Apologies if we've talked about this recently, but is there a consensus over which publishing strategy gathers more readers: publishing chapter by chapter on a regular schedule, say weekly, or putting up all chapters at once?
I'm leaving aside the practice of publishing chapters as written, which means there can be days weeks months or even more between them.
~ JBB
Publishing on a regular basis will attract more viewers since it will appear more times on the home page.
Posting all at once it will show up once on the home page and quickly get lost among later entries.
One thing I have committed to is to only start posting when the story, or at least that book is complete.
Publishing on a regular basis will attract more viewers since it will appear more times on the home page.
All true, but many readers will not start reading before the last chapter is posted to avoid the risk of the story getting abandoned.
If posting is spaced a week or more apart, readers suffering CRS will not start reading before the posting is finished even if the author states the story is completely written. Even ten years ago I would have started reading three or four stories parallel, but now I've problems with separating the storylines in my mind. So I start reading a finished story and don't stop reading this story until the end. If another story I'm interested in reading is finished posting meanwhile, I may have forgotten about it when I finally look for another story to read.
HM.
I did two chapters a week (Tuesday, Friday) for stories longer than a single chapter.
I also made sure the story was complete before I started posting anything, because I'd been bitten in the butt by other stories I liked that the author stopped posting in the middle of for various reasons.
I've consistently posted a chapter a day for some time now, and it appears to work well. While it's true some readers don't start reading until I finish posting, I've always made it clear the stories are finished (and they are available on ZBookstore for the truly impatient).
I compare it to serialized stories which used to appear in periodicals (cf. Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, which was published in weekly installments.)
I believe posting over multiple days gets more reads initially since it appears more times on the home and update pages. But I also believe the initial scores could be lower. To counter the initial scoring dilemma, I may post multiple chapters at the start to give the reader some meat to the story.
I used to post one chapter a week. But for my most recent story, I decided to post every day. It's a short story so I posted Chapter 1 and 2 on one day, then Chapter 3 on the next day, and Chapter 4 (final) on the next.
I post two chapters a week after the story is finished (and available on ZBS). By experimentation, I found that I get more readers at 2x/week than 1x/week.
My Reamstories subscribers get 1x/week, though, because I don't want to have gaps. On SOL, I can go months between the end of one book and the start of the next because I'm still finishing the next book.
Like many others here, I will not start posting until the book is done.
As being just a lowly reader, I prefer chapter by chapter provided they don't take too long between postings for a few reasons.
1: If full story, I will most likely bypass because I don't notice the file size at first.
2: I may notice a story after seeing it a few times before jumping on.
3: And the most important reason is I really enjoy it when it takes time to read. It's a bummer when it's a great story that is read in 1 day.
3: And the most important reason is I really enjoy it when it takes time to read. It's a bummer when it's a great story that is read in 1 day.
I feel the same way. I like the extended pleasure.
Thanks, all, for your comments.
~ JBB