r/Inkitt

Is google docs actually training Gemini AI with our private documents?

I am genuinely so confused because how?

Also if yes, what should I switch to (that is also free)

Howdy, all! I ate this kind of post up when I first started on Inkitt. I have two main motives for making my own:

• Most people who share their stats are (understandably!) celebrating their massive achievements. It can be discouraging to see that, then look at your own numbers and feel like you’re flopping. I hope throwing my own very average experience on the pile gives perspective to anyone who finds themselves doomscrolling the way I used to.
• I see a lot of discussions on this sub about the algorithm & visibility/reach. I do feel like I drew some conclusions from my own experience, and I’m interested to get them in front of the other data nerds.

 

My story, walk on water (or drown) had two pretty significant things going against on my quest for Inkitt fame:

1. Very little romance and no “spice.” No werewolves or mafia bosses to speak of 😔
2. Long (120k words) and fairly slow-paced due to being character driven.

 

From January - August 2026 I posted 2 chapters a week, on Friday evenings and Sunday mornings. Looking at my Total Reads By Day graph, you can see I went through four distinct phases of readership:

https://preview.redd.it/zh1o0uia1fjh1.png?width=1127&format=png&auto=webp&s=b2983ba794894b1acd449766dd17e5dab0daa58b

1. For the first month I was posting, I averaged ~10 clicks a week. I was under 10k words for about half of that time, so it makes sense; I wasn’t even showing up on the wheels. 
2. Then, for the next month, my reads grew like crazy! I was averaging ~55 clicks a week. At the time, I really thought I’d made it and become ~popular.~ But, looking back, this is when I was participating in the New Year contest. Being in a contest puts you on an extra wheel, which increases viewership. As soon as the contest ended…
3. Things dropped off significantly. For the rest of the time I was actively updating, I was back to averaging ~10 clicks a week. I did get a spike from one person bingeing all my posted chapters. But other than that, I very much felt like I was throwing chapters into the void 🥲
4. Then, on the day I hit “complete,” I saw a HUGE spike! 100 clicks in one day!!!... then literally nothing the next day. And every day since that, lol. Again, this tracks: that was my 24 hours on the “Recently Completed” wheel. Now that it’s over and I’m not updating, any clicks I get have to come from from reading lists or searches.

 

Now let’s look at the Chapter Reads by Chapter chart.

https://preview.redd.it/btbgvo5l1fjh1.png?width=1112&format=png&auto=webp&s=747757ea52330fc69ec0d5a3c749b4f24008df26

You’ll notice that the total number of reads here does not add up to the Total Reads number. I see a lot of people use this as evidence that stats are broken. That’s a misunderstanding. Total Reads measures any time somebody clicks any part of your story. If somebody reads ten chapters, that’s ten reads… but if ten people click in to read your summary then immediately bounce without opening chapter 1, that’s also ten “reads.” 

So, of my 621 “reads,” I had 12 people actually open chapter 1. 3 stuck around to chapter 15, then it was down to onesie-twosies (or zeroies) through the rest. 

Next, let’s talk about engagement (reacts, likes, comments, reviews & reading list adds).

https://preview.redd.it/vxk3jmkt1fjh1.png?width=1121&format=png&auto=webp&s=911d84b9edb4c7be1bcec3054ab2d6db1c7c6306

Not a lot to say because I didn’t get many, lol. I never got any reviews. All but ~1 each of my likes, reacts, and comments were from spammers. And while reading list adds can generally be counted on to be from real people, in my experience they didn’t translate to reads. I can’t really put a funny spin on this point--it’s genuinely a bummer. I crossposted on AO3 and Wattpad and got better engagement on each despite getting far fewer reads. (Might make a post comparing the three in more detail later, stay tuned.) 

Last thing I wanted to discuss: I did several “Experiements,” aka A/B tests, while I was posting. I genuinely do think these are broken and unreliable because they never made any sort of internal mathematical sense. BUT, they do give you access to a new stat to be insane about: “Views.” As far as I can tell (don’t get me started on Inkitt’s lack of documentation), this is the number of people who are served your story as an option. Ex., if you open the app and see my story on the Recently Updated wheel, that’s one “view.” 

The periods where I was getting more clicks/reading list adds directly correlated with the periods when I was getting the mostt views. During period #2 when I thought I was famous, I was averaging 170 views a day!! …Meanwhile, during slow period #3, it dropped to 1-5. I was still posting consistently, the only thing that changed was that the contest ended. I find this both reassuring and frustrating: If you’re not getting reads, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong with your story. It’s possible literally nobody is seeing it to even know it exists. But there’s not really anything you can do to expand your reach beyond joining contests, and there won’t always be an open contest that you’re eligible for. 

https://preview.redd.it/8noeqldb3fjh1.png?width=1127&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f2582f809bae6bf0adc8b381be356d4342c9617

So, that’s pretty much it! (I say, as if this post isn't ungodly long). I hope some of y’all found that interesting. If anyone has questions, or would like to share their own observations, please sound off in the comments! I genuinely find this kind of stuff so interesting, and I think it’s good info to have for new authors who are considering getting started on Inkitt. 

tl;dr, what did we learn?

• We can’t all be Mated To The Billionaire Bad Boy Alpha Mafia CEO (1 million reads, 300k comments, Galatea deal, and feature film coming 2027). 
• The algorithm is a fickle mistress; join contests if you want anyone to see your story
• Support your favorite authors with comments and reactions so they don’t lose the plot and start making spreadsheets
• Read my story if you want to contribute to the cause of Making Line Go Up on my total reads graph

 

Aight, despite the audiobook feature being AI generated and a bit of a money grab, I'll allow it.

The recent writing contest though appears to further incentivize people to pay for the audiobook feature. What would be cool is if you could narrate your book(s) yourself, but that doesn't appear to be an option.

This is the end of my non-constructive statement.

I’m probably not going to get any responses but I wanna try. So on the Galatea app, the 7th and final book to Angela and Xavier’s story is locked behind a paywall. And since I don’t really want to spend $69.99 for one book, I was wondering if anyone who has read that final one could tell me what happens in it

I am an aspiring animator who needs help from a writer to bring my story alive and it will be completely unpaid, I am sorry. 😭 Okay, so long story short, I am an avid reader who used to be kind of a writer few days ago. And an idea was sitting at the back of my mind for months. But since I left it because I had null intrest in writing. I thought to get help from a writer who could help me in doing this and who knows we could be freinds as well. So this idea will contain many trigger warnings, kinks, violence and sm\*t and LGBT+ people as side characters. So please do not delve into further if you are not comfortable with any of these. The main couple will be hetero and there might be side-couples too. This story will fall under Dark Romance/Romance. So, I would prefer you to be an avid reader of it so that you can understand how story will progress, what twists & turns it will take, how much characters will be twisted, character development and etc. I need you to upload it on Wattpad/Inkitt or any other platform. There will be no credits due from my side, you can make the story completely yours, I just need to read it.😭And I will respond to only whom I select, please do not leave it in the middle because you'll be the only one I will share with, so please. And after you're done with the Prologue, first chapter or anything which is tangible to upload, please send me the story, so I can follow it. 🫶 And if anyone's struggling with Writer's block maybe I could be of some help. Thank you so much! Hope we can be great freinds in the future as well. 💕

Hello, first time posting here, but I'm sure it won't be the last! Spent two years writing this book. No writer's block the whole way through honestly, it just kind of poured out of me. I sent it to 10 friends over a month ago hoping for some feedback, but not a single person even tried. Not looking for sympathy, just being real. My wife keeps telling me to be patient. But I feel like this won't really be a finished book till I get real human feedback. So here I am, hoping to find people who actually like this kind of book and will give it a real read. I'm proud of what I made — just want to know if it was only ever gonna be for me?

Quick rundown — three childhood best friends, Ezra, Sill, and Will, go out for one ordinary Friday night in an alternate America where drugs are legal and basically a religion and politics is a slow-burning war between two parties. By the end of the weekend they've fallen for each other, uncovered a family murder from over a decade ago, and ended up tangled in a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of the government. It's a lot, honestly, but I think I've done a good job of keeping it from being a tangled mess, which is kind of the whole point of posting this. Genre-wise, it's a mashup, alt-history fantasy world + a throuple romance that doesn't stay in the background + a political conspiracy running underneath it all. Not erotica, to be clear — most of the book is world/plot/characters, a handful of chapters get explicit. If American Gods (the alt-history mythology thing) or Zodiac Academy (throuple/spicy) rings a bell, you'll probably already know if this is your thing.

Here's a short bit from the Prologue, no spoilers, just to give you a feel for it:

"Ezra was quiet. He was digesting the movie the way you process a meal that was almost too much — slowly, with the feeling that something inside you had shifted.

'You good, Ez?' Willy asked.

Ezra kept his eyes on the sky. 'I feel like my whole life is leading to something great. That's really all I want. To do something that actually matters.'

Willy nodded. 'Yeah. Me too.'

Sill rolled onto her belly, elbows in the grass, chin in her hands, looking at both of them. 'I want that too. But I want to do it with you guys.' She paused, deciding how honest to be. Then she decided. 'I know we've been kind of friends. But today felt like something different. Like we're supposed to be a team.'

She held out her hand over the center of them, palm down. They both put theirs in without being asked.

'Let's do something great,' Sill said. 'Whatever happens.'"

18+ heads up before you request it: explicit sex in a few chapters (group sex between the leads plus others and some kink), heavy drug use basically as the premise of the whole world, a death early on that isn't graphic, and political stuff that leans pretty close to real US politics.

If you're interested, DM me and I'll send over the doc — keeping the link out of the post itself.

Mainly what I want to know — did it land for you, and where didn't it? Did the world make sense as you went or did you get lost anywhere? Do the characters feel real? Did you ever relate to any characters? Was it clear what the actual conflict was and by when? Any parts that dragged or you found yourself skimming or skipping ahead? And honestly, if there's stuff you'd just cut, tell me, I can take it.

Happy to do a critique swap if you've got something of your own you'd want a read on — otherwise just genuinely looking for honest readers who want to dig into this kind of book. Written feedback's great, but if you'd rather hop on a call and just talk through it, I'd honestly love that too. If what comes back reads like an AI summary of the plot, I'll know, and it's not really what I'm looking for.

Here's to hoping this book is as good as I think it is.

Am I crazy, or is Inkitt asking authors to PAY INKITT to transcribe existing stories via AI, into audio books on the site?

I clicked on the banner, and apparently, it would cost me $500USD to have my (free) story turned into an audio book and hosted on Inkitt.

Ummm...scammers are ALREADY scraping my books, using AI to turn them into "audiobooks" and circulating them for (their own) profit!

I just don't understand what possible benefit there is to me as an author to pay Inkitt $500 to do exactly that.

Am I missing something?