easy on the eyes and deliver all the most critical information about your story in the least amount of space possible. More than an ad, but less than a blurb—that's what a mini-shout is!
Automatically shuffles text below cover image if screen/window is narrow.
Cover image: 200px tall.
Description in 700 characters or less—try for less.
For best results, introduce character type, genre, and/or one-sentence story descriptor in the first line (see example).
Non-table.
(On desktop, try resizing the window. The text will keep squishing until it finally shuffles below the cover.)
Google Sites doesn't play well with embedded HTML. Shrug.You can use the RR editor to edit as needed:
<center>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex-wrap: wrap; width: 70%; padding: 20px; margin: 0 auto;">
<div style="max-width: 150px; padding: 10px;">
<a href="https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/64192/war-of-roaches-humanity-fuck-yeah" rel="ugc nofollow">
<img style="max-height: 200px; object-fit: cover; margin: 0 auto;" src="https://i.imgur.com/j821SuO.jpg" />
</a>
</div>
<div style="width: 60%; text-align: left;">
<p><strong>Tenacious characters. A war of assimilation arrives on Earth!</strong></p>
<p>Humanity, once a conqueror of the stars, is now pushed to the brink after thousands of years of war. It places its hopes on hidden seed worlds in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, but even those are hunted down, and many are simply lost to the noise of the cosmos.</p>
<p>A rescue fleet is scraped together to race for Earth's billions, the sheer number maybe even enough to turn the tide of the war—but it is too late. Now stranded on a planet devastated by bio-weapons with no hope of rescue, the fleet's survivors must do what they can, not to achieve victory, but to make the opponent bleed.</p>
</div>
</div>
</center>
<p> </p>
Automatically shuffles text below cover image if screen/window is narrow. Non-table.
Cover image: 100px tall.
Description in 350 characters or less—try for less.
You can use the RR editor to edit as needed:
<center>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex-wrap: wrap; width: 70%; padding: 20px; margin: 0 auto;">
<div style="max-width: 70px; padding: 10px;">
<a href="https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/64192/war-of-roaches-humanity-fuck-yeah" rel="ugc nofollow">
<img style="max-height: 100px; object-fit: cover; margin: 0 auto;" src="https://i.imgur.com/j821SuO.jpg" />
</a>
</div>
<div style="width: 60%; text-align: left;">
<p><strong>Tenacious characters. A war of assimilation arrives on Earth!</strong></p>
<p>Coronel's daughter gave him a knife that has want of alien blood. He and the marines of the Alliance of Machines and Men are stranded on a colony world devastated by bio-weapons with no hope of rescue. With no hope of victory, they'll make the opponent bleed.</p>
</div>
</div>
</center>
<p> </p>
Text-only.
"Shout-in-a-tweet."
Two (2) tweets, strictly-speaking.
Tenacious characters. High-tech resistance. A galactic war of assimilation comes to Earth! Read [[ War of Roaches ]], an action-packed, action-first story of high-tech humans uplifting low-tech humans to fight a common, immortal foe.
This is designed to make people immediately identify with the characters, because it's one of the most important things people look for in a story. No matter if it's "Kind MC," "OP MC," or "Horny MC," just put the truth forwards, and only the people who would truly want your story will read it.
Descriptor + MC/characters. An unusual thing about your story compared to the norm. A one-sentence summary of your plot! Read [[ The Hyperlinked Story ]], a story of some genre, with even more plot specifics that are unusual compared to the norm.
The true test of a title's clickability.
Tenacious characters. Read [[ War of Roaches ]].
Mass-shouts. You can list multiple titles in one go.
Head-chapters shouts:
The first two chapters of a story are pristine real estate, as most first-time readers drop after two chapters.
If you can offer them alternative titles right before they drop, they'll potentially be bouncing around the same shout-out network until they can find "the one."
All that time bouncing around leads to brand recognition of the other titles, increasing chances of clicking on those titles if they ever encounter them again.
This can only be accomplished by squishing as many titles as possible in one list...which is probably three (3), easiest on the eyes.
3x titles in start notes and 3x in end notes is 6x easily digestible shouts per chapter. That's a lot, dude.