Starting again

[jmm999]

Apart from Lit's 25th anniversary, I haven't published anything for some months. But what I have done is pick through every story previously published, and improve them all.

I was disappointed at the number of mistakes and misunderstandings I'd made - I forgive myself for the typos. Some now have 1,000+ words added. Another couple of months and I think I will have 'rejuvenated' all of them. And added some new ones.

My question is: How long should I wait before resubmitting them? Till next summer? A year? Basically, how long before there is sufficient fresh blood here for my stories to attract, say, 50% new readers.

I'm sure some authors have done something similar. Anybody got advice?

John
Edited by mod: e-mail addresses not allowed in posts

 

[gunhilltrain]

Apart from Lit's 25th anniversary, I haven't published anything for some months. But what I have done is pick through every story previously published, and improve them all.

I was disappointed at the number of mistakes and misunderstandings I'd made - I forgive myself for the typos. Some now have 1,000+ words added. Another couple of months and I think I will have 'rejuvenated' all of them. And added some new ones.

My question is: How long should I wait before resubmitting them? Till next summer? A year? Basically, how long before there is sufficient fresh blood here for my stories to attract, say, 50% new readers.

I'm sure some authors have done something similar. Anybody got advice?

John
Edited by mod: e-mail addresses not allowed in posts

I don't worry too much about that. I have a few revised stories on other sites and a few on this one. Usually it takes me six moths to a year to figure out what I want to do differently, but sometimes it takes longer. I never wonder about how many new readers I'm going to get. My impression is that most readers are so distracted and have such short attention spans that they may never notice what has changed. I just post the stories when I have them ready.

 

[Euphony]

Some categories churn exponentially faster than others.

If you have made significant changes to materially alter the story, republishing shouldn't ruffle too many (and you can use the author's note if you're really worried)

If it's mere typos, I never champion full republishing that. (where it can seem like a new story) Some will say they use the process as learning/educational fuel but I believe mistakes you need to address you will almost certainly repeat and you always want to be working towards new creativities b/c of their inherent new challenges and benefits. (many beyond just another submission line on your author page)

 

[ElectricBlue]

By "resubmitting" do you mean submitting edited versions, or deleting existing stories and starting over with new versions?

If the former, nobody will know but you, so that's a bit of a vanity gesture. If the latter, those who have read them before might get a bit snarky, saying, "Wait, I've already read this," but more to the point, you'll be starting from scratch with the same stories.

My suggestion would be to leave the existing stories as they are, and put your energy into writing new ones. That way you have more stories, not just a bunch of re-hashed old ones.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

By "resubmitting" do you mean submitting edited versions, or deleting existing stories and starting over with new versions?

If the former, nobody will know but you, so that's a bit of a vanity gesture. If the latter, those who have read them before might get a bit snarky, saying, "Wait, I've already read this," but more to the point, you'll be starting from scratch with the same stories.

My suggestion would be to leave the existing stories as they are, and put your energy into writing new ones. That way you have more stories, not just a bunch of re-hashed old ones.

My experience is not exactly the same as the OP, but maybe it will be helpful...

I had four complete stories in the Novels/Novellas category that were originally submitted in chapters/parts, one more than nine years ago. All the parts were published so even though readers could read all the chapters one after another, I was still getting feedback that they preferred single, longer stories.

Last summer, I submitted the single file for each of these stories and asked Laurel to replace the chapters/parts. She advised me that the stories would no longer be eligible for contests, and that all comments and scores from the chapters/parts would be lost to me. I was fine with all that, so she made the changes for me.

Other than combining everything for each story together into single posts, there were no changes or edits made to the stories. The titles, descriptions and tags remained the same so there was no confusion for readers. Each story had its original red H back within hours and as of today, each has a rating at least .05 higher than the average score for the chaptered version.