Has anyone here submitted a long story...

[curious2c]

In one submission. I'm talking about a multi-chapter novel length story. I have found that in the past, submitting chapter by chapter has sent the voting all over the place, and the feedback as well. I have been thinking that perhaps the thing to do is submit the whole finished work as one submission, one story, instead of each chapter at a time.

So...that said...Has anyone here submitted a multi-chapter story here at lit...and what do you think?

 

[Madame Manga]

I have a long story in Novels and Novelettes. I submitted all the chapters at once, but Laurel will post only one item per day when you make multiple submissions. Your readers will have to wait between parts.

MM

 

[oggbashan]

I have submitted longer works as one unit. Although there were chapters in some, I did not split them up.

Result: Less votes and less feedback because readers did not get to Lit page 5 to vote or comment.

An example is "Harold Plays The Hero" about 20,000 words. Only just passed the 10 votes required to feature in the scoring. After 8 months!

You either split the submission up into chapters and accept that some chapters will get lower ratings or submit as a whole and perhaps get NO ratings and NO feedback. Your choice.

I have decided to split into separate submissions in future but I can't do that with works already in progress because the split has to be built into the plot structure from the start.

Og

 

[dr_mabeuse]

We just had a little discussion about this on another thread. Here's what I said:


If you're writing a long, multi-episode story, you have the choice of publishing the episodes separately as chapters, or publishing them all together as a novella or very long story. If you publish them as chapters, it's a good idea to make them as much like stand-alone stories as you can. I've done both, and in my experience novellas get fewer reads. but higher scores.

I cut my long stories into 2-4 Lit page chapters now and publish them as chapters. I think they're more attractive to readers that way, and you get more feedback while you're working. It would be pretty horrible to write a huge story only to find out that no one can get through Chapter 1.

---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

Another thought also...

I wondered about that group Novels and Novellas... is it erotic, non-erotic or hodge podge?

If you submit all the chapters in the same day or sections in the same day what in the sam hill do you do if say chapter 7 of 12 is rejected?

Personally... I would post them probably under the category that they are in. I am working on a story that could probably go under novella but I am worried about it not being accepted there because in each 'section' there are different Lit story groups represented.

Example... chapter one I believe is romance however chapter two is group sex...

So for stories that are truly different groupings do you submit them as a novella? Do you post them in their respective categories? Do you submit the entire story all as one thing and hope people read it?

Oh the questions....

Always,
Elizabetht

Iwoso & the Sheik {Anal}
Jim Takes Control {BDSM}
Standing in the Corner {BDSM}
I Now Pronounce You... {Group Sex}
Kaitherine's Graduation Day {Incest/Taboo}
Kaitherine's Graduation Day Ch. 02 {Incest/Taboo}
Letter to My Lover {Letters & Transcripts}
Gordon's New Wife {NonConsent/Reluctance}
David {Non-Erotic Poetry}

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

I have two stories in Novels and Novellas -

Rhiana is 36,000 words, a lesbian BDSM story that is not split into chapters because I did not feel at the time that the story flow required it to be. Voting was slow to start with but once it reached 10 votes and got an H it soon picked up. It still gets the odd read / feedback every now and then.

The Fallen is 63,000 words, an erotic sci-fi story that is split into chapters but posted as one story because it would not make sense if it isn't read in the right order, and all my hard work at plot development would have been for nothing. That said, it gets few reads, fewer votes, and no feedback at all, although this may be because it doesn't lean towards 'erotica' like most of the stories here. I don't think many people would 'stroke' to it.

In future I intend to keep my erotic stories to around 30,000 words if at all possible, and by necessity keep a heavy dose of erotica in the first few pages. Without that, many potential readers will back-click.

ax

 

[Dirt Man]

When I write a book I send it to the publisher, when I write a short story with an erotic intent I post it here, or somewhere else online. One I get paid for, the other I do for free.

As Always
I Am the
Dirt man

 

[Dirty Slut]

Originally posted by Dirt Man
When I write a book I send it to the publisher, when I write a short story with an erotic intent I post it here, or somewhere else online. One I get paid for, the other I do for free.

As Always
I Am the
Dirt man

Makes sense to me. I've read a few of your stories here at Lit DM, and I must say, I'm very impressed at your work. Maybe you could PM me, and tell me what name you write under in your published work so that I can purchase them.

DM

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

I don't have anything really long on Lit.
(As opposed to off-Lit, where my longest work is over
130,000 words.) I posted one work in 3 separate parts
because I didn't want the page breaks where the software
would put them. I don't see the votes on the three parts
as wildly different, but the drop-off in reads is
disappointing. "Problems of Utilitarianism."
What you would do with a multi-chapter story in which the
various chapers belong in different categories is a puzzle.
If I didn't read, for example, non-consent stories, and I
began a story posted in Romance, I would feel betrayed if
the third chapter were posted in Non-Consent.
It seems to me that the *story* is about something. That
would be the category in which I would post all the
chapters.

 

[flawed_ethics]

Re: Another thought also...

...
If you submit all the chapters in the same day or sections in the same day what in the sam hill do you do if say chapter 7 of 12 is rejected?

I appended a note to Laurel on the Submission form that if there was a problem with one chapter in aprticular, to put it on hold while I edited out the questionable content (as it were - she kindly e-mailed me saying she found nothing wrong with it).

Personally... I would post them probably under the category that they are in. I am working on a story that could probably go under novella but I am worried about it not being accepted there because in each 'section' there are different Lit story groups represented.

Example... chapter one I believe is romance however chapter two is group sex...

So for stories that are truly different groupings do you submit them as a novella? Do you post them in their respective categories? Do you submit the entire story all as one thing and hope people read it?

Mine also had a number of categories the chapters could've fallen into. The last chapter isn't even erotic - and I submitted it as such - but laurel ended up categorizing them under the primary theme of the story. You could ask her to do otherwise, but then you risk confusing the readers - as you said.

Also, it does help voting if you break the chapters up. My first chapter is sub-4, but every chapter thereafter is past, if not on the cusp of, that naughty little H. Apparently, those who tuned in late were very much delighted.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Another thought also...

I wondered about that group Novels and Novellas... is it erotic, non-erotic or hodge podge?

...
So for stories that are truly different groupings do you submit them as a novella? Do you post them in their respective categories? Do you submit the entire story all as one thing and hope people read it?

The novels and novellas category is a "hodgepodge" category that was created to solve the problem of chapters that are spread out over many categories being hard to find.

It's also a category for Complete novels. You can't submit "The Great American Novel Chapter One" and get it put into the Novels and novelas category although you can get it moved there when you post "chapter one thousand four hundred and three: the epilogue."