Interval between chapter postings

[NaokoSmith]

I'm posting the chapters from a novel I already have written out in full. Any advice on the best time intervals at which to do so? I was thinking I'd put up a chapter per week. Is it better to put up chapters more frequently?

I'm looking for comments and feedback more than for votes.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm posting the chapters from a novel I already have written out in full. Any advice on the best time intervals at which to do so? I was thinking I'd put up a chapter per week. Is it better to put up chapters more frequently?

I'm looking for comments and feedback more than for votes.

You can:

1. Submit them all at once, and Laurel will usually issue them in consecutive days, or

2. Submit them in consecutive days yourself.

But a week? Lit readers expect instant *gratification* or whatever they call it.

They abuse oggbashan because he sometimes takes years or a decade to finish a story...

 

[NaokoSmith]

You can:

1. Submit them all at once, and Laurel will usually issue them in consecutive days, or

2. Submit them in consecutive days yourself.

But a week? Lit readers expect instant *gratification* or whatever they call it.

They abuse oggbashan because he sometimes takes years or a decade to finish a story...

Even abuse would be interesting! Romance readers are so shy, I'm not getting a single comment although quite nice votes.

I do feel totally at home now, though, as I have been 1-bombed already! My poor little chapters, they only had a couple of votes as it was, so one sunk instantly from a 4.5 to a 4. Never mind, it will all come out in the wash. (Now that I finally have my new washing machine plumbed in.)

Thank you, Ogg.

 

[sr71plt]

I submit the next one on the day the prior one posts to the site.

 

[lovecraft68]

Just tossing this out there.

I wouldn't submit until the prior one posts.

Why? because what if one is rejected for some reason-and let's face it stories have been rejected by mistake quite often- now chapter two is rejected and while you're trying to get it straightened out...

Chapter three posts and things get screwed up.

At this point its a pretty consistent two day posting time so submit, two days later when it posts submit the next one, they'll be out every couple of days that way and you are avoiding the issue I mentioned.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I submit the next one on the day the prior one posts to the site.

That seems like a sensible plan. Do you find readers like that time interval - a bit longer than every day and less than a week?

Part of my issue also is that I have Piglet around, and stupidly I taught the kid to read. That was OK when I had a tiny netbook but now I have this super big screen laptop lit up like a strippers' stage at an army base. Piglet goes to her Dad once a week, so I figured I could post on the evening she is with him. She goes alternate weekends too; I could post a chapter most weekends. And I can manage more often if I shout and swear at her not to sneak up and read over my shoulder, LOL, but once a week is easiest for me. I just wonder if it's not so good for readers.

 

[sr71plt]

That seems like a sensible plan. Do you find readers like that time interval - a bit longer than every day and less than a week?

I don't really have anything to compare it to. I tell them on the first chapter how many chapters there are and an end date by which it should all be posted. Then there's no question either that it's completed or that it will be dragged out.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

How many chapters is the story? Do you want to spoil you readers or let them marinate for awhile as they anticipate the next installment? How long are your chapters?

I don't have much experience with very long pieces, but it seems to me that if your chapters are 3 Lit. pages or less, you might want to upload them in shorter intervals, say 2-4 days between submissions. Longer, I might go a week to a month in between.

I don't read or write romance, but I have some familiarity with longer stories in Noncon. There, a few stories have gone over 20 chapters with submissions roughly a month a part. Comments on those stories are numerous, fan anticipation borders on fervor, and there is very little fall off in readership views between chapters. But that's a different audience than romance.

 

[CyranoJ]

There's plenty of online content that publishes weekly, so the one chapter per week formula sounds sensible to me. What's supposed to be most ideal is if you can pick a specific day and then publish with clockwork regularity on that day, but I don't expect that kind of certainty is possible with Lit's submissions format.

It might be good to let readers know up front that yes, this the posting of an already-complete larger work; might make some difference to reader "buy-in" as I expect a lot of people steer clear of multiple chapter stories if they don't have confidence in their being continued on any regular basis, or their being eventually completed.

 

[sr71plt]

I try not to play teasing games or have uncertainty with the readers. It's all there as soon as I can be assured it will be there in order. They can read it on their own preferred schedule.

 

[DG Hear]

I usually submit a chapter a day, but I like the suggestion of submitting a chapter when the previous one is posted. Makes good sense to me.

 

[SandraMustard]

There is no measurement to prove the advantage of any release interval. Even every second-third day will run counter to some readers who only visit on weekends. You will get readers who for what ever reason discover your story several chapters in because they only read from the New Story category and miss the beginning submissions by chance.

Do all your chapters fit into the same category? There are readers who only stay in their fetish zone. My recent submission is the sixth chapter of a series, coming six months after the first five came out spaced every few days. It needed to go into a new category. The first day it was up, each of the first five chapters saw a 25% increase in votes. Thus it found a whole new group of readers. Still, there were readers who send Feedback messages that suggested they did not connect the earlier chapters to the same characters.

You won't please everybody so spreading out to hit the New list and your category just as the last one falls off your category first page is the best ploy, in my opinion. That interval could be one day or one week depending on the category. I have a month old story that is still number four on the How To first page but that is certainly atypical.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Guys, thank you all for these helpful replies. I can see that different audiences may prefer different time intervals, and TBH, I imagine the romance readers probably like a chapter a day to curl up with every night. However it seems that posting even a month apart will not put readers off - good news. I think I will stick with the weekly programme, as that suits me.

I thought my chapters were quite long, but I have edited the book very hard and they are coming up at 2 or 3 pages. There are about 30 of them.

I put a note on the Prologue to assure readers that the chapters are all written and will all be posted.

I am posting them in Novels and Novellas. I could have put them all in Fantasy and SciFi, but I saw that there are fantasy romance novels doing reasonably well in N&N, so I went for that category.

I was hoping for comments from hardcore fantasy romance fans, not really bothered by votes, as I have had the novels up on Smash and Amazon a while but they haven't taken off. (Unlike my werewolf story which had the luck to be given one star by a reader and described as 'depraved filth', - never stopped downloading since!) I'm just getting some nice votes at the moment, not very many of those. However I can see readers are going back to a prequel story I mentioned in the blurb to the Prologue and downloading that as well as continuing to download the chapters, so I suppose the story must be OK! Maybe there will be comments later on as the series gets going.

 

[sr71plt]

However it seems that posting even a month apart will not put readers off

Oh, I wouldn't count much on that.

 

[LesLumens]

The best balance I've found between gaining exposure and keeping the readers engaged is twice weekly on set days. One near the beginning, and one near the end of the week, with nothing posting on the weekend.

With the current regularity of the queue at 2 days from submission, that's fairly easy to do.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Oh, I wouldn't count much on that.

No, I won't count on it, that's why I thought a week was a reasonable interval. I shall up it to twice a week if there is popular demand, LOL.

Although I have been very slack about the werewolf novel I started writing, and people are still reading it. The readership did slump badly during the break but there are still fans who ask about it.

I do mean to go back to the werewolf novel and finish it off, BTW. It demands a lot more work than editing the romance novel and putting that up, and I am a little busy at the moment so I put it aside for a short while longer.

 

[NaokoSmith]

The best balance I've found between gaining exposure and keeping the readers engaged is twice weekly on set days. One near the beginning, and one near the end of the week, with nothing posting on the weekend.

With the current regularity of the queue at 2 days from submission, that's fairly easy to do.

Ah! I was just posting to say I might do that, LOL. I will give it some serious consideration.

 

[slyc_willie]

I'm coming late to this discussion, but oh, well . . . .

I've posted a few chaptered stories. My first had chapters posting about a week apart (maybe more), considering that I waited until the first one posted before I submitted the next. My most recent series I dumped in the queue all at the same time and let Laurel parcel them out. Each chapter went live about three days after the previous.

Honestly, I don't personally see any problem with posting stories a week, or even a few weeks apart, so long as advanced warning is given. I learned my lesson on a couple of older series I didn't finish, both of which languished for months or even a year between new posts. I've since pulled them, and don't plan on re-posting until I have the entire story finished.

I would hazard a guess to say that the interval between chapters is dependent upon the faith you have in your readers to wait for the next installment . . . and the faith you have in your writing ability to prolong their engagement in your story.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I'm coming late to this discussion, but oh, well . . . .

Honey, you can never come too late for me

LOL, that's helpful. I think it does depend on the audience. I think romance readers need the reassurance of fairly frequent postings so I will certainly keep it to one a week, or more if I can manage it.

 

[slyc_willie]

Honey, you can never come too late for me

Stop flirting with me, woman; I'm a happily married man.

On topic: glad I could supply something to this discussion you could work with . . . .

 

[NaokoSmith]

Stop flirting with me, woman; I'm a happily married man.

On topic: glad I could supply something to this discussion you could work with . . . .

LOL, you know I am just a tease Although *whisper* by all accounts, your wife is a lucky woman.

 

[49greg]

I have a few stories with more than one chapter, and since I hadn't written out the whole story on any of them before I posted, it took months for subsequent chapters.

That's not the best way to do it, and I got comments and emails asking when the next chapter would be out.

So a weekly posting would be just fine.

 

[NaokoSmith]

a weekly posting would be just fine.

Thank you!

 

[PervOtaku]

My first story I kind of rushed out, 16 chapters with each submitted as soon as the previous went live. I've thought the better of that for future efforts, and now I'm of the belief that it depends on how many chapters there are. I just finished a five chapter story publishing them bi-weekly. A future three chapter story I'm going to do monthly and another 13 chapter story I intend to do weekly.

All assuming that you've got the whole thing written, proofread, and ready to go before submitting anything. Lots of folks just submit stuff as they go and the next chapter is done when it's done.

 

[NaokoSmith]

My first story I kind of rushed out, 16 chapters with each submitted as soon as the previous went live. I've thought the better of that for future efforts, and now I'm of the belief that it depends on how many chapters there are. I just finished a five chapter story publishing them bi-weekly. A future three chapter story I'm going to do monthly and another 13 chapter story I intend to do weekly.

All assuming that you've got the whole thing written, proofread, and ready to go before submitting anything. Lots of folks just submit stuff as they go and the next chapter is done when it's done.

Thank you for that, it's a good point.


The category also makes a difference, I think. There are categories where they would quickly forget about your on-going story if you posted more slowly, as they are in it for faster results - as it were .

I'm posting now regularly on Tuesdays and sometimes at weekends as well if I am in the mood/get the chance. As it's a regular novel I'm putting up, it will be a while before there's any hot naughty action, and I'm seeing a very slow uptake. Very few votes and no comments apart from yesterdays kindly leaving me a few words.

I do see a significant rise in downloads of a prequel shortie I submitted a while back, and which I highlighted in the introduction as being part of the series, so I think there is some interest and I shall carry on posting. It's quite good fun posting a story that has such a quiet level of interest! I know exactly what each vote is, LOL - it's not hard when some chapters only have two votes! As each chapter posts, too, there is a small amount of new uptake of the first Prologue chapter.

I was hoping for some feedback from heavy duty fantasy romance fans (that's why I'm not posting a link and asking for feedback here), but I guess continuing readership is feedback of a kind so I will just keep going! I figure I am doing better than the person whose Chapter 8 is scoring 1, with three votes. That would really make me think about putting my novel away in a locked drawer for personal consumption only!