Forum: Author Hangout

There was a comment in a thread recently that talked about getting more reads when the author posts a chapter a week or 2 chapters a week. The idea is it's on the front page more often so seen more frequently so, theoretically, gets more reads.

I'm writing a short story that's broken into quite a few chapters for its length. Let's say it will end up being around 8-10 chapters, but the chapters are about or less than 2,000 words each. So let's say the short story is 16,000 to 20,000 words.

I usually post a chapter at a time for the reason that person mentioned (more visibility = more reads), but I think I'll post all the chapters at once (the complete story). So it'll only show up on the new page once, but as a short story someone would read it in one sitting. My guess is if it's read in one sitting, it would probably score better.

Thoughts?

My guess is if it's read in one sitting, it would probably score better.

It would be nice to know whether that's true or not. I guess with single chapters, there's always a chance one will squick a bunch of readers, who will consequently give the whole story a low score. And since they don't have access to next chapter, the author can't readily earn them back.

You might consider releasing multiple chapters at once. Uncle Jim, for example, normally releases them in pairs.

AJ

20,000 words is a novella and not a short story. I've chosen to do my novellas as chapter/week though at some point I'll go two chapters/week even with 2000 word chapters. That's because I'm far more interested in number of readers than the score. I'm trying to build a fan base independent of my older Summer Camp work and so the more people who read, the better.

That's also because scores are... capricious. Every time I've posted a story I immediately get a bunch of low scores that obviously have nothing to do with the story. Axe grinders or people who are trying to take a story down a notch for reasons unknown. Then the score starts to rise, but a lot of it depends on whether the individual chapter had a sex scene that catered to that reader's kinks.

So my bet is that if you posted it all at once, you'd get fewer votes (because fewer people saw it), and thus the score would be more volatile. However, the score itself wouldn't be much different than if you'd posted it a chapter at a time.

The idea is it's on the front page more often so seen more frequently so, theoretically, gets more reads.

In the morning, I check New Stories. I don't look at Updates or either Stream.

Once I decide to not read a story, there is very low probability of me changing my mind. So if I happen to see the story elsewhere on the site, I doubt I would select it to read.

I'm writing a short story that's broken into quite a few chapters for its length. Let's say it will end up being around 8-10 chapters, but the chapters are about or less than 2,000 words each. So let's say the short story is 16,000 to 20,000 words.

With me, it really all depends on the story itself. But many of my longer ones have multiple chapters of around 4,000 words each.

As for posting, that generally depends on how fast I am writing at a time. I tend to alternate between a period of almost frantic writing, then periods of writers block where a month may go by with nothing. So as far as posting, it may be daily, or once or twice a week.

However, it is always a good idea to not post more than one chapter a day to a story (unless it is a complete story of 2-4 chapters). I've had quite a few complain on the few times I did post more than one a day that it often made it hard to catch up that way.

I also tend to try and keep at least 3-5 chapters of the story I am currently writing in "reserve". That gives me some leeway for making changes before posting, and in case I get writers block I have something to continue posting for a few weeks until I can return to writing. For example, in my current story I just posted chapter 68, but am writing chapter 73.