Posting on the AntHill

“You want me to post my book on a place called AntHill?” I snickered at the funny sounding website.

Their mascot was an ant queen girl. It was pretty wholesome looking from the front page.

“But why is she putting her book on a spider web full of ants?” Cal asked.

“No, Cal.” I turned my chair toward him. “A website is a page on the internet where people can get info or do stuff. And they have a trendy little ant girl advertising it.”

“That does not help me understand it at all,” he admitted. “What is so appealing about a royal ant child?”

I pointed to a picture of the mascot and his brow furrowed.

“Her eyes are obscenely large, like the drawings you made of me in your notebook.”

“That’s an anime style for you,” I said.

“Forgive me for my opinion, but I do not like your Auntie May's style.”

“I wish this were my Auntie May's style,” I lamented. “But she doesn't like Japanese cartoons either.”

I figured it was easier to show him a little of the internet, so we checked out this AntHill place. Apparently thousands of people posted novels on here every year, and they had associations with big names in the creative industry. It said they had over forty different genres and themes, but a lot of these books were just LitRPG progression isekai fantasy.

“Cal fits a few of those, at least,” I commented. “Everyone's cover looks so good, but why do they all look like they were made by the same person?”

I bet whoever’s making all this art is making a killing!

“Clearly whoever it was doesn't realize that people only have five fingers on each hand,” June huffed. “Anyways, everyone was saying that this was a great place for new authors. So You should give it a try and post your first few chapters.”

I had them all edited and ready to go. Both June and Cal gave me a thumbs up. Octo hated it though because he wasn't the main villain of the arc, but I told him that he'll come in later.

The process to post was pretty easy. Make an account, start a new story, then post the first chapter and cover art. The whole thing took about an hour. It would have taken less time, but I had a couple of backseat publishers around me that made me second guess every single word I typed up.

“Aaand…” I held my finger over the enter button. “Post!”

It took a second, but after I posted I was redirected to the front page where I saw my novel updated on!

“Wow! I squealed. “I'm actually published!”

-Boop!-

“Wait,” June leaned over me and looked at the screen. “Redemption of a Snail Minion?”

That wasn’t my novel. Someone else must have posted around the same time as me.

-Boop-

“Look, another!” Cal called out. “That woman on the cover has exceptionally large breasts!”

That novel was called ‘I Was a Succubus Working 9-5AM, But Now I'm Settled Down and Living With a Nerd Who’s Too Dense Too Sleep With Me.’

“I think they mixed the blurb up with the title,” I commented.

-Boop!-

“Not another one…” I said in a crestfallen voice. “If this keeps up, I'll be kicked off the front page in no time.”

-Boop!-

-Boop!-

-Boop!-

-Boop!-

-Boop!-

“Oh yee gods, new books pop up like ants!” Cal announced.

“I guess that explains why it's called ‘AntHill…’ June concluded.

The front page was filling fast. Before I knew it, my novel was the last one in line.

“Oh no!” I grabbed hold of the screen and shook it. “Please, everyone, stop posting!” I shook the screen again, this time more dramatically. “At least give me a few minutes of exposure time!”

-Boop!-

“No!!!” We all shouted together.

“Hey, wait!” Cal pointed to the screen. “The book about the large breasted woman appeared again. We're still on the front page!”

“Phew!” I brushed the sweat from my forehead. “Looks like we're safe for now…”

-Boop!-

“Ah crap…” I looked closely and saw we'd finally been kicked off. “Looks like we're finished…”

“No, look!” Cal pointed to the top of the screen. “I see myself at the top again.”

“What?”

That was definitely Cal’s picture. How did my novel get back up to the top? Did novels circle back around when they left the front page?

“Wait, Lal the Barbarian!?” June shouted. “Somebody stole your novel and reposted it with a different name!”

“Whhaaaa!?” I hate clicked the crap out of that sucker and scrolled down to see it already got 69 followers (nice) and 42 Favorites!

Some guy named Dan Lark was the culprit. It says his account was just made thirty seconds ago and he was already racking up awards.

“No freaking way dude!” I screamed at the screen. “Give me my book back, jerk!”

“I shall hunt down this Dan of Lark and slay him mercilessly!” Cal's eyes lit up with an electrical charge.

“No way…” June grumbled quietly. “You’re going to regret that, Mr. Dan…”

I clicked back on the book again, this time with tears in my eyes, but suddenly got redirected back to the front page. It looked like the fake Cal book had been taken down, and another one too.

“Thank God,” I sighed out. The mods must have deleted the fakes.

“Look!” Cal pointed to the last book on the page. “I'm back to page one!”

“Yay!!!” we all cheered, seeing my book was back on the front page from two other books getting deleted.

“Yay…” Octo joined in from the bathroom, but he didn’t sound as enthusiastic as we did.