One long story or multiple stories per chapter?

[Britva415]

So, I'm curious...

Are you saying that as long as each of the published parts are under 5K, you are fine reading a 100K story a piece at at time, or no story over 5K is your cup of tea?

No judgment, just trying to understand your comment.

Exactly.

Just saying "no more than 5k words please" doesn't give OP any information about whether their work would ever even be read at all.

Me personally, length doesn't deter me, but chapterization usually does. Exceptions are when I can see that the series is complete and already published. But that doesn't get me in to anything on the day, week or month that it's published. That only gets me into an author's back catalog.

I'll read 50k words the day it hits the "new" list, but almost certainly not if it comes out in a lot of separately published segments.

That's me. There are others who behave oppositely, but we can't tell who they are if all they say is "no more than 5k please." Because many of them won't read more than 5k at all, whether it's a one-shot or a chapter.

 

[RocketGrunt]

Certainly my experience with Literotica readers is that there are people who have a maximum number of chapters, people who have a maximum length of chapters, and people who have a maximum total length.

You can't do much about the last group of people, the overall length of your story is what it is. The question on chapterization is about how to best thread the needle between the first two groups. The more lit pages your chapters are, the more people will nope out. The more chapters your story is, the more people will nope out. You're not paying a huge price on going from 2 lit pages to 4, but you're paying a huge price going from 20 chapters to 40.

I really do believe that targeting novelette length by cramming 2-3 novel chapters into a Literotica chapter is the sweet spot as regards this site. It's not perfect for everyone, but it's the best compromise you're going to get.

 

[Britva415]

it's the best compromise you're going to get

It depends what you want to optimize for.

This compromise seems aimed at getting the most eyeballs.

Me personally, not to speak for OP or anyone else, I'd prefer to optimize for the best reader experience - among the readers who read it.

Fishing for "extra" readers who might not otherwise have chosen my format doesn't seem to raise the chances of that, and neither does alienating readers who might have chosen to read it if I hadn't compromised on the format.

 

[Britva415]

I've only ever gone chapter by chapter and combine them into a series, but for this new idea, I'm not sure if that's the best format or not.

When you "went chapter by chapter," did you write the whole thing and then publish it in parts, or did you write parts after other parts had already been published?

Do you think that this decision could affect the quality of the total finished story?

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I will pass on a story over three pages.

As I asked Five_Inch_Heels, are you talking about a chapter submission over three pages or a complete story over three pages?

If someone broke their 20 chapter story into twenty individual 2K chapters, would they entice you or lose you?

 

[Writer61]

Do you also pass on anything serialized/chapterized at all?

I am happy to start a story with multiple chapters as long as it feels manageable. Say, 20 max.

There is one series that I began when it had 15-20 parts. It has reached 55 parts, and I am still reading. That said, I don't think I would have started if it had been so many.

 

[Britva415]

I am happy to start a story with multiple chapters as long as it feels manageable. Say, 20 max.

There is one series that I began when it had 15-20 parts. It has reached 55 parts, and I am still reading. That said, I don't think I would have started if it had been so many.

Yeah, that's kind of the thing: When it starts, nobody usually knows how long it's going to go, so, you can't usually just choose to start it thinking it'll reach a reasonable conclusion.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

It depends what you want to optimize for.

This compromise seems aimed at getting the most eyeballs.

Me personally, not to speak for OP or anyone else, I'd prefer to optimize for the best reader experience - among the readers who read it.

Fishing for "extra" readers who might not otherwise have chosen my format doesn't seem to raise the chances of that, and neither does alienating readers who might have chosen to read it if I hadn't compromised on the format.

There is very little that I write with the intention of publishing exclusively on Literotica. I always consider other possible sites or publishing options, even if I don't take advantage of them.

To that end, I try to follow established and recognized practices most common in mainstream publishing. This results in each chapter flowing seamlessly into the next, and me not worrying about what some pickle-tickler's attention span may or may not be. It also means that my story fits into a single genre (or category on Lit), regardless of what an individual chapter might focus on. (Not typically a problem if you don't publish by chapter)

 

[RocketGrunt]

It depends what you want to optimize for.

This compromise seems aimed at getting the most eyeballs.

Me personally, not to speak for OP or anyone else, I'd prefer to optimize for the best reader experience - among the readers who read it.

Fishing for "extra" readers who might not otherwise have chosen my format doesn't seem to raise the chances of that, and neither does alienating readers who might have chosen to read it if I hadn't compromised on the format.

Well, you also get people who like your story whining that the chapters aren't long enough or the chapters don't come out frequently enough. The novelette length mostly silences the crowd demanding more per chapter, and obviously making them longer than that makes the people who want chapters to come out more frequently get more agitated.

This is not the same on every board, not by any means. On CHYOA people complain if a post is more than 2k words, because the way things are displayed they want to be able to click through to the next post rather than have to scroll a bunch. On Literotica specifically, you seem to please the most people most of the time with chunks that are 10k or 12k rather than going for normal novel length chapters of 5k or posting full 120k novels.

 

[Seurat]

I've read long stories (it gets tedious, unless there are breaks within the story) and chapter stories (which can be easier to digest). If you do the latter please, for the sake of anything you hold dear, FINISH THE STORY BEFORE YOU PUBLISH. There is almost nothing worse than somebody that has a good go with chapter one but doesn't have chapter two finished yet. Readers don't like to be kept waiting weeks, months, or even years (sometimes forever) for the author to finish.

 

[Writer61]

FINISH THE STORY BEFORE YOU PUBLISH

I agree.

My second series was 9 parts over 15 months, which is not good. The rest were done in 2-3 months.

The other advantage of completing everything is that you can address any continuity errors.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I agree.

My second series was 9 parts over 15 months, which is not good. The rest were done in 2-3 months.

The other advantage of completing everything is that you can address any continuity errors.

PHhhffftttt....


Spaceballs was released in 1987.

Spaceballs 2 is scheduled for 2027.

 

[Writer61]

Spaceballs was released in 1987.

Spaceballs 2 is scheduled for 2027.

If you can write such good material ...

 

[Nowackosplease2]

If you can write such good material ...

May the Schwartz be with you.

 

[fannyfun]

When you "went chapter by chapter," did you write the whole thing and then publish it in parts, or did you write parts after other parts had already been published?

Do you think that this decision could affect the quality of the total finished story?

I've only ever written chapter by chapter, so I'm never quite sure where the story will take me.

And I think I'm hesitating to submit a longer story because so much gets flagged as being AI generated and it's already crushing with short chapters. But there are least I could pivot in the rewrites.

Thanks everyone for all your comments!!

 

[RocketGrunt]

I've read long stories (it gets tedious, unless there are breaks within the story) and chapter stories (which can be easier to digest). If you do the latter please, for the sake of anything you hold dear, FINISH THE STORY BEFORE YOU PUBLISH. There is almost nothing worse than somebody that has a good go with chapter one but doesn't have chapter two finished yet. Readers don't like to be kept waiting weeks, months, or even years (sometimes forever) for the author to finish.

Strong disagree.

I have three serials posting on Literotica. Two of them are over 200k words of material now. The third one was intended as a one-shot and got expanded to a serial after dozens of people asked me to expand the story via comments and email.

Literotica is a great place to publish serial fiction. People check in regularly and read material as it comes out.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

PHhhffftttt....


Spaceballs was released in 1987.

Spaceballs 2 is scheduled for 2027.

Completely irrelevant to this discussion

With Spaceballs (and similar) you are talking about an unplanned sequel to a finished piece of work, not the continuation of one, even if that's the way that they structure the sequel in some instances.

The OP was referring to "chapters" and not "episodes". The two are not the same.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

And I think I'm hesitating to submit a longer story because so much gets flagged as being AI generated and it's already crushing with short chapters. But there are least I could pivot in the rewrites.

There have been instances where individual chapters of a story have been rejected for AI but others passed. When all the same chapters got combined and submitted as a whole instead of pieces, there was no rejection of the larger work.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Strong disagree.

I have three serials posting on Literotica. Two of them are over 200k words of material now. The third one was intended as a one-shot and got expanded to a serial after dozens of people asked me to expand the story via comments and email.

Literotica is a great place to publish serial fiction. People check in regularly and read material as it comes out.

Once more, the difference is between "episodes" and "chapters".

I just published my 7th episode in a series that has been ongoing for 6 years. No complaints because each is its own stand-alone complete story that simply shares a common theme with the other episodes in that series.

That is different than publishing chapters of a larger work that rely upon each other to build the plot, develop the characters, and flow seamlessly towards a conclusion. It is a challenge to publish individual chapters without creating "seams" that readers will object to. It can be done, but should it? That is the OP's question.

 

[KachinaDoll]

By 'chapters' I assume you mean published in multiple parts. As a reader I prefer one long story spread over multiple pages. Multiple parts are fine if published in quick succession but there's nothing worse than long gaps between publication meaning the reader has forgotten what happened in the previous parts. If I have to leave a story part way through I just leave it open on a tab.