Newbie question - how to create chapters

[Sin]

Looking to merge 3 stories I already submitted into a 3 part series so new readers can see it's a 3 chapter story as well so they can start at the first one and get some more background. Looked at the FAQ and some other writers resources here this morning, also tried to search the forum, but must be looking for the wrong term terminology or maybe I'm just to lazy but:

How do you submit a multi-part/serie/chaptered story on Literotica?

Thanks a lot for your help on this noob question.

Cheers,

Sin

[Bramblethorn]

Originally Posted by Sin

Looking to merge 3 stories I already submitted into a 3 part series so new readers can see it's a 3 chapter story as well so they can start at the first one and get some more background. Looked at the FAQ and some other writers resources here this morning, also tried to search the forum, but must be looking for the wrong term terminology or maybe I'm just to lazy but:

How do you submit a multi-part/serie/chaptered story on Literotica?

Thanks a lot for your help on this noob question.

Cheers,

Sin

Title the chapters: Blah Blah Ch. 01, Blah Blah Ch. 02, etc. and they will automatically be linked as a multi-part story.

[Sin]

Thanks for the quick reaction.

The title above these chapters on your submissions page will be generated automatically like: Blah Blah: 3 Part Series?

Is there any reason why this wouldn't be in the FAQ by the way, maybe as a discouragement to write stories in these chapters?

[PennLady]

Originally Posted by Sin

Thanks for the quick reaction.

The title above these chapters on your submissions page will be generated automatically like: Blah Blah: 3 Part Series?

Is there any reason why this wouldn't be in the FAQ by the way, maybe as a discouragement to write stories in these chapters?

Yes, they will. Here's my submission page, which has two or three multi-part stories on them. Once you have more than one chapter, it shows up as "2 part series," "3 part series," etc.

The FAQ, as far as I know, is fairly old and hasn't been updated any too recently. I don't think it's discouragement for chapter stories, and if it is, it hasn't worked. There are TONS of chapter stories on this site.

[Sin]

Wow very fancy, directly re-submitted my stories, so hope everything goes alright. Thanks for your help!

[i_would]

Originally Posted by Sin

Looking to merge 3 stories I already submitted into a 3 part series so new readers can see it's a 3 chapter story as well so they can start at the first one and get some more background. Looked at the FAQ and some other writers resources here this morning, also tried to search the forum, but must be looking for the wrong term terminology or maybe I'm just to lazy but:

How do you submit a multi-part/serie/chaptered story on Literotica?

As others pointed out, just add Ch.01, Ch.02 to your title and TPTB will take care of the rest. If you much later submit a Ch.03, it will be correctly added, and the line "x-part story" will be updated, too. So you don't have to submit all at the same time (but personally I hate it when stories are posted incomplete... and never receive further chapters...)

Something to keep in mind is that you do not have to post them all in the same category. Some chapters of a story may simply belong in another category than others. This is also used by authors to increase exposure to their story - many readers browse a few categories only, depending on their preferences.

And finally in another thread I have seen the recommendation of chopping long stories in bite-sized chunks of around three Literotica pages, or around 3,500 words. The rationale being that many people may not read a story when they see it's like 15 pages long, but would take on a 3-page chapter (and if they like it, check out the rest).

[Sin]

Originally Posted by i_would

As others pointed out, just add Ch.01, Ch.02 to your title and TPTB will take care of the rest. If you much later submit a Ch.03, it will be correctly added, and the line "x-part story" will be updated, too. So you don't have to submit all at the same time (but personally I hate it when stories are posted incomplete... and never receive further chapters...)

Great got that, in this case it's a multiple chapter story about the same characters but about events that take place years apart from each other but in similar settings. So I think the chapter functionality would be perfect for this since otherwise I have to keep re-introducing all the characters again and again.

Originally Posted by i_would

Something to keep in mind is that you do not have to post them all in the same category. Some chapters of a story may simply belong in another category than others. This is also used by authors to increase exposure to their story - many readers browse a few categories only, depending on their preferences.

Great tip there, thanks!

Originally Posted by i_would

And finally in another thread I have seen the recommendation of chopping long stories in bite-sized chunks of around three Literotica pages, or around 3,500 words. The rationale being that many people may not read a story when they see it's like 15 pages long, but would take on a 3-page chapter (and if they like it, check out the rest).

Thanks, 3-page chapters could be the sweet spot here indeed, no pun intended.

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by i_would

And finally in another thread I have seen the recommendation of chopping long stories in bite-sized chunks of around three Literotica pages, or around 3,500 words.

Three Literotica pages is more like 11,500 words.

[i_would]

Originally Posted by sr71plt

Three Literotica pages is more like 11,500 words.

Oops, I stand corrected. Just took a random story and counted just over 3,600 words on one page indeed.

[Sin]

Just a follow-up question, I requested a change to the titles of 2 stories to make them a 2 part story. One title change went perfect, though the 2nd part is now totally gone from my overview page and isn't available either on the old or the new url publicly. Any idea who to contact about this? Already submitted it as a bug report and sent a comment message though the Literotica member page contact form.

[Bramblethorn]

Originally Posted by Sin

Just a follow-up question, I requested a change to the titles of 2 stories to make them a 2 part story. One title change went perfect, though the 2nd part is now totally gone from my overview page and isn't available either on the old or the new url publicly. Any idea who to contact about this? Already submitted it as a bug report and sent a comment message though the Literotica member page contact form.

Send a PM to Laurel and/or Manu.

[Caroline Covington]

Is it possible to have a series in which all the chapters have different titles?

e.g

Mexican Bedtime Stories:4 part series
The Mexican Stand-off Ch 01
Sugar Papito Ch 02
The Three Amigos Ch 03
The Whole Enchilada Ch 04


?

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by Caroline Covington

Is it possible to have a series in which all the chapters have different titles?

e.g

Mexican Bedtime Stories:4 part series
The Mexican Stand-off Ch 01
Sugar Papito Ch 02
The Three Amigos Ch 03
The Whole Enchilada Ch 04


?

I doubt it. How would the submissions editor know--or look for that--in the hundred or so stories she processes each day?

[Bramblethorn]

Originally Posted by Caroline Covington

Is it possible to have a series in which all the chapters have different titles?

e.g

Mexican Bedtime Stories:4 part series
The Mexican Stand-off Ch 01
Sugar Papito Ch 02
The Three Amigos Ch 03
The Whole Enchilada Ch 04


?

Not as you've described it (at least, not without manual intervention from the mods). I believe it may be possible to do something like this:

Mexican Bedtime Stories Ch 01: Mexican Stand-off
Mexican Bedtime Stories Ch 02: Sugar Papito
...etc

But I haven't tested that myself; it's based on a hazy memory of something someone else posted. It also means long titles with less space for description.

[elfin_odalisque]

Originally Posted by Caroline Covington

Is it possible to have a series in which all the chapters have different titles?

e.g

Mexican Bedtime Stories:4 part series
The Mexican Stand-off Ch 01
Sugar Papito Ch 02
The Three Amigos Ch 03
The Whole Enchilada Ch 04


?

Not easy but it doesn't matter. Few people join a chapter series after the first post unless they go back to ch.1 to catch up so I guess you are best served by putting your chapter subtitles in bold at the start of each post.

[Bramblethorn]

Originally Posted by elfin_odalisque

Not easy but it doesn't matter. Few people join a chapter series after the first post unless they go back to ch.1 to catch up so I guess you are best served by putting your chapter subtitles in bold at the start of each post.

FWIW, I started keeping a spreadsheet because I was curious about stuff like this. I've been posting a chapter series for just over a year, though I didn't start keeping stats until November 30.

In the week after a new chapter goes up, that chapter gets around 3k-10k views and 80-90 votes. View count seems to be heavily affected by placement on the 'New Stories' pages - sometimes the new chapter gets to sit in a nice prominent spot for hours, sometimes it gets buried under an avalanche of contest stories etc. Vote count is much less variable; perhaps the people who care enough to vote are making more effort to find stuff?

After that first week, when it falls off 'New Stories', views and votes slow to a trickle.

In a typical week, my first chapter gets about 100-200 views and one or two votes. But that bumps up to about 1000 views and 10 votes in the week after a new chapter goes live.

So there are people who see a new chapter and then go back to the start of the series. It's not spectacular, but with a lot of chapters it adds up.

[sr71plt]

I have two chaptered pieces now and in each a later chapter or two can have as much as twice the number of views and votes as the first chapter got. So, I'm having readers going for individual chapters and not following the chapters one by one. I don't think that's a good way to read a chaptered series, but it's happening.