Shousetsuka ni Narou / Platform

(小説家になろう "Let's Become a Novelist") is a Japanese-language self-publishing platform for Web Serial Novels, started by Yusuke Umezaki in 2004. It initially also hosted fan fiction, but this was eventually banned in 2012 in order to encourage posting original works.

The site is free to use, and it's become increasingly common for Light Novel publishers such as Dengeki Bunko to search its archive and license popular works for professional publication. This has caused the website to become very influential on Japanese media: it's in large part responsible for the glut of LitRPG and isekai anime and manga in The New '10s.

Compare Wattpad, which can be considered the closest English-language equivalent (though unlike Shousetsuka ni Narou, it does allow fanfiction).

Tropes common in works on the platform:

LitRPG: It's quite common for works posted here to directly cite RPG mechanics, especially stats, Skill Scores and Perks.
Pen Name: Works that originate on the platform are usually published under the author's username, even if they're later bought and professionally published.
Trapped in Another World: It's fair to say that the isekai explosion of The New '10s might not have happened but for all the otakus on this platform writing thinly disguised Self Insert Fics of various Speculative Fiction works (with fanfics of The Familiar of Zero being the most popular before the site made the rule of original works only).
Work Info Title: This website is a big part of the reason why so many light novels, manga, and anime from the The New '10s on have used absurdly long titles to fully describe the premise, rather than just using a publishing blurb.

Platform / Shousetsuka ni Narou

Tropes common in works on the platform:

Works available on the platform:

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Platform / Shousetsuka ni Narou

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Tropes common in works on the platform:

Works available on the platform:

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