Chapter 2 and beyond.

[Altissimus]

I have 5 series amongst my works.

In 4 of them, the 'page views' (which we know aren't reads) drops by approx 66% from 'Chapter 1' to 'Chapter 2', and by approx 20% after Chapter 2, holding roughly steady thereafter.

In other words, a third of the people who read chapter 1 go on to chapter 2, and 80% of those who read chapter 2 finish the series.

Is this typical of your experience with your own series (where you've written them)?

Do cliff-hangar endings improve the on-going engagement?

Any tips on increasing these percentages, or is what I've described above pretty commonplace for Lit?

 

[alohadave]

This is typical. It happens pretty much everywhere too. The second installment/chapter/book/season/whatever will show similar falloff.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Sounds normal. A later chapter with an exciting title or different category may get more views than a preceding one, though.

 

[Bramblethorn]

That's a fairly typical pattern, though the exact numbers will vary a bit. One reason for the drop-off is simply that newer chapters haven't had as long to get views, so I find it helpful to plot the view count vs. the age of the story ("days since posted") to help gauge how much is reader drop-out vs. age.

Looking at my two series, all view counts relative to Chapter 1:

"A Stringed Instrument" (14 chapters, posted over slightly over 12 months): drops to 57% on Chapter 2, from there gradually declines to a low of 28% at Chapter 11, then starts climbing again with 31%, 49%, 62% for the last three chapters. So Chapter 14 actually has more views than Chapter 2!

My best guess is that part of this is due to content: Chapter 11 is relatively grim and unsexy, Chapter 12 is where the relationship hits the rocks, Chapters 13-14 are where the two lovebirds sort their shit out and move towards their Happy Ever After. People are probably more inclined to reread the happy-ending parts than the sad parts.

Probably for related reasons, the last couple of chapters scored quite highly and bounced in and out of the category top-25 list, which comes with a noticeable uptick in views - apparently some folk are quite happy to dive into a series at Chapter 13 if it has a good rating?

Here's how the view counts look for each chapter of that story, plotted against time since they went up.


"Anjali's Red Scarf" (12 chapters, posted over slightly more than 3 years): drops to 56% Chapter 2, gradually decreasing to a low of 19% on Chapter 9, a blip of 37% on Chapter 10, then 20% on chapter 11, 42% on Chapter 12.

This is a more recent series and it took a lot longer, so the "days since posted" effects are bigger here. For instance, Chapter 11 has about 20% fewer views than Chapter 6, but from the graph below, it's actually following almost the exact same trajectory - just that Chapter 6 is a year further along that trajectory. Allowing for that effect, it looks like the last chapter has about 73% as many views as Chapter 1 did at the same age.

Chapter 12 scored pretty highly - I guess people liked the ending despite my best efforts to upset the apple-cart - which probably accounts for why it's doing so much better than the middle chapters.

Chapter 10 was just trundling along on the same trajectory as the other middle-late chapters, and then it won an annual contest, which is the bit on the graph below where that purple line suddenly breaks away. For some reason Chapter 4 also got a noticeable boost here. I'm not sure why; the only thing I can think of is that I blurbed that one "what does the red scarf mean?" so maybe people who'd just launched straight into Chapter 10 and got confused thought they might find answers there? IDK.

 

[SimonDoom]

These are typical numbers, and I would recommend not spending any time fretting about them or trying to figure out how to improve them. They reflect the inescapable reality of reader attrition: not everybody who reads chapter 1 will like it, and those that don't won't read chapter 2. I think Literotica authors underestimate just how significant attrition is. The percentage of people who actually read your story all the way through, among those who "view" it, is probably quite low.

The OP asked about cliffhanger endings. If you want to maintain reader engagement, I think it's more important to give them a satisfactory experience with the chapter than to leave them hanging. In erotic stories, in particular, "leave them hanging" is not a good strategy.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I found the same thing. Every one of my chapter stories, the readers drop off.

For my story, 'Finally' Chapter 1 has 71,600 views, scored 4.70, Chapter 2 has 19,000 views, scored 4.82, Chapter 3 has 15, 500 views, scored 4.81. And the final Chapter 4, has 12,200 views, scored 4.88.
The same thing with 'One Look', Chapter 1 has 34,000 views, scored 4.81, and by the final Chapter 6, the views are only 5,300, scored 4.88.

Doesn't seem to matter if the readers enjoyed the story, I notice the views always drop off on subsequent chapters.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The OP asked about cliffhanger endings. If you want to maintain reader engagement, I think it's more important to give them a satisfactory experience with the chapter than to leave them hanging. In erotic stories, in particular, "leave them hanging" is not a good strategy.

I'd agree. I generally aim to give each chapter a satisfying arc of its own (while still contributing to the overall series arc), and as far as I can tell my click-through rates are fairly good as these things go here.

I'd also note that the final chapters in both my series have done really well on views - better even than the second chapters, allowing for time effects - which suggests that a lot of readers wanted nothing more than for them to end appreciate getting some kind of resolution.

 

[Djmac1031]

Nothing wrong with series per say; I've written a few of my own and of course have read several great ones.

The truth of them though is even if the first chapter kicks ass and amounts massive views and votes, there's no guarantee readers stick around to finish it.

My series The Jenna Arrangement is currently at part 27.

I have what I call a small but loyal readership for it, and I'm happy to have them.

But yeah the number drop offs from earlier chapters is quite substantial.

I'm probably going to wind it down at chapter 30. It can't go on forever, why wear it out?

There are readers who enjoy a good series, but the fact is most readers here pop in to read a single story that catches their attention then move on.

 

[Djmac1031]

The fun part of a series is when you do capture that new reader.

Been watching a reader work their way through the Jenna series in real time the past two days, adding chapters to Favorites as he goes.

He's currently on part 11 so I'm assuming he's all in at this point lol.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'd also note that the final chapters in both my series have done really well on views - better even than the second chapters, allowing for time effects - which suggests that a lot of readers wanted nothing more than for them to end appreciate getting some kind of resolution.

This is one of those interesting Literotica statistics that invite theories, but I don't have the data-crunching skills to know the answer.

I have two multiple-chapter series. In both, the final chapter did significantly better than the chapter that came before it, although not nearly as well as the first chapter. I can't quite ascribe it to the "happy ending" theory, because one of the two series is one that I just abandoned for six year. There was no final ending.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I have 5 series amongst my works.

In 4 of them, the 'page views' (which we know aren't reads) drops by approx 66% from 'Chapter 1' to 'Chapter 2', and by approx 20% after Chapter 2, holding roughly steady thereafter.

In other words, a third of the people who read chapter 1 go on to chapter 2, and 80% of those who read chapter 2 finish the series.

Is this typical of your experience with your own series (where you've written them)?

Do cliff-hangar endings improve the on-going engagement?

Any tips on increasing these percentages, or is what I've described above pretty commonplace for Lit?

I don't see the drop-off in any of my series stories, but I do see it in my chapter stories. This is one of the reasons that I stopped submitting chapters individually and now only post single submissions of the entire completed work. My views per day stats for a single submission story are at least twice as high compared to any part of a chapter story.

 

[Altissimus]

This is one of those interesting Literotica statistics that invite theories, but I don't have the data-crunching skills to know the answer.

I have two multiple-chapter series. In both, the final chapter did significantly better than the chapter that came before it, although not nearly as well as the first chapter. I can't quite ascribe it to the "happy ending" theory, because one of the two series is one that I just abandoned for six year. There was no final ending.

Some people like knowing how something ends before they start it. A bit like how one might record England play rugby and then delete it, unwatched, if they lose.

I hear that people do such things. Other people, not me.