Chapters vs Standalone

Not another iteration of the never-ending debate between which scores better.

I am 25K words deep in a story. My best guess is by the time I finish, it will be in the 35K - 40K word range (11 pages). The category as of now is Romance (for want of a better option).

My main query is whether to post it as a single installment or break it into 2 chapters. My train of thought is as below.

Pros (chapters)

Larger target for readers. Someone might see chapter 2 and want to check out the story from chapter 1. This is especially effective if chapter 2 is posted just as chapter 1 drops off the hub New Stories section, maximizing exposure for both. 2 chapters together basically have the same odds of grabbing eyeballs as 1.

Cons

The story structure would be 8-9 pages which are basically non-erotic and the good stuff only in the last 2 pages. It's necessary that the sex be the culmination of everything that has come before and having some of it beforehand would dilute the effect I am going for. 11 pages in a single story is pushing reader preference (apart from Sci Fi, an 11 page story there is flash fiction).

Thus chapter 1 would basically be a non-erotic story with an epic amount of violence and the payoff would be in the next chapter. Would that win or lose readers?

What is your take?

My take? I think if the first chapter is epic violence - and non-erotic - the chances of readers returning for a bit of titillation in chapter two are likely to be limited. But ... but ... but ... you never can tell with Lit readers.

One long story in Romance would do okay.

What's the point of one long chapter and one short one? All that will do is torment you by actually showing you the drop-off (which is always there) in views between Chap 1 and Chap 2. Whereas if it's a long stand-alone, you'll never know, and be content.

Now, if you've got a third chapter, THAT will tell you how many are actually reading it all.

I'd post as one long story. Romance folk like a good read.

According to 8letters' analysis, stories of 9-11 pages receive the highest vote scores.

electricblue66 said:

One long story in Romance would do okay.

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I'd post as one long story. Romance folk like a good read.

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I agree.

I post as chapters only when there are natural breaking points in the story line and at least something erotic in each part. This is an erotic site after all, and while I'm sure there are many readers who are willing to "struggle" through several pages of build-up, I expect many will be disappointed if they find they have to wait for the next chapter to get the reward.

Romance readers are fine with longer stories. I agree with the comments that, by your description, readers might find the second chapter a sort of bait and switch. I'd submit it all as one story.

tomlitilia said:

I post as chapters only when there are natural breaking points in the story line and at least something erotic in each part. This is an erotic site after all, and while I'm sure there are many readers who are willing to "struggle" through several pages of build-up, I expect many will be disappointed if they find they have to wait for the next chapter to get the reward.

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Thank you for this. I am working on a story and trying not to overdo the slow build, though I believe - if done right - it enhances the climax. My assumption is that most Lit readers are not into deferred gratification. I want to provide context and pretext , but maybe that's just to satisfy my own perfectionist tendencies. I'm always looking for a balance.

A slow build can be sexy, too. Characters can recall prior fucks or be aroused to fantasize.

I have included multiple chapters in a long piece. Such chapters, organic divisions within the story like acts in a play, can be any length.

As mentioned, long Romance tales can do well.

Because of the way you have described the story, it sounds much more suited for submission as a single standalone story than as two chapters. I think publishing as a single story is the better default rule, and that a good reason should exist to publish it in chapters. If the erotic payoff doesn't occur until the end, then readers of chapter 1 will be frustrated and disappointed and will abandon your story before they get to chapter 2.

My vote is for chapters. Sure a single stand alone is great, but once it disappears from the headlines - it’s gone. Posting a story in chapters and spacing the chapters out by, say, a month or so manages to keep the readers engaged as well as pick up new readers. Personally, that is very attractive for me posting stories and I will never consider posting a stand alone story on this site.
That’s me, though. Kant

Kantarii said:

My vote is for chapters. Sure a single stand alone is great, but once it disappears from the headlines - it’s gone. Posting a story in chapters and spacing the chapters out by, say, a month or so manages to keep the readers engaged as well as pick up new readers. Personally, that is very attractive for me posting stories and I will never consider posting a stand alone story on this site.
That’s me, though. Kant

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I don't get the reasoning about picking up readers. There's a significant falloff in readership from one chapter to the next over the first few chapters. That's a near-universal thing here. Plus, people are more likely to read a standalone story than one that has "Chapter 1" in its title. You can tell that by looking at the most-viewed story lists -- almost all are standalone stories.

Spacing out a story by issuing it in chapters may get some eyeballs on it that would not have seen it otherwise, but the evidence seems pretty strong that you lose more than you gain.

SimonDoom said:

I don't get the reasoning about picking up readers. There's a significant falloff in readership from one chapter to the next over the first few chapters. That's a near-universal thing here. Plus, people are more likely to read a standalone story than one that has "Chapter 1" in its title. You can tell that by looking at the most-viewed story lists -- almost all are standalone stories.

Spacing out a story by issuing it in chapters may get some eyeballs on it that would not have seen it otherwise, but the evidence seems pretty strong that you lose more than you gain.

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I look at one of my popular series and see I lost 90% of readership between chapters 1 and 5 -- 55% between 1 and 2. Multi-chapter series seem to only draw dedicated fans. My most-read and highest-voted pieces are standalones.

From the way you describe the story it makes more sense to post it as a standalone, imo. As far as would two chapters bring in more total individual readers it would be hard to say. What if chapter two brought in some readers who missed when the first chapter was up versus those who read the first part but due to the structure decided to take a pass on further reading. Also to break a single story into two parts needs a place in the story where a natural break makes sense.

Hypoxia said:

I look at one of my popular series and see I lost 90% of readership between chapters 1 and 5 -- 55% between 1 and 2. Multi-chapter series seem to only draw dedicated fans. My most-read and highest-voted pieces are standalones.

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Your experience is the norm. It's common to see a dropoff of 30 to 60% in views from chapter 1 to chapter 2, to see further drop off after that, and to see views stabilize more if the story has many chapters. I have an 8 chapter series that finished last February, so that leaves plenty of time for any reader that wanted to to get through the whole thing. Chapter 8 has less than 25% of the views of Chapter 1. And it's not just views, it's votes too, that drop off, making it clear that by the end of the chapter series most of the original readers have been lost.

I looked at Kantarii's chapter stories, and they all follow the same pattern. It's the same for everyone.

The main reasons to publish a story in chapters, IMO, are:

1. You want to publish something and you're not done with the whole story (but beware of pissing off readers if you never finish).
2. It's long (I'd say longer than 7 Lit pages or so) AND the story:
a) Easily can be broken into discrete chapters,
b) Each of which provides some sort of erotic or dramatic payoff that will appeal to the readers of
the story's category.
3) You want to get the highest score you can for a chapter, regardless of the number of readers you lose.

I'm learning that posting as chapers in the LW category leads to lower scores in later chapters. It gets less normal readers, but the devoted haters can't stay away. You'd think they would avoid the second chapter of a story they hated the first chapter of. But weirdly no. Unless of course they secretly loved the first one and only tried to convince themselves they didn't by hate-commenting and one-bombing...

We return to author motivation. Why the fuck bother to post on LIT?

* Because we can.
* For personal psychotherapy.
* To win votes and faves i.e. brownie points.
* To reach eyeballs and affect people.
* To provoke readers.

If our goal is reaching readers, chapters are not the best strategy.

I sometimes opt for the chapter scenario, but I think it is because I personally do not enjoy reading for long stretches of time on a computer screen. In fact, I have more than once just quit reading a decent story out of fatigue. Thus, I guess I'm assuming others do the same thing...obviously not true based on the many great stories of many pages.

As to the issue of "views" and "ratings": It's been said above that the views drop off with each chapter, which is true. it's also been said it's better to have higher views, etc...and it's better to not have to endure the pain of knowing who dropped out part way through a multi page story. I offer this; It seems to me that it's actually better to have accurate data. In fact, it would be wonderful to know at what paragraph I lost them...what better critique could one get to help correct writing mistakes?

Anyway, both ways seem to work out pretty good. The one suggestion I follow on chapter stories is to have every chapter finished, edited and submitted in one chunk. So in a sense, I don't publish a phased in chapter style story, but a full length finished piece.

ETA: I also let the reader know in the Introduction that the story is complete, submitted and will be posted over the next few days. I assume this would mitigate the number who turn back for fear of a dead-end story. (however, something I forgot to put in my most recent one - duh )