Breaking & Reposting as a Series

[PierceDe]

Alright! As a newb I posted a full novel on literotica. I've gotten good feedback on it, but the consistent criticism has been that it's way too long as a single post; 31 literotica pages at 107k words. One comment was to the point "who would read this, it's too big!" and now I must agree.

I'd love to post it as a series, broken into 5k word sections, posting them in order every few days, but I do NOT want it getting flagged or held up as a repost. Really, it'd be quite right to delete the big megalith so it's not a duplicate.

Admins? Authors? What ought be done?

Thank You,
Pierce

 

[EmilyMiller]

Alright! As a newb I posted a full novel on literotica. I've gotten good feedback on it, but the consistent criticism has been that it's way too long as a single post; 31 literotica pages at 107k words. One comment was to the point "who would read this, it's too big!" and now I must agree.

I'd love to post it as a series, broken into 5k word sections, posting them in order every few days, but I do NOT want it getting flagged or held up as a repost. Really, it'd be quite right to delete the big megalith so it's not a duplicate.

Admins? Authors? What ought be done?

Thank You,
Pierce

You need to delete the original and then repost the series.

I’ve done it the other way around twice - made a series into a novella that is.

You lose the comments / ratings etc.

 

[Bamagan]

Alright! As a newb I posted a full novel on literotica. I've gotten good feedback on it, but the consistent criticism has been that it's way too long as a single post; 31 literotica pages at 107k words. One comment was to the point "who would read this, it's too big!" and now I must agree.

I'd love to post it as a series, broken into 5k word sections, posting them in order every few days, but I do NOT want it getting flagged or held up as a repost. Really, it'd be quite right to delete the big megalith so it's not a duplicate.

Admins? Authors? What ought be done?

Thank You,
Pierce

It's probably not worth worrying about, at least for your current story. Some readers just don't have the desire for lengthy works, no matter how they're presented. Publishing serially does tend to illustrate that tendency, as the views for subsequent chapters typically decline, often by 50% or so per chapter, until they reach a kind of baseline of views that is probably a lot closer to actual reads than the clicks on earlier chapters. Although we can't see views on individual pages of lengthier works, the same trend would probably be seen there, after allowing for the fact that some readers do want a long story to sink their teeth into.

Maybe consider trying it the other way if you release another long work.

 

[GinnyPPC]

I would suggest that you put a note on your page or as an author's note at the beginning of the story stating it is fully written and will be X number of parts. You could go so far as saying that I will submit each part every Friday or whatever schedule you intend to keep.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

You've got your feedback and such. If you take it down, all the reactions go with them and you start over. The only reason to take it down and republish id to get a 'prettier' reaction and look more impressive.

It doesn't matter if you post in chapters or in one long piece. Some prefer one way and others prefer the other. The story is out there. My advice is to just leave it. You can't please everyone. Someone else would prefer it differently but they aren't writing it. You are. You wrote it and were happy with it. If you want to change it over some minor criticism, then that just shows you that you are writing to please the audience vs writing to tell your story more than you think that you do.

If this leaves you unsure as to whether posting as one story or as chapters works better, then perhaps make your next long story chaptered for a new experience. Then you can compare the two experiences and improve your presentation decisions in the long run.

 

[IWroteThis]

Let me start with a question. Did you break the story up internally with clearly stated chapters and recognizable scene breaks? I ask because you mentioned breaking it into 5K chunks rather than posting individual chapters.

If you didn't, a lot of the complaints are probably really about it being a single slog moreso than just being about the length. In that case, breaking it into a series to provide a bit of separation might help it. You could also go back to the original, add in chapter and scene breaks, then submit it as an edit to replace the existing text without losing comments and ratings. Be prepared to wait for it to happen though, especially with a work that big. Even if you decide to break it up and post it as a series, I would still recommend going in and adding chapter and scene breaks rather than posting arbitrary 5K chunks.

If you did provide proper breaks in the original story, re-posting as a series is the only way to address those complaints. You just have to decide if losing the historical feedback is worth what you might get in new feedback.

If you do decide to turn it into a series, I would wait until the Pending forever issue is resolved. Having standalone stories appear out of order is no big deal. Having a series appear in random order isn't going to win you any friends. Since it's already available in the full version, waiting a bit shouldn't be a big deal. Plus, it will give you time to look at it again, but with more experienced eyes. Doing another clean-up edit is rarely a bad thing.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

You need to delete the original and then repost the series.

I’ve done it the other way around twice - made a series into a novella that is.

You lose the comments / ratings etc.

It works better if you submit all the replacement files for publication with a note to the admin (Laurel) asking her to delete the original file when the others start posting.

You are correct about losing all votes and comments.

 

[PierceDe]

If you did provide proper breaks in the original story, re-posting as a series is the only way to address those complaints. You just have to decide if losing the historical feedback is worth what you might get in new feedback.

If you do decide to turn it into a series, I would wait until the Pending forever issue is resolved. Having standalone stories appear out of order is no big deal. Having a series appear in random order isn't going to win you any friends. Since it's already available in the full version, waiting a bit shouldn't be a big deal. Plus, it will give you time to look at it again, but with more experienced eyes. Doing another clean-up edit is rarely a bad thing.

Right, it is broken into scenes very clearly.

Folks seem to want it in smaller bites though.

Is there a pending issue right now?

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I have eleven novels posted here. The four highlighted were originally posted in chapters, or parts containing multiple chapters.

Apparently, unlike the OP, the overwhelming feedback that I received from readers was that they wanted the stories posted as single, longer submissions. Once I did that, the scores all increase by at least 0.10 and I have never received any feedback about them or any other stories being too long.

 

[PierceDe]

I have eleven novels posted here. The four highlighted were originally posted in chapters, or parts containing multiple chapters.

Apparently, unlike the OP, the overwhelming feedback that I received from readers was that they wanted the stories posted as single, longer submissions. Once I did that, the scores all increase by at least 0.10 and I have never received any feedback about them or any other stories being too long.

View attachment 2571696

That's fantastic!

The second comment I got was "108,000 words, no previous stories, and worst of all NO TAGS...and you think people will waste a day reading this????"

And from another..

"My only true criticism is that it is a very long read, published on the site as a single piece, and not broken into chapters or parts; it's too much to take all at once."

And some others to that point in another thread.

 

[IWroteThis]

worst of all NO TAGS

That's another thing that can be resolved by submitting an EDITED update.

Is there a pending issue right now?

Yes. There are a lot of threads here and in Lit Tech Support talking about how long stories have been sitting in Pending. I just gave up last night and resubmitted a story that has been stuck in Pending since 9/21.

 

[PierceDe]

That's another thing that can be resolved by submitting an EDITED update.


Yes. There are a lot of threads here and in Lit Tech Support talking about how long stories have been sitting in Pending. I just gave up last night and resubmitted a story that has been stuck in Pending since 9/21.

I really think no tags/bad tags is hurting me. I've had a fella point out my tags don't fit the story and another suggest my short story belonged to a whole other kink than I'd tagged it.

I requested a tag edit, but it sat for so long.. I cleared it. I'm not tapping my foot over it, though.. especially given ALL my story submissions were cleared and posted within 48 hours of submission (which has been great).

The other kick to nuts I need to consider is my stuff isn't made for everybody, comments have ranged from pure praise to pure wtf.. and I suppose the only remedy there is to build my peculiar readership with patience.

Thanks for your insight.

 

[Bamagan]

I really think no tags/bad tags is hurting me. I've had a fella point out my tags don't fit the story and another suggest my short story belonged to a whole other kink than I'd tagged it.

I requested a tag edit, but it sat for so long.. I cleared it. I'm not tapping my foot over it, though.. especially given ALL my story submissions were cleared and posted within 48 hours of submission (which has been great).

The other kick to nuts I need to consider is my stuff isn't made for everybody, comments have ranged from pure praise to pure wtf.. and I suppose the only remedy there is to build my peculiar readership with patience.

Thanks for your insight.

Yes, tags are pretty important, at least for the longevity of a story. They're one of the better ways for readers to search the library of older stories for content they might enjoy, and they presumably are at least part of the equation for the 'similar stories' suggestions. Picking good tags is probably more art than science, and there are differing schools of thought on what the best practices are, but leaving them empty undoubtedly makes your story harder to find once it's gone from the 'New' lists.
If you do a tag edit, it might help to mention that fact in the 'Notes to Admin' section when you put in the edit request; specifically, that you made no changes to the text of the story. Title and tag changes have usually gotten approved fairly quickly compared to other edits, since it doesn't involve going back over the story to make sure it's still compliant with the site's rules.