Help with Creating a Series

[Fatdog25]

I'm working on a multi-part story and I have a question about the optimal use of the Series feature.

Is it better to submit the series info first and then publish the first story after the series has been approved or would it be better to publish the first section, create the series info, and wait for approval before adding the subsequent sections as they are published?

Which way creates less confusion for either Laurel or myself? I tried searching for an answer to this particular question but managed to not find one. If it has been asked and answered recently, mea maxima culpa and please provide a link. I'll do the rest .

 

[Bamagan]

Since there is an automatic series builder when you give stories chaptered names, that's probably the minimum effort/least confusing option. I don't know if that's truly optimum, but it's reasonably efficient. I am honestly not sure how much traffic the series pages get, so putting anything there aside from the story links might not matter much.

 

[alohadave]

Is it better to submit the series info first and then publish the first story after the series has been approved or would it be better to publish the first section, create the series info, and wait for approval before adding the subsequent sections as they are published?

For the manual option, you have to have at least the first chapter uploaded and posted before you can create the series.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Since there is an automatic series builder when you give stories chaptered names, that's probably the minimum effort/least confusing option. I don't know if that's truly optimum, but it's reasonably efficient. I am honestly not sure how much traffic the series pages get, so putting anything there aside from the story links might not matter much.

The nice thing is you can put artwork on the series page, which you can’t on stories.

Well it’s nice if you have a friend who can draw (thanks @djrip as always ).

Em

 

[MillieDynamite]

Do you mean like this one?

The nice thing is you can put artwork on the series page, which you can’t on stories.

Well it’s nice if you have a friend who can draw (thanks @djrip as always ).

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

Do you mean like this one?


View attachment 2284997

That’s a cool cover

Em

 

[MillieDynamite]

Thank you, I'll let my cover creator know she's appreciated for her work.

That’s a cool cover

Em

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm working on a multi-part story and I have a question about the optimal use of the Series feature.

Is it better to submit the series info first and then publish the first story after the series has been approved or would it be better to publish the first section, create the series info, and wait for approval before adding the subsequent sections as they are published?

Which way creates less confusion for either Laurel or myself? I tried searching for an answer to this particular question but managed to not find one. If it has been asked and answered recently, mea maxima culpa and please provide a link. I'll do the rest .

The Series feature runs automatically if you title chapters like this:

Story Title Ch.01
Story Title Ch.02
Story Title Ch.03

or like this:

Story Title - Annie
Story Title - Belinda
Story Title - Charley

That's the simplest way: a software algorithm runs regularly, and as soon as a second chapter gets published, the chapter joining up starts to happen with no human intervention.

Or you can do it manually using the Series feature, but you need at least two parts published for it to make any sense. The advantage here is a thumbnail cover can be loaded, and you can add an over-arching blurb.

 

[Fatdog25]

A heartfelt "Thank You!" for the responses.

I'm not sure when the upload page changed and the absence of the series check box confused me. I'm now unconfused .

 

[Gamblnluck]

How do you know it needs to be a multi-chapter 'series' until you write it? I have written a few that I knew were going to be long. One was 35+ chapters averaging 10k words. I started the story not sure I would not find an ending after a few chapters. I added Ch. 1 to the first. Use the same title with only the number changing. A few authors write a series with varying titles which makes it hard to follow the sequence. You can always go back and write a Chapter 0 and in the description write 'prologue' if you feel you need to write a longer explanation before the story. I did that as well with a series that was written in the same 'universe' as my longer series. In fact, I dove-tailed the 2 series to use some of the same characters.

 

[yukonnights]

I think Electric Blue's response covers the process. I've published quite a few Chapter style stories and the one piece of advice I'd add is; Write all of the story chapters to a complete story — then you know the story is complete to your satisfaction. A Chapter style story that ends up incomplete can ruin a story's rating and such. But all that said, I've had good responses on my chapter-style works.

The chapter style enables readers to take up story on in small bites rather than try to keep tabs on where they're at in a one-shot story that may be a long read, etc.