According to a survey, the average times at which UKians switch off include:
Reading - 14mins
Watching TV or films- 15mins
Virtual work call - 11mins
Face-to-face meeting - 13 mins
Writing an important e-mail - 12 mins
Listening to a podcast - 11 mins
Meditating - 10 mins
So if you want your story to appeal to Ukian readers, you're probably best keeping chapters to under 14 mins reading time.
AJ
The SOL readership is probably atypical, given that bloatware often attracts higher scores.
AJ
The SOL readership is probably atypical, given that bloatware often attracts higher scores.
I suspect most of the scores come while the story is being posted - and in most cases the individual chapters can be read in that timeframe.
That's not an argument that the supposed survey's results are accurate or meaningful.
That's not an argument that the supposed survey's results are accurate or meaningful.
And that's not an argument that the survey's results are inaccurate or meaningless.
At least someone tried to measure it.
AJ
And that's not an argument that the survey's results are inaccurate or meaningless.
That's not what I said. I don't trust surveys in general. People lie to pollsters all the time.
At least someone tried to measure it.
Well since you didn't provide a link to your source, it's hard to tell for sure.
However, to me, the word survey (as opposed to study or experiment) implies that they were asking people to self report from memory, and if that's the case, then no, they didn't measure anything, nor did they actually try to.
Well since you didn't provide a link to your source
A quick google found several media articles: (this is a link to the telegraph version)
Interestingly, Google turned up a 2017 link (which I can't access) also showing 14 minutes. Two studies with similar results. Who'da thunk it.
AJ
Two studies with similar results. Who'da thunk it.
Your original post says survey. A survey and a study are very different things.
Your original post says survey. A survey and a study are very different things.
A survey is a study in its own right, but a study need not involve a survey.
AJ
A survey is a study in its own right
Even if I gran that, a survey still doesn't actually measure anything.
The poll, carried out by Perspectus Global for Lingo by Abbott
I wonder why would a Glucose monitoring division of medical equipment company order a marketing white paper to Perspectus Global, about concentration issues of all things...
It's a successful media placement by the parent company Ginger Comms.
But, given that Perspectus Global wrote it, I'll side with @Dominion Son. Since the panel data isn't available, you can label the quoted time as guess work by a journalist or pure bullshit.
The SOL readership is probably atypical, given that bloatware often attracts higher scores.
I suspect most of the high-scoring 'bloatware' got that score while being published in chapters that could be read in that amount of time.
That is kind of like the survey where men were asked the length of their penis. Almost all responses were in the 7" to 10" range with nothing less than 5".
Obviously, it depends on reading speed, which is typically 250-300 words per minute, according to good 'ole Google. This means chapters ought to be between 3,500-4,500 words.
Of course, an engaged reader will usually read more quickly, so perhaps up to 5,000. But an engaged reader is also likely to stay engaged for longer - say, 20 mins or more.
These days, I aim for an average chapter length of 5000, so I'm probably in the right ballpark, which is good to know.
Obviously, it depends on reading speed, which is typically 250-300 words per minute
So, simplistically, more than 3850 words and you'll lose over half your readers. Which is bad for me because my last chapter was 4000 words. Unfortunately the newspaper reporting the survey didn't report the spread, so how much below 3850 words you should aim for is guesswork.
AJ
The problem is that something like this is probably measuring the "average" person, and someone who reads a lot would have to be considered "above average" on this particular stat.
It would be an interesting exercise to measure the average chapter length of the stories on here. I mean, that's a lot of work, and I'm not doing it, but it would be interesting data to see.
The problem is that something like this is probably measuring the "average" person, and someone who reads a lot would have to be considered "above average" on this particular stat.
That's exactly right - the SOL readership is atypical in that respect.
Even more probative would to be to compare chapter lengths with scores.It wouldn't make much difference to authors who write for themselves, but for authors who try to squeeze every possible percentage point of score out of their readers, it would give an idea of the goldilocks zone.
AJ
Okay, I didn't know what a UKian was, so I googled it. This is what came up - "may refer to a species in the Star Wars universe".
I assume that's not what you're talking about.
I didn't know what a UKian was
I took it as a neologism for someone from the UK(United Kingdom).
I took it as a neologism for someone from the UK(United Kingdom).
We are definitely a separate species in the Star Trek universe. I mean, technically Picard is now a robot which is a different species - although he's French, not British. But he likes Earl Grey, which isn't very French. And he does good Shakespeare, which also isn't very French.
I'm so confused.
I didn't know what a UKian was
Several forum contributors have used 'USAian' instead of American, so I expected UKian would be recognised as analogous.
If Ursula von der Leyen and other Federalist 'royalty' achieve their ambition of creating a United States of Europe, what will happen to the acronym of the USAian president? Will it become POAUS (President of a United States)? POUSA? (President of the United States of America? :-)
AJ
The official name of 'Mexico' is (in English) the United Mexican States. In Spanish, it's 'Estados Unidos Mexicanos', while the US is 'Estados Unidos de América'. So, the President of Mexico (Claudia Sheinbaum, currently) is the President of A United States.
Mexico is, currently, the only 'United States' aside from the USA. There have been others, but those no longer exist. And, of course, there are proposals for quite a few, including Europe (USE?).
There have been others, but those no longer exist.
I would say the correct phrasing would be:
There have been others, but those either no longer exist, or the government decided to change the country's name.
For example, Brazil's official name was once 'United States of Brazil' (in Portuguese: 'Estados Unidos do Brasil'). The nation still exists, just with a different official name 'Federative Republic of Brazil' in English or 'República Federativa do Brasil' in Portuguese.
Am I correct in thinking that by "switch off" you mean 'lose interest'?
That survey doesn't make much sense to me. Where does 'binge watching' come into it? I know people that will not read a book, because, well, words. But will watch an entire TV series, only stopping for toilet breaks.
I have binged watched and I have read entire books in one sitting (apart from toilet breaks, sometimes not even for food). I have done other things, including work tasks where I have been so focused, I have lost track of time and hours have past. Am I unique? I doubt it.
It sounds like a 'survey' written for an agenda, or to push a narrative for a certain specific thing. Without knowing the author and their affiliation, along with the source and the data set, I would be coughing very loudly whilst saying "bullshit!".
An average of the population is basically meaningless here, because people who are seeking out things to read on the web are not an unbiased random sample of the population, but rather a self-selected group.
Moreover, I suspect it's a bimodal distribution, with a non-reading portion of the population having much shorter attention spans that pull down the mean, while the reading portion of the population are coming out of the second mode that's much higher than the mean.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics...
I agree it's likely that the average SOL reader has a longer reading tolerance than the average Joe Public, but there's probably a case for targeting the Joe Public threshold if authors have any ambitions to become best-selling dead tree authors.
AJ
Not really. The point is that there are readers, and there are non-readers, and when you average a bunch of non-readers who have an attention span of, like, three emojis, with a bunch of readers who will devour an entire short novel in an evening, that mean does not accurately reflect either group. And there's no point in trying to pander to the people who don't read anyway, because they don't read.
It's the same attitude I have towards people telling me I should write at a fifth-grade level, or whatever it's devolved to now, because that's the level the average person reads at. The average person doesn't read, so fuck 'em. I write for people who read.