Chapter Release Pacing

[HeyYoureThatGuy]

I understand this is another question that doesn't have one definitive answer, but I was wondering how authors on here have handled when they release chapters in a multi-part story.

Do you do it as soon as you finish them? Do you try to space it out? Throw darts at a wall calendar?

I'm working on a longer story that breaks out into chapters. I've got a rough outline from beginning to end, and I'm just wondering how it's played out for other people.

 

[NotWise]

I understand this is another question that doesn't have one definitive answer, but I was wondering how authors on here have handled when they release chapters in a multi-part story.

Do you do it as soon as you finish them? Do you try to space it out? Throw darts at a wall calendar?

I'm working on a longer story that breaks out into chapters. I've got a rough outline from beginning to end, and I'm just wondering how it's played out for other people.

I've done a couple of those, and I can't say it was successful.

I think your best route is to write the whole thing, then release chapters every two-four days.

 

[SimonDoom]

I understand this is another question that doesn't have one definitive answer, but I was wondering how authors on here have handled when they release chapters in a multi-part story.

Do you do it as soon as you finish them? Do you try to space it out? Throw darts at a wall calendar?

I'm working on a longer story that breaks out into chapters. I've got a rough outline from beginning to end, and I'm just wondering how it's played out for other people.

Before you answer this question, consider what category you will be publishing the story in. Then visit that category's new story hub page, and check the date of the oldest story on the hub page. Figure out how long your story/chapter is likely to remain on the hub page.

Why do this? Well, it seems to me that you want to maximize the exposure to your story, and there's no point in rushing the publication of chapter 2 if chapter 1 is going to continue to get visibility on the hub page. My general recommendation would be to submit each successive chapter at about the same time that you see the previous chapter getting published. You might accelerate that process if you are publishing in a category like Incest, where as many as 20 stories may get published in a single day and stories get pushed off the hub page within a day or so.

Although I break this rule routinely, some authors have recommended that you finish your story completely before publishing any chapters. I agree this is a good thing to do if it's practical. If you wait too long before publishing new chapters, you will lose readers and you'll see very significant attrition in story views. But if that doesn't work for you, don't sweat it. Just publish whenever you can. That's what I've done, and it's worked OK.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I’ve released each chapter as I finished them, and I have no doubt that it has cost me readers. I won’t be doing that with future series.

 

[KeithD]

I don't release any of it and until I've written it all. Then I submit the next chapter the day the previous chapter has posted. That way there's no problem if the previous one gets rejected or lost in the cracks. On the first chapter, I provide an author's note indicating how many chapters there are, declaring that the work is finished, and giving an approximate date when the last chapter will post. A mark "Fini" at the end of the last chapter. No surprises for the reader.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The "write the whole thing before posting" is probably a good idea for those who can achieve it, but for me that would mean sometimes going years between updates.

Instead, I post each chapter when the draft for the next one is complete. That gives me a little bit of space to go back and make tweaks to the previous chapter when something in the new chapter requires it, and it gives me motivation to keep going - as soon as I finish the draft, I can finally post the one I completed months ago.

 

[KeithD]

The "write the whole thing before posting" is probably a good idea for those who can achieve it, but for me that would mean sometimes going years between updates.

Huh? "Write the whole thing before posting" means there's no need for any more delay than you want between "updates." It's all there, completed, at the beginning, to post whenever you want to.

 

[MelissaBaby]

The "write the whole thing before posting" is probably a good idea for those who can achieve it, but for me that would mean sometimes going years between updates.

Instead, I post each chapter when the draft for the next one is complete. That gives me a little bit of space to go back and make tweaks to the previous chapter when something in the new chapter requires it, and it gives me motivation to keep going - as soon as I finish the draft, I can finally post the one I completed months ago.

If I had waited until I finished my current series before I published it, you'd wouldn't have heard from me, except one author's event story, for almost three years.

In future, I plan to release one offs as I work on my next major project.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I don't release any of it and until I've written it all. Then I submit the next chapter the day the previous chapter has posted. That way there's no problem if the previous one gets rejected or lost in the cracks. On the first chapter, I provide an author's note indicating how many chapters there are, declaring that the work is finished, and giving an approximate date when the last chapter will post. A mark "Fini" at the end of the last chapter. No surprises for the reader.

Generally a good idea to have the thing finished and posted in some reasonable time frame. I'm not sure of the exact timing - maybe a week to ten days between postings? I failed to do either on my first real series - I'm in the middle of it now - and probably that was a costly mistake.

I have seen some very extensive series that stretch out over long time periods. I haven't counted the number of chapters in some of them.

 

[Bramblethorn]

If I had waited until I finished my current series before I published it, you'd wouldn't have heard from me, except one author's event story, for almost three years.

Yep, and I need that reader feedback to reassure me I'm not wasting years of my writing time on something nobody wants to read.

In future, I plan to release one offs as I work on my next major project.

I've done this a little, but currently I find it hard to maintain focus so I've had to put my one-off side story on ice until I'm back into the groove with my serial.

 

[KeithD]

Generally a good idea to have the thing finished and posted in some reasonable time frame. I'm not sure of the exact timing - maybe a week to ten days between postings? I failed to do either on my first real series - I'm in the middle of it now - and probably that was a costly mistake.

I have seen some very extensive series that stretch out over long time periods. I haven't counted the number of chapters in some of them.

My stories generally post in two days, so I can estimate how long it will take a chaptered series to post.

My sr71plt account has a 21-chapter work that posted in 52 days.

I don't want my readers to lose continuity or to wonder if the work got dropped. I think that's a irresponsible way for an author to treat his/her readers.

 

[HeyYoureThatGuy]

My stories generally post in two days, so I can estimate how long it will take a chaptered series to post.

My sr71plt account has a 21-chapter work that posted in 52 days.

I don't want my readers to lose continuity or to wonder if the work got dropped. I think that's a irresponsible way for an author to treat his/her readers.

Like... things happen, but I've more than once been frustrated by the way some series never wrapped up. So I wouldn't want to do that to others.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

If I had waited until I finished my current series before I published it, you'd wouldn't have heard from me, except one author's event story, for almost three years.

In future, I plan to release one offs as I work on my next major project.

Oh gosh, I'm with you on holding back until it's all done. I'm about 2.5 chapters in to a story that will probably be between 15 and 20 chapters, and the fastest I can write it is probably a couple months per chapter.

All this advice makes sense, though. It just makes me sad that if I follow this good advice I'll be waiting so long to see what people think.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Having done both (release on the run and try to keep up vs write it all first and then release), for any long work I'd err on the side of the latter. It can take you out of circulation for a long time - my solution to that is shorter, stand-alone side projects. If you take yourself out of circulation too long, you definitely lose traction and market presence.

 

[KeithD]

Like... things happen, but I've more than once been frustrated by the way some series never wrapped up. So I wouldn't want to do that to others.

"Things happen" is a author's problem. Their regard for the reader goes one way or the other from there.

 

[HeyYoureThatGuy]

I really appreciate the community here answering all my noob questions.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna make sure I have the chapters at least mostly written and then shoot for keeping it on the front page of E&V. It's gonna be, at max, probably ten chapters. Might not take me too long. I'm in a groove [or a hypomanic phase] and getting a lot of writing done.

Thanks again. Y'all've been a big help.

 

[Handley_Page]

I understand this is another question that doesn't have one definitive answer, but I was wondering how authors on here have handled when they release chapters in a multi-part story.

Do you do it as soon as you finish them? Do you try to space it out? Throw darts at a wall calendar?

I'm working on a longer story that breaks out into chapters. I've got a rough outline from beginning to end, and I'm just wondering how it's played out for other people.

There's a few variables, here, I suspect.
Into which genre are you aiming ?
How big are the chapters ? (anything less that 7000 words each and
I suggest you load them both into a single item).

 

[ElectricBlue]

I really appreciate the community here answering all my noob questions.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna make sure I have the chapters at least mostly written and then shoot for keeping it on the front page of E&V. It's gonna be, at max, probably ten chapters. Might not take me too long. I'm in a groove [or a hypomanic phase] and getting a lot of writing done.

Thanks again. Y'all've been a big help.

Every time this comes up there's a bit of a consensus - there's a sweet spot in chapter length of 2 - 3 Lit pages (7500 - 11,500 words, thereabouts), but if your story is 20k - 30k words, often better as a single stand-alone submission. Longer than that, you're trading off your drafting convenience (big files are a hassle**) and reader convenience.

Chapter length and "long" story mean different things to different people, so it's useful to think of word count.

** That said, the single biggest submission I've seen was more than 80 Lit pages = quarter of a million words.

 

[bushyTrail]

Yep, and I need that reader feedback to reassure me I'm not wasting years of my writing time on something nobody wants to read.

That. But it does have its negative sides if you want to keep a certain pace.
I did the "write the whole thing first" for my first two stories, but only because I had written them before learning of the existence of this website. At any rate pacing the release so that you can have feedback is important also to make corrections on the way to the end.
For my third (He Made Me), I've decided to change the story completely and so I'm basically rewriting it from scratch and it's a pain to release chapters regularly. Not only because inspiration doesn't come on command, but also because shit happens IRL that prevents you from writing.

 

[SimonDoom]

Re the "Write a chapter at a time" v. the "write it all at once and then submit chapters close together" debate:

For me it's a practical question. I'm aware that if I take a long time to write the next chapter I may lose a lot of readers who give up on my story.

But I feel very little ethical obligation to finish the story first to be kind to readers. They have many alternative stories to read while they're waiting for my next chapter. Yes, it would be a bit more thoughtful to dole out the chapters close together, and this is something I think is worth keeping in mind, but if it's a moral obligation it's a very tiny one. The fact is that many, many authors at Literotica don't do it this way and readers are accustomed to it. There are many incomplete series I wish were completed, but I don't feel annoyed at authors who don't complete them. I realize this is all for free, I'm not paying anything, they're writing in their free time, and life gets in the way. So be it.

Against what I regard as a fairly minor consideration for readers is a much bigger consideration for the author: wanting to make a splash with a chapter and see how it's received before continuing the story. That's a perfectly legitimate consideration. The author also simply may not know where the story is going to go next. Plus, some series are episodic in nature, rather than having a single over-arching narrative arc. Each chapter stands alone in some way. So in such cases it's not true that the author is cheating the reader by not publishing.

So my advice to authors is they should keep in mind the practical downside of publishing chapters far apart, but they shouldn't feel guilty, as though they've wronged the Literotica readership.

 

[gunhilltrain]

My stories generally post in two days, so I can estimate how long it will take a chaptered series to post.

My sr71plt account has a 21-chapter work that posted in 52 days.

I don't want my readers to lose continuity or to wonder if the work got dropped. I think that's a irresponsible way for an author to treat his/her readers.

That brings up the question of whether there is an ideal length for a series in general. With twenty-one chapters it's probably close to being a novel. Bonfire of the Vanities was originally twenty-seven chapters in Rolling Stone. I'd have to confirm this, but I think issues came out every two weeks.

Can you imagine Infinite Jest in installments? Well, Dickens did installments, but probably readers had more patience in those days and fewer entertainment distractions.

I probably don't have the patience or inclination to write really long works. I foresee a series being maybe ten chapters at most. The opposite issue is that there is always a possibility for sequels to come along. Should those be an extension of the series, a whole new series, or stand-alone works?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I probably don't have the patience or inclination to write really long works. I foresee a series being maybe ten chapters at most. The opposite issue is that there is always a possibility for sequels to come along. Should those be an extension of the series, a whole new series, or stand-alone works?

Sequels - continued chapter numbering doesn't always work - readers will assume they need to read the first part. I've used alphabet sub-titles to show a thematic link for a sequel, eg: The Floating World - The Madelyn Chapters, then continued chapter numbering. That seemed to work okay, within the limits of the (too short) chapter title field length.

 

[TheStoryTeller2342]

I treat writing here like how I wish people would write TV shows. I finish the damn thing, release weekly until done.

No one likes to see a TV show get cancelled without a conclusion, and absolutely no one would tolerate a TV show that released episodes at random intervals.

 

[SolarRay]

Many readers don't like chapters spaced far apart -- earlier on I probably lost some readers doing that, but they were still well-received. If you do write it all up front, you can submit all the chapters at once and Laurel will space them out for you. I did this with my recent series, they rolled out one-a-day, and it went fine. The tradeoff is that you can get all the posting done in one go and be done, but you'll have to do it manually if you want to space them out more than that.

 

[KeithD]

That brings up the question of whether there is an ideal length for a series in general.

No, I don't think so.