Busiest days on Lit?

[Lifestyle66]

I view this as a conundrum as a reader.

If I see a story posted with a title something like "Incest Story Chapter 1" I will rely upon my experience with mainstream literature to assume that it is the first chapter of a stand-alone story. If I see a title like "Incest Story Part 1" I would view that as a stand-alone story that is part of a series. Whether my assumptions are correct or not, they influence my decision to explore a story.

I don't believe I am unique, and comments that I have received from readers agree, in that I will not start reading an incomplete story here. If the chapters keep coming at a rate that indicates that the story is complete and the author submitted it all at once but has to wait for the system to process chapters over a week or more, then that is a different situation.

The comparison to television is appropriate. The programs are called television "Series", not "Chapters"

But you're assuming the average reader is looking for the series and planning to follow it.

In my stats tracking and the experience I've seen in my series, I think some readers are not regular LitE viewers or they might not dwell too deeply into the LitE pages and stories. If Chapter 1 falls on the "New" category page 1, they might see it and read it if the title and description catch's their attention. But if Chapter 2 falls on LitE page 3 on its first day, that same reader doesn't see it or look for it.

The conundrum the writer faces is whether to write the story as a series building with minimal replication for the dedicated follower, or to write for the other readers haphazardly picking up one chapter when they stumble upon it. It's those haphazard readers who will be more critical with lower ratings or comments written from frustration for not understanding WHY you wrote it the way you did.

This is why I no longer obsess over ratings and comments. There are some variables which you can't possibly control, so write what makes YOU feel good, and appreciate any positive feedback.

 

[alohadave]

If you post stories regularly that don't push selection edges, you'll become established in an almost universally experienced two- or three-day delay in posting. I commonly submit on Sunday for Tuesday posting and that almost always works out (as it will tomorrow).

My last story posted in one day. I was surprised it went through that quickly.

 

[alohadave]

If I see a story posted with a title something like "Incest Story Chapter 1" I will rely upon my experience with mainstream literature to assume that it is the first chapter of a stand-alone story. If I see a title like "Incest Story Part 1" I would view that as a stand-alone story that is part of a series. Whether my assumptions are correct or not, they influence my decision to explore a story.

The usage is all over the place here. I don't pay any attention to chapter vs part, because the authors aren't either.

There are very few series that aren't a serial story spread out over multiple postings. Not saying that it doesn't happen, but it's fairly uncommon from my experience.

 

[ElectricBlue]

In my experience with a series of 13 chapters so far, each posted separately, the number of views goes up and down, over and over. Ch 8-9 (single post) has 7K, then 4k, 2k, 3k, 8.7k. That last chapter is the highest views of all 12 posts (13 chapters). There are many readers of that last chapter who don't have the background of my MCs from the earlier chapters.

That's your assumption, but here's another thought: I've got several long chaptered stories, one of which is eight years old, another three years old. That is, they've accrued far more readers over time than they ever had when new. They too have chapter perturbations as you describe, which I put down to people reading that chapter twice. Nobody seems to think of that.

What people seem to forget in these discussions is that, once a story has been published in full, readers aren't arriving at the story by finding "later chapters" off a hub front page or a new stories list, they're finding the whole thing on your story page. So the contention that readers "don't go back to the beginning" make no sense to me, when there are far simpler explanations.

Oddly enough, the highest scored and most viewed downstream chapter in the later novel has a gay male encounter, so there's a subtle indicator of the "real men of Lit" and their hidden inclinations (the novel was published in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, not category by category - it had a smorgasbord of sexual encounters, all sorts). Or, it might have been women reading it twice, who knows (no-one threw their hands up in horror). I found that intriguing.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

I think it's true, as stated, for regular posters (and ones who don't push the edges). My experience with usually two days, almost never more than three in posting has remained steady here for over a decade.

I guess I don't post frequently enough.

I've never gotten a rejection or a warning as I'm always pretty clearly adhering to the rules. I remember at least half of my submission took a full week to get approval regardless.

 

[Lifestyle66]

That's your assumption, but here's another thought: I've got several long chaptered stories, one of which is eight years old, another three years old. That is, they've accrued far more readers over time than they ever had when new. They too have chapter perturbations as you describe, which I put down to people reading that chapter twice. Nobody seems to think of that.

What people seem to forget in these discussions is that, once a story has been published in full, readers aren't arriving at the story by finding "later chapters" off a hub front page or a new stories list, they're finding the whole thing on your story page. So the contention that readers "don't go back to the beginning" make no sense to me, when there are far simpler explanations.

Oddly enough, the highest scored and most viewed downstream chapter in the later novel has a gay male encounter, so there's a subtle indicator of the "strong men of Lit" and their hidden inclinations (the novel was published in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, not category by category - it had a smorgasbord of sexual encounters, all sorts). Or, it might have been women reading it twice, who knows (no-one threw their hands up in horror). I found that intriguing.

My chapter 11 (of 13) posted in June and as of now has only 2,039 views, the least of all of my stories. And even topping 2K views was a very slow crawl, as within the first two weeks, it barely got over 1K. Chapter 13 posted in October and has 8,734 views. And I doubt that some 2K readers reopened my story 4 times each. My writing is just not that good.

So, I have no illusions that I have very few people going out of their way to find and read every chapter of my series. And IMO, the only way I might attract MORE followers of the series is to make EVERY chapter appeal with enough backstory to entice the newest reader to want more.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My chapter 11 (of 13) posted in June and as of now has only 2,039 views, the least of all of my stories. And even topping 2K views was a very slow crawl, as within the first two weeks, it barely got over 1K. Chapter 13 posted in October and has 8,734 views. And I doubt that some 2K readers reopened my story 4 times each. My writing is just not that good.

So, I have no illusions that I have very few people going out of their way to find and read every chapter of my series. And IMO, the only way I might attract MORE followers of the series is to make EVERY chapter appeal with enough backstory to entice the newest reader to want more.

A newish story life and/or lowish views don't really tell you much that's conclusive, I agree.

But the notion of rolling out the back story over and over in each chapter, just to attract new readers who aren't clever enough to say, "Gee, look, there's a Chapter One" - that's going to end up with some stylistically odd writing, surely?

I think the best way, early on, to get new readers is to write more stand-alone stories, not continue an endless series. Widen your range as a writer, don't lengthen it.

 

[yukonnights]

My chapter 11 (of 13) posted in June and as of now has only 2,039 views, the least of all of my stories. And even topping 2K views was a very slow crawl, as within the first two weeks, it barely got over 1K. Chapter 13 posted in October and has 8,734 views. And I doubt that some 2K readers reopened my story 4 times each. My writing is just not that good.

So, I have no illusions that I have very few people going out of their way to find and read every chapter of my series. And IMO, the only way I might attract MORE followers of the series is to make EVERY chapter appeal with enough backstory to entice the newest reader to want more.

IMO, the primary reason for having chapter style stories is to build on the backstory that earlier chapters have delivered. As a reader, I'd probably question and get frustrated with the repetition of content I've already read. In my experience, it's not unusual to see a drop off in later chapters.

As I prepare to post this, I see EB has said basically the same thing.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

The comparison to television is appropriate. The programs are called television "Series", not "Chapters"

Except it's not. In the TV industry there's two kinds of shows

Episodic: Any show where the full plot is contained within a single episode. Characters may retain lessons learned in previous episodes but the show overall is designed with the understanding that the audience hasn't seen every episode. These shows will typically either have a formula that restores the status quo by the end of each episode or quite simply reset the universe at the beginning of every episode. If the status quo ever majorly changes permanently, odds are its the product of the season finale episode. (For example Two Broke Girls features the main characters mentioning that they're saving up to buy a bakery in almost every episode but the plot of any given episode has nothing to do with furthering this goal until they actually buy the bakery in a season finale. After that season they're established to work in the bakery.)

Sitcoms and Crime shows usually fall into this category.

Serialized: Any show that's main plot spans a season with each episode being a sub-plot working towards the season finale. Modern serialized shows are impossible to watch out of order, but older serialized shows (anything that predates Netflix) will typically have a plot presented in such a way that the viewer can keep up with the plot so long as they've seen the first episode of the season and caught a few key episodes.

Dramas and most streaming service exclusives fall into this category.

 

[Lifestyle66]

A newish story life and/or lowish views don't really tell you much that's conclusive, I agree.

But the notion of rolling out the back story over and over in each chapter, just to attract new readers who aren't clever enough to say, "Gee, look, there's a Chapter One" - that's going to end up with some stylistically odd writing, surely?

I think the best way, early on, to get new readers is to write more stand-alone stories, not continue an endless series. Widen your range as a writer, don't lengthen it.

I have done the standalone stories, too.

I posted to the Pink Orchid, AI Era, Geek Pride, and Amorous Goods challenges this year. The Geek Pride story in particular was used to flesh out my MFC in some great detail (it was the husband's "user guide" written to describe his wife's idiosyncrasies.)

But I'm still stuck using my same MC and MFC characters, as I am still a relatively new and untrained writer, and their characters more easily written with consistency due to being so familiar with them. I threw together one humorous standalone story describing this very writer issue as "Getting Too Close - 750 Words".

 

[ElectricBlue]

But I'm still stuck using my same MC and MFC characters, as I am still a relatively new and untrained writer, and their characters more easily written with consistency due to being so familiar with them. I threw together one humorous standalone story describing this very writer issue as "Getting Too Close - 750 Words".

I do this all the time - use the same male protagonists because they're easy to write, and it's my women interest me more, not the men. They appear in different stories, though, some of which might break out to a few chapters, but that's more down to a "do I publish in chapters or as a stand-alone?" question, which is more driven by the speed of writing than anything else, these days.

 

[TadOverdon]

Doesn't it depend on what you are trying to accomplish with the overall story?

There's nothing wrong with writing a story series in chapters that are like episodes of a TV show, like Hawaii 5-O or Cheers, where the chapters feature the same characters but present new standalone-plots.

Or one can write a chaptered series in which there is a clear story arc that is carried from chapter to chapter. That works, too.

But the problem with the second approach is that if a particular chapter does not deliver what the audience for that category wants, you will lose many readers, and may draw bad scores. This isn't so much a problem with broad categories like Romance or Novels or Erotic Couplings, but it's a problem for narrower, fetish/kink-based categories like Incest or Anal. You will lose your Anal readers if you have a chapter with no anal sex.

I started posting my incest-themed books in "Novels and Novellas" despite getting fewer views there, because if a particular chapter featured wall-to-wall sex but none of the characters were related then Incest/Taboo readers would ding it. I got tired of that. I'm sure the complainers were on good ground; the last one probably only had about 25 percent incestuous sex.