Need direction on my longest story to date

javawarrior

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Sep 2, 2011
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Hey All,

I'm reposting this from another thread, since it was advised that it would be more appropriate here...

I have not posted anything in almost two years, but I've just finished the longest story I've ever written. The document is over 200 pages. I really don't know the best way to publish it on here. Do people normally just publish it under "Novel" or do they release it in chapters? And how long do chapters usually last?

If I don't publish it as a Novel, I also have to figure out what genre to post it in. It has exhibitionism and voyeurism galore, but also same sex stuff, group sex, and perhaps most importantly, some incest.

What do fans usually prefer? What do authors find most useful and successful?

Thanks!

-JW
 
Hey All,

I'm reposting this from another thread, since it was advised that it would be more appropriate here...

I have not posted anything in almost two years, but I've just finished the longest story I've ever written. The document is over 200 pages. I really don't know the best way to publish it on here. Do people normally just publish it under "Novel" or do they release it in chapters? And how long do chapters usually last?

If I don't publish it as a Novel, I also have to figure out what genre to post it in. It has exhibitionism and voyeurism galore, but also same sex stuff, group sex, and perhaps most importantly, some incest.

What do fans usually prefer? What do authors find most useful and successful?

Thanks!

-JW

Forgive the question, but is that 200 Lit pages or simple sheets of typing paper ?
Post it as separate chapters (numbered 01 - whatever )
 
Yes, "pages" means nothing ("Lit pages does, has that has a known length of about 3,750 words/Lit. page). Deal with word count, which nearly every computer word processing program will provide you.
 
Handley and sr71plt are right.

There is no standard page length except for a Lit page as shown on a story. 200 pages could be in 14 point and double spaced. At 10 point and single spaced the same story could be 80 pages.

If you divide the total word count by 3750 that gives an approximation of how many Lit pages. Anything over six Lit pages could go in Novels and Novellas but some writers have put much longer stories in an appropriate category.

Whether you post it as chapters or parts or as a whole depends on how the story has been written. If there are no obvious breaks then I suggest it should be posted as a complete story. If you have chapters or parts each of them should have a beginning, development and an ending that leads on to the next part which should have a beginning...

Breaking a long story up into parts if it wasn't written as parts can be a pain and counterproductive if the breaks aren't already clear.

BUT - if you are covering multiple categories including Incest then Novels/Novellas is probably better whether the story is one whole or a number of parts. You might need a warning at the start that Incest features. Some readers don't like Incest.
 
Hey All,

I'm reposting this from another thread, since it was advised that it would be more appropriate here...

I have not posted anything in almost two years, but I've just finished the longest story I've ever written. The document is over 200 pages. I really don't know the best way to publish it on here. Do people normally just publish it under "Novel" or do they release it in chapters? And how long do chapters usually last?

If I don't publish it as a Novel, I also have to figure out what genre to post it in. It has exhibitionism and voyeurism galore, but also same sex stuff, group sex, and perhaps most importantly, some incest.

What do fans usually prefer? What do authors find most useful and successful?

Thanks!

-JW

I posted a 202 Word for Windows page, 24 Literotica page, 86,200 word story in the Valentine's Day contest, I Love You, Need You & Want You, Ma.

It's a good story that's loaded with incestuous sex and, more importantly to me, it's a believable story.

The story is doing well but not as well as I hope it would.

Normally with a story that long, I break it up into chapter but I decided to post it as one story to see what would happen.

Perhaps instead of posting it here, you should see if you can publish it somewhere as an e-book.

Good luck with your story.



 
I'll have to look at the word count when I get home. There are natural breaks in the story, though, because I figured it would need to be split up.
 
I'll have to look at the word count when I get home. There are natural breaks in the story, though, because I figured it would need to be split up.

My story had natural breaks too. I numbered as if they were chapters. Instead of posting the story in 10 chapters, I posted it as one.
 
To respond to one of your questions, whether it's posted in chapters or not isn't a consideration for the Novel category. It's done both ways there. A more relevant question is whether it has more than one significant category it covers. Covering several categories is the primary consideration for putting it in Novels rather than a specific category. You indicate it covers enough categories that, yes, it might be best in Novel. And if it would take more than a couple of hours to read the whole thing, I'd probably post it in smaller chunks to serve the reader better.
 
Based on the feedback here, it definitely looks like I should post it in Novels, and post it as chapters. It is 94,666 words, which is 25 Literotica pages, according the the math mentioned. So how many chapters? Four would be convenient, but I could find other natural breaks in the story if need be...
 
So how many chapters? Four would be convenient, but I could find other natural breaks in the story if need be...

I'd go with the logical breaks within the writing, there are no set rules.

When you submit, name as below, and submit a couple of days or a week apart - that way Laurel will know you have a series, will sort out the chapter links when the chapters are published, and your exposure on the New Stories page will be maximised.

The greatest yarn Ch.01
The greatest yarn Ch.02
The greatest yarn Ch.03

That way, if you have 11 chapters or more, your chapters stay in numerical order 09, 10, 11 ....
 
25,000-word chunks would be seven Lit. pages. Maybe it's just me, but I'd be more likely to start reading something that's in three Lit. page chunks than seven.
 
25,000-word chunks would be seven Lit. pages. Maybe it's just me, but I'd be more likely to start reading something that's in three Lit. page chunks than seven.

The first chapter would indeed be the shortest. ;)

Also... is it possible to name each chapter, or no?
 
The first chapter would indeed be the shortest. ;)

Also... is it possible to name each chapter, or no?

Yes, as long as you keep the fixed part of the title short, like this:

Story Pt. 01 The Beginning
Story Pt. 02 They Meet

There is a character limit on the Title Box. You can add more in the sub-title but the Title is what usually attracts (or repels) the readers.
 
25,000-word chunks would be seven Lit. pages. Maybe it's just me, but I'd be more likely to start reading something that's in three Lit. page chunks than seven.

Me, too, but maybe that's because I'm of the generation that did not grow up reading things on screen. More than three Lit pages and you've lost me. In fact, I'm quite pleased when page 3 turns out to be a short one. I've never yet looked at a novel on here.

Maybe it's just the way stories are laid out on Lit - long pages that demand a lot of scrolling set in a font that's not designed for easy reading. I don't seem to have the same problem with Kindle or Google books which replicate hard copy books or are designed to look like them.

I don't mind reading a story that appears in multi-chapter form but I've noticed that, with my own multi-chapter stories, the views are dropping off considerably by chapter 4 or 5. I don't think I'd bother writing a Lit story these days that was longer than 3 or 4 chapters - 9 to 12 Lit pages in total or roughly 40,000 words.
 
With me it's more of a time required to read that chunk. The basic definition of a short story is "a story that can be read in one sitting." The technology revolution and the accelerated pace of modern life has brought that time period down, not expanded it--as can be seen in the contracting of the average number of words of short stories in magazines. I don't want to invest more an a half hour to a story or a chapter at a time.
 
No advice, just adding my voice to the shorter length issue. I will pass on anything over 5 pages and prefer 3 or 4 max.
 
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I understand on passing up stories that are longer than like 5 Lit pages. I do the same thing. I've always been a slower reader. But this is why I'm like a fish out of water, having written a long-ass story! I've never written anything non-erotic that was this long, and lord knows I've been trying!

This thread was very helpful, though. I will post it in Novels in chapters. Probably four or five of them.

Thanks you guys! I'll post the first chapter here when it's done...

-JW
 
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