Advice Required

[Wills]

Multi part story submission

I’ve completed eight parts of an ‘erotic coupling’ submission, it describes events in the lives of three people over ten day period. I’ve thought through the ending today so I can now complete the last two parts.

Ideally, I would like the story to be published on successive days, just as it is told. I’ve searched the guidelines FAQ’s but cannot find any guidance.

Assuming the story is accepted:

Should I request publication on successive days? Can that be done? Each day hangs together as a complete story.

Should I put it up all at once and let readers pick there way through it?

Should I put up one chapter and wait for reaction, possibly re-shaping the story to reader reaction? (Not keen)

I know there is some resistance to linked stories that readers think may stop half way, so I decided at the outset to complete the series before posting the first chapter, wish I’d known about NaNo before I started this one – could have worked it to fit.

Any advice will be welcome …except ‘bin it’.



Will’s

 

[KillerMuffin]

Upload them all at once. The editor does not post more than one in a series at a time. She'll post them in order on successive nights without having to be told. If they're related, usually it's best on the reader to call them "Title Ch. 01" "Title Ch. 02" etc. because of the way things are alphabetized.

Personally, I upload my series once a week or so because I'm mean, but many readers prefer once a night because they can get the full story more quickly.

 

[gauchecritic]

What Muffie said, trust me, she knows about these things.

Gauche

 

[thebullet]

Actually I tried that and got screwed. I posted about three chapters of a story named "Death By Fucking" at the same time (I think they were chapters 6, 7, and 8.) Chapters 7 & 8 were published several days before chapter 6 and I ended up looking like a smacked head. Anyone trying to follow the plot, such as it was, got totally lost because an important segment wasn't posted.

Looking back, Chapter 6 is the second lowest rated chapter. People just didn't read it, and by the time they did, it was kind of irrelevent.

Now I post one chapter at a time. I'm sure the editors have so many stories to worry about that it is easy for them to lose the thread of one particular story.

I pretty much post, wait for publication, then post the next chapter. Once burned, twice cautious.

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

I submitted a three-part story all at once. The parts
were posted a couple of days apart.

 

[thebullet]

I'm sure the majority of the time stories are posted in their proper sequence. I'm not complaining, but everyone makes mistakes. My story is one where a mistake was made.

In the future, I'll make sure that no mistake is possible by delaying the posting of new chapters until all previous chapters have been published.

 

[Weird Harold]

Should I request publication on successive days? Can that be done? Each day hangs together as a complete story.

Laurel is very good about working with authors to post multi-part stories to a schedule -- as long as the authors don't make things too difficult.

I would definitely put a note in the comments field of the submission form that each part is part of a series intended to be read on successive days. You might even manage to get monday's episode posted on a monday and the rest on the appropriate days of the week as well.

 

[Wills]

Dear KM, Gauche, Bullet, UP and WH

Thanks for the advice. Concensous seems to be to put it all up with clear instructions for Laurel.

Think i'll go with that, and trust Bullet's demons don't strike.

Thanks again.

Will's