Publish Long(ish) Story In One Piece, Or In 3 parts?

[Haulover]

I've just completed a +33,000 word story.

I wrote it in three parts. Each of the 3 parts has a slightly different focus.

Question:

Is it likely to have more success on LitE if I submit it as one story, or would it be better to submit it as three separate, fairly short parts?

Or ... does it make any difference..?

Thanks in advance for your insights.

 

[8letters]

What category?

 

[Blind_Justice]

I've made the mistake of chopping a 50k-word story into four bits. The first part gets routinely criticized for having no arc (doh!). Trust in your writing and your readers' endurance and post it in one piece.

Depending on who you ask, a Lit story with less than 3 pages is trash anyway

 

[HandsInTheDark]

In multiple parts, the score tends to go up with each chapter, because people who didn't like it stop reading subsequent pieces. But once you get above a certain number of pages, probably 5-6, you get the same effect from a single long story. Only a complete psycho is going to read through 8 pages and then drop a 2 on a story.

In the end it doesn't really matter- chasing scores isn't all that meaningful. Posting it all at once is easier.

If you post several chapters all at once, Laurel tends to spread them out; one goes up each day. That can annoy readers.

 

[Haulover]

What category?

Incest / Taboo.

It could just as easily go into Loving Wives, but it involves an actual loving wife, which I suspect doesn't suit the LW readership.

 

[rawsilk]

Depending on who you ask, a Lit story with less than 3 pages is trash anyway

That's harsh!

 

[Blind_Justice]

That's harsh!

Not my opinion, mind you, just something I picked up around these parts.

 

[AverageGary]

Might be best to post it as one Longish story with notations / Chapter headings put in where each part begins/ends.

When I asked a similar question on the Editors' Forum, about a 50k+ word story that is presently being edited, the general consensus was that Chapters can get lost when posting separately or people might not want to wait for the next chapter. By giving it to them all at once, it makes for smoother reading, and allows the followers to see the whole story without needing to search for previous parts / chapters.

 

[Hypoxia]

If it's a contest entry, post it as a single piece. Otherwise, assuming it's a quality piece, if in separate parts, expect subsequent parts to get a higher score but fewer views, as those who don't like it turn away. What is your goal -- votes or eyeballs?

 

[8letters]

"MY European Summer Vacation" is almost 32K and it did well in Incest - 74 comments, over 2100 votes. No one complained about the length. I have another story about the same size that did well. I'd publish it as one story.

 

[ChloeTzang]

If it's a contest entry, post it as a single piece. Otherwise, assuming it's a quality piece, if in separate parts, expect subsequent parts to get a higher score but fewer views, as those who don't like it turn away. What is your goal -- votes or eyeballs?

My experience has been that views drop from the second chapter on. Also, 33k words is ok in one piece. I tend to split them at around 35k words.

 

[Haulover]

"MY European Summer Vacation" is almost 32K and it did well in Incest - 74 comments, over 2100 votes. No one complained about the length. I have another story about the same size that did well. I'd publish it as one story.

It was a very good story, and I didn't think it was too long.

 

[Haulover]

Seems I have my answer.

Many thanks!