First time submitter

[Elayne_Hawke]

So I did my first story submission yesterday and I'm curious about something. I submitted the first five chapters at once, my question is this. Is it better to do one chapter at a time or group it? It's going to be a pretty long story so I'm curious about the best way of posting my story. Please help, thank you.

I realize I probably should have asked this before I submitted my first chapters lol. Oh well, better late than never.

 

[Bamagan]

So I did my first story submission yesterday and I'm curious about something. I submitted the first five chapters at once, my question is this. Is it better to do one chapter at a time or group it? It's going to be a pretty long story so I'm curious about the best way of posting my story. Please help, thank you.

I realize I probably should have asked this before I submitted my first chapters lol. Oh well, better late than never.

Better with respect to what goal(s)? More chapters means more visibility and an increased chance of casual readers taking a chance on your story, liking it, and earning you a follower, but a wider net means more bycatch and a higher likelihood of finding someone who hates what you wrote (and ergo lower scores). Some readers don't like short works or multi-chapter stuff, though, and may pass over it in favor of completed stories or longer works. Either way, a few may take the time to complain about your choice or downvote to discourage similar choices in the future.
Ultimately, I think your reception will be more determined by the quality of your writing and how well your story serves the desires (or kinks) of the audience you're primarily offering it to (by category choice) than by your posting strategy. If the story is good enough, many people who prefer long vs. short or whatever will overcome their preferences in order to read it.

 

[KeithD]

You stand a good chance of having a chapter rejected for one reason or another, especially when you are new to the site. Thus, I think it's probably best to submit them one at a time and not submit the next one until the one before it has successfully posted.

 

[Elayne_Hawke]

So basically it's just wait and see how the readers react. Thank you so much for answering Bamagan, and the advice

 

[ElectricBlue]

So I did my first story submission yesterday and I'm curious about something. I submitted the first five chapters at once, my question is this. Is it better to do one chapter at a time or group it? It's going to be a pretty long story so I'm curious about the best way of posting my story. Please help, thank you.

I realize I probably should have asked this before I submitted my first chapters lol. Oh well, better late than never.

I suggest you trawl through the last few pages of the AH, looking for similarly titled threads This comes up all the time, at least once a month.

There's no "best way", each approach has pros and cons, there's no right or wrong. Many writers insist on one over the other, but just as many publish using both methods, and with equal success (to the extent that you can measure that). You'll figure it out, to suit your own approach to writing.

Plenty of threads on this .

 

[EmilyMiller]

First time submitter​

Welcome and there is no real formula. So many random factors. But equally see various other threads on this subject.

This is one from last Tuesday…

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/series-versus-a-single-long-story-advice-needed.1604653/

Emily

 

[Elayne_Hawke]

You stand a good chance of having a chapter rejected for one reason or another, especially when you are new to the site. Thus, I think it's probably best to submit them one at a time and not submit the next one until the one before it has successfully posted.

Yeah, that's been running through my head also, if that happens then I'll break my story down, (keeps my fingers crossed I don't get rejected lol)

 

[Elayne_Hawke]

Welcome and there is no real formula. So many random factors. But equally see various other threads on this subject.

This is one from last Tuesday…

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/series-versus-a-single-long-story-advice-needed.1604653/

Emily

Thank you for the link. I did a quick search for first time but nothing came up so I made one.


Thank you everyone, I greatly appreciate the responses and advice.

 

[AchtungNight]

I have had success both ways. Rendezvous was a multi chapter story submitted all at once. Thankfully they all got in. Passion had multiple episodes and each was submitted when complete.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Thank you for the link. I did a quick search for first time but nothing came up so I made one.


Thank you everyone, I greatly appreciate the responses and advice.

It’s a different experience posting chapters to a long story. But some of it depends on your goals. As you are starting out, chapters will give you more exposure over a longer time.

Emily

 

[32aa]

I agree with the others... that posting chapters in a long, or semi-long, story will give you more exposure.

Another advantage, is if a reader's comment sparks something that you may want to change in the 'finished' but 'unposted' chapters you can. That has happened to me occasionally.

Just a thought.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I saw in one of threads, some time ago, what I thought was a solid, good, reason to space the publish date of your chapters out.

What someone pointed out, is that if you have a long story (say 10 chapters), and you space them a week apart, then for 10 weeks you'll always be in view on the "New Stories" page. If you release all 10 at once, you'll get a week on the new stories page.

That made a lot of sense to me.

 

[Elayne_Hawke]

Much appreciated, thank you.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

So I did my first story submission yesterday and I'm curious about something. I submitted the first five chapters at once, my question is this. Is it better to do one chapter at a time or group it? It's going to be a pretty long story so I'm curious about the best way of posting my story. Please help, thank you.

I realize I probably should have asked this before I submitted my first chapters lol. Oh well, better late than never.

When you say that you submitted "the first five chapters at once", it isn't clear whether you submitted them individually, one after another, or grouped the five chapters into a single submission. Both are viable options, with different advice and opinions on them. I can only offer you mine.

I write predominantly longer stories, averaging around 97K words in single submissions (my longest here is 81 pages). These are my stand-alone chapter stories and different than my series stories that I post individually as much shorter submissions (averaging 3-4 Lit pages).

My first advice, regardless of anything else, is finish the story before posting any part of it. This allows you to maintain the best control over your work and the flexibility to change things that you notice later in the writing process.

My second piece of advice is related to how you submit your story, and that is to "focus on the long-haul". Once your story has been posted in its entirety for even just a couple of weeks, how you submitted it becomes a moot point for the readers. Its all there for them to read or not read as they chose. It no longer matters if the chapters were submitted all at once or drawn out over weeks.

The last advice I can offer is for you to consider the category that you story best fits into. Novels/Novellas is a category where readers expect to find longer stories and they are more tolerant of them. This is not usually the case with categories favored by readers seeking quick sexual arousal and satisfaction.

Good luck

 

[AwkwardlySet]

A Dragon Age themed story... That is an interesting idea. Do you intend to weave your story through the events of Dragon Age 1, 2, and 3? Or you just intend to use the characters and the world and tell a completely different story?