The numbers just dont match in the story stats section
one story says i have 30k downloads/ chapter, with 62 chapters yet totals at 166k total downloads
another has 6k downloads /chapter with 33 chapters and a 123k total.
Does not compute to my poor addled math stunted brain.
Is there any help for me?
Shad
Basically there are multiple counters but only 2 you need to worry about as most of the others relate to the chapter counters. Thus a 4 chapter story has 5 counters and a six chapter story has 7 counters as each chapter has one and the story itself has one. Whenever a reader accesses a story or chapter within the SoL day the appropriate chapters increase by one. The result is the story counters are not a combination of the chapter counters.
For example: If I access and read a whole story of 66 chapters in the one day then every chapter counter goes up by one and the story counter goes up by one. However, if I access the story today and read 33 chapters then each of those chapters and the story counters goes up by one, but when I access the rest of the chapters the next day the remaining chapter counter go up by one and the story counter goes up by another one to show an increase count of 2 over the 2 days.
I hope that helps you understand it.
not really.
I was curious to how many actual downloads i got per chapter, not an overinflated number
Shad
I was curious to how many actual downloads i got per chapter, not an overinflated number
So you want the number of unique downloads, not all the repeated downloads from the same reader. I don't know if Lazeez has those numbers available.
yes and no,
when i add the numbers together, they just dont add up.
In my first book, i have over 30K downloads per chapter, yet after 62 chapters, it says 160k total (instead of the two million or so that they would total if i did a straight line addtion).
I just wondered how Laz arrived at the 160k and why the disparity.
Shad
Shad
As I explained earlier, there is no correlation between the chapter counts and the story count as they measure two very different aspects in multi-chapter stories.
With a first chapter of the story before the next chapter is posted the chapter and story counts should be the same as there is no difference between them. However, once you start posting extra chapters each different day a person visits the story to read a chapter that story will get an increase of 1 and so will the chapter. If they read multiple chapters on the one day the story count will only go up by 1 as it's the single visit to the story, but each chapter count will go up by 1 as each chapter is read.
EB is right, but some numbers might help you understand
Extreme example 1: You have 30k readers, and they all read the story at no more than one chapter per day - this would give you the 2M downloads you are expecting
EE2: You have 30K readers who all waited until the story finished posting (or, until now), then each read the whole thing in one sitting - this would give chapter downloads of 30k AND an overall download count of 30k
EE3: You have 30k readers who all wait until there are a dozen chapters posted that they've not read, then blitz read to catch up before waiting again - this would give roughly the figures you've quoted
EE4: You have 15k readers who read the first chapter and dumped the story, and 15k readers who each re-read the last chapter they've already read before reading one more chapter, every other day or so - this would give chapter download counts of 30k, and total download count about 1M
EE5: You have 10k readers who read the story chapter-by-chapter as it was being posted, then when it finished, went back and read the whole thing again, and again the next day - this gives 30k/chapter and a total of 50k downloads. Or, if it's 15k readers and they only re-read it once, but take five days to do it, the totals would be 30k/chapter and total of about 90k.
So, the apparent disparity in the figures is down to reader behaviour, and could be taken as a function of the number of chapters read at once, or of the proportion of readers who wait until the end of a story before reading.
EB is right, but some numbers might help you understand
I agree with your entire post.
Personally I gauge the number of readers by the chapter with the lowest count.
Not because I have any justification for that being accurate, but simply because it appeals to my (twisted) sense of logic.
:)
Personally I gauge the number of readers by the chapter with the lowest count.
Me too, for my own stories. Is that information available for stories by other authors? There are a few on-going serials with very high ratings, but dividing the published download count by the number of chapters suggests it's mostly the authors' devout fans who are reading them rather than the general SOL readership.
AJ
That's really the best way to gauge the number of readers for a finished story. For an ongoing serial, I look at the increment of downloads between chapters. Those usually go up during the first chapters and then reach a plateau. If they go down, you know you have a turd at your hand, at least for a reasonable chapter count. If you post 765 chapters over 15 years, you can probably watch your readership growing old and dying on you ;o)
If you post 765 chapters over 15 years, you can probably watch your readership growing old and dying on you ;o)
You've been doing some calculations using Arlene and Jeff, right :D
Arlene and Jeff
That's a mammoth or a book, that I've not started reading, and now it's so huge, that I probably newer will...
That's a mammoth or a book, that I've not started reading, and now it's so huge, that I probably newer will...
I have that with A Well Lived Life. It has become so huge that I'm afraid that if I start it and like it I'm reading nothing else for the next 2 years :D
I have that with A Well Lived Life. It has become so huge that I'm afraid that if I start it and like it I'm reading nothing else for the next 2 years :D
I did some rough calculations and it works out to around 120 typical-length hardcover novels.😀 For comparison:
War and Peace has about 587,000 words. AWLL 2 - Book 10 - Bridget alone has about 640,000 words. If you read all of what I have written, it's about 12,000,000 words total, which is like reading War and Peace 20 times and still having words left to read Lord of the Rings, which is about 480,000 words.
For other comparisons, the Harry Potter series clocks in at just over a million words, and the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan has about 4.4 million words, and is considered one of the longest (if not the longest) published series.
So yeah, it would be a significant investment of your time. 😛
So yeah, it would be a significant investment of your time. 😛
Mmmm, my 2-year reading-time guesstimate is probably somewhat on the short side :D
If you read all of what I have written, it's about 12,000,000 words total, which is like reading War and Peace 20 times and still having words left to read Lord of the Rings, which is about 480,000 words.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_novels
Title: Devata
Author: Mohiuddin Nawab
Publisher: Suspense Digest
Pages: 8,128
Volumes: 56
Words: 11,206,310
Language: Urdu
Words: 11,206,310
I have that link on my Patreon page. I don't qualify because they require it to be published by a 'mainstream publisher and that has acquired publishing rights from authors'
Sadly, I don't think they'll accept WLPC as 'mainstream' though maybe they will given the Lazeez is publishing them via Bookapy. Hmm... 😝
Well technically, the point I was trying to make is that you aren't that special. Someone else got there first and got published in print. So: :p yourself.
Well technically, the point I was trying to make is that you aren't that special. Someone else got there first and got published in print. So: :p yourself.
Mine is bigger! 😜
Mine is bigger!
Bigger is not always better. I stopped reading your work long, long ago (as well as Arlene and Jeff), when it became obvious it would go on, and on, and on, and ......
Charles Dickens got paid by the word, which was his excuse for being overly verbose.
With some people, if you ask them what time it is, they'll tell you how to build a watch.
fwiw
Extreme example 1: You have 30k readers, and they all read the story at no more than one chapter per day - this would give you the 2M downloads you are expecting
For my longer stories, I usually submit chapters at intervals of several days. I've often noted days when the download count of the latest chapter increases more than the story download count. Why might that be?
AJ
the download count of the latest chapter increases more than the story download count. Why might that be?
Oooh, a good one. I can posit a mechanism based purely on what I know of the SOL system, but it's a bit subtle, and a bit complimentary.
The sequence of events goes like this:
The reader logs in and checks the story, possibly causing a story download count with no chapter downloads (because even just loading the contents page registers a story download); this login has to occur less than a day before the new chapters post and get looked at, but could be over 23hr before. The login could be the system auto-relogin or a manual login so long as it happens before (or is invoked by) the story check, and before the next item.
Later, you check the download counts, sometime before the new chapter posts. Provided it's after the above login/check, this could be more than 23hr before the new chapter posts.
Later, after the new chapter posts, the reader rechecks the story, and reads the next chapter. This causes a chapter download count, but not a story download count because they're still in the same login day and the system will only generate one story download per 'day' (login period) per member.
Then, when you recheck the stats, you see a chapter download without a corresponding story download, all because the readers are impatient for new chapters from you.
this login has to occur less than a day before the new chapters post and get looked at, but could be over 23hr before. The login could be the system auto-relogin or a manual login so long as it happens before (or is invoked by) the story check, and before the next item.
As far as I know it has only loosely to do with the login. If it were it would seriously ruin the counts for those who never logout and don't shut down their machine, it would means a never ending 'day'. I think I once read that your login time sets the time for a 24-hour cycle, that's all. I remember from my pre-premium time that I had to wait for the next batch of stories I could read/download if I logged in again before the 24-hour period from the previous login had expired and the story-count was reset to 0.
In short, if you log in 10 times withing 24 hours it doesn't change the 'day' it counts for download unless you pass the 'last' 24-hour period from the first log in.
those who never logout and don't shut down their machine, it would means a never ending 'day'.
Not Quite. 'Keep me logged in' appears to be implemented as an automatic re-login (thus starting a new 'day'), 24 hour after the official login time, which is about 5 mins before the time of accessing a page on the site after the site invisibly logs you out (and, I presume, also before manually logging on). The only reason I can see for this odd 5 mins is so that if you access the site at roughly the same time every day (which will vary a little bit each way due to natural delays), you will always start a new (SOL logon) 'day' when you do access it (due to the previous 'day' expiring about 5 mins earlier), rather than sometimes landing in the same 'day' (with possibly your entire access allocation already used already).
You can check this: just compare the logon time listed in your account details page (or on the today's accesses page) with the time you actually logged on (or accessed a page after the previous login expiry/counter reset time).
One side-effect of this is that if you always log on promptly after the login expiry time, you will get an extra day's downloads over the course of about 10 months, although in practice this will be pretty impossible to do as the time you need to logon will drift through the entire day (including overnight), and any SOL site, ISP or computer problems will throw it right out.
'Keep me logged in' appears to be implemented as an automatic re-login (thus starting a new 'day')
I didn't say "keep me logged in", I stated logging in and never close your browser and don't shut your machine down. That's different. "Keep me logged in" is nothing else than when you reopen your browser that a cookie is read that causes you to automatically log in again. In that case your 'SOL day' is always from the first login time.
madnige,
This...
Makes a lot of sense.
Thank you. It helps to clear up some of my questions regarding numbers (and I have a lot regarding this site, some days).
Shad
So, the apparent disparity in the figures is down to reader behaviour, and could be taken as a function of the number of chapters read at once, or of the proportion of readers who wait until the end of a story before reading.
And, of course, it counts downloads, and it doesn't count reads. So, I might download all the chapters at once and read the story over the next month. OTOH, I might download the chapter because I was looking for another story with the same name.
When you talk about downloads are you talking about downloading each chapter to your computer or just reading each chapter on SOL?
I only download when the story is done so I can read it on Calibre's epub reader.
When you talk about downloads are you talking about downloading each chapter to your computer or just reading each chapter on SOL?
Reading on SOL actually is also a download. The browser downloads each html page (i.e. chapter) and renders it into what you see on your screen. Sounds weird but every web page you visit is downloaded before you see it.
very web page you visit is downloaded before you see it.
And also uploaded. Up and down, up and down. Honor, Offer, Honor, Offer. Offer your honor, Honor your offer...
Eventually someone deposits a load.
Just out of idle curiosity, say I go to the 'recently concluded' page, see a story I want to read and download the epub via the link. Is any counter affected?
ETA
Other than the counter on my personal account of course.