Less Intimating Means of Labeling Series

[Maxiine]

The late Sue Grafton has a series.
Stand alone stories with the same cast of major characters.
A is for Alibi,
B is for Burglar,
C is for...

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I did the title:subtitle thing for a group of stories (Symon & Michelle: various subtitles). They are grouped as a series in my story list. I put an author's not at the beginning of each one explaining that it's not a series and they don't need to be read in any particular order. Some have good views and ratings, some less so. But I'm convinced that has more to do with the subject matter of the particular stories than how I labelled them, or how they're grouped.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm not sure if there is a way around this issue. The reason I say that is that today I published part three of a pseudo-series that started 5 years ago. I didn't number them; I wanted each story to be able to stand alone in its merits but ALSO to work as a continuing series.

The first story was Late Night on the Loveseat with Mom.

The second story was Late Night under the Stars with Mom. It's a continuation, but I chose NOT to number it as chapter 2 to see what would happen. The second story was published about a month and a half after the first. That was 5 years ago. As of today, the second story has less than one quarter the views of the first story. On a daily basis, the second story gets about one-sixth the views the first story gets, even though it has a significantly higher rating. The reason for that is that the first story appears on some toplists and on "similar story" lists, while the second one does not.

So I published the third story today under the name Late Night With Mom At The Mall. On my submissions page, it will come third because it's third alphabetically.

What I'm seeing is that the story is getting a lot of views, presumably because most readers think it's a standalone story. But they are greeted by a short introduction that explains that it follows my other two. So they're skipping the story and going to the first one. The first one has received a big boost in views--by a factor of about 6 or 7--but the recent story has relatively few votes per view, which means although the view numbers are good many people aren't reading it.

I could have skipped the introduction, but then the story might not have made as much sense.

What I'm also finding is that the score for the story isn't as high as it might have been had I published them as chapters.

My takeaway: there is a substantial advantage in terms of getting views, votes, and favorites if you publish stories as standalone stories. If it's high scores you are after, then publish them as numbered chapters, and the later chapters will get higher scores as the process of reader self-selection plays out.

 

[TheseLegs]

Interesting topic for me, as I have a series kind of like this, all with the same character but doesn't have to be read in chronological order, so I just went with Title: Sub-title. But I agree with the person who said that if it's views you're after, write something with step in the title. I never even got close to 20,000 views before, so in 2 days??? Holy butts.

Maybe it works for others, but most of that series (related short stories?) are my least viewed and all are least rated.

 

[Maxiine]

If the goal is reader self-selection, and the stories are self-contained arcs one could use alphabetizing to create separate series that had a logical progression...
Abby and Adam-- Bayside High (A five-part series)
yada-yada
Abby and Adam-- Community College (A six-part series)
yada-yada
Abby and Adam-- Daisy State University (An eight-part series)
yada-yada
Abby and Adam-- European Interlude (A four-part series)
yada-yada
Abby and Adam-- First Real Job (A ten-part series)
yada-yada

 

[jsmiam]

I’ll begin by disclosing that I hate series. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write them. some people love them. Just know it is back-key inducing for some of us.

Your “title: subtitle” idea is good. Your challenge might be fitting an alluring title in an already short space, if all parts have an extra word or three in their title.

For my personal preference, chapter numbers in the title helps me not click at all. Your colonic idea would help me not click too.

Lots of authors tell you it’s a series in the author’s notes when you click in. I call those “stealth series.” If I’m reading, I don’t know it’s a series until I see the author’s note. Then I swear, hit the back key, and try again elsewhere. (Stealth series are quite common. You wouldn’t be alone with that approach.).

Welcome. Write what you want. My one opinion is mine, and shouldn’t deter you in any way.

 

[PennameWombat]

So I was thinking, chaptered stories often lose readership after the first chapter. But sometimes I have a series of stories with the same characters that are just as good by themselves as they are in sequence, would it be better if I avoided chapter numbering.

Perhaps using a:
Title: Sub-title

This approach may draw more readers for subsequent iterations of the story. Thoughts?

Nah. But, of course, YMMV.

I do this explicitly with my You Promised Me Geeks series. The stories have the same pair of main characters and they fit within a broader universe, but they’re meant to be read in isolation, if you want. They all have good scores, but the number of views has dropped off from the first to the third. Now, does reading all of them provide more depth and background? Of course.

I’ve done similarly with a couple of other series. But all have seen views drop off after the first, even if subsequent rating scores might’ve been higher for later entries.

I also have a series that uses numbered chapters in the same universe. For me, the difference is that you need to read a numbered series first to last, while my other series aren’t so strict.

 

[Duleigh]

I've done it like this, it seems to work - Write each chapter as a complete story, they may end up going long. You may want to make your main plot become a sub plot that ties the individual stories together. This gives you the characters and the setting for each story, now you need a climax and a resolution for each, that's why I say the chapters may go long.

Then - don't label them Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, come up with a 1 or 2 word name, then follow that up with a quick description in alphabetical order. Mine are:
The Gate - A New Green Man Appears
The Gate - Elvish Has Left the Building
The Gate - Going Home
Looks like 3 individual stories, but it's one. I open each one with an intro which says "In the previous story..." a couple of paragraphs. My readers seem to love it, I know I do, and when you title them in alphabetical order, they will line up in your story list the way you want them to. If you want you can post them out of order for what ever reason you want, like save a "chapter" that occurs in the winter for a January posting.

 

[Brutal_One]

I would say if the story is a true multi parter than write it as such. Consider each chapter if it was a chapter in a novel so it in itself is complete to finish that story plot part and set up as a follow on for next. I would also say follow on relatively quickly with probably the next three or four parts. This means from experience this can work to generate some initial interest for a least some follows. At that point you can plan to continue but can take some time even weeks to write the next chapter.

Overall you may not necessarily maximise total number of readers but there will be many who want a quick story or at least a self contained one.

Stories written in parts are a bit like TV series. If you have readers already interested (you can gauge early chapters based on initial score, No of likes and anyone following your stories.

I have started two new seperate stories recently with typically the first few chapters written so can be released very soon to follow on.

your followers should get an alter and you may gain some new readers from the new status.

But above all write and publish when the chapters flow, i.e. write quick. If you ‘know’ in advance your outline and goals and character development you can write when it suits. The readers who enjoy what you write will wait.

Brutal One

 

[RowanWrites]

As a reader, I like multi-chapter stories. I prefer 2-3 (lit) pages per published chapter to a 15 (lit) page megalith. I simply find it more accessible.

But if I drop in to a Ch 04 and the topic, title, subtitle, teaser & writing style of the first couple of paragraphs are compelling, I immediately go back to Ch 01.

I am realizing not everyone thinks the way I do, so... I may try some alternatives along the way as a writer...

 

[pezzheaddazzler]

As a reader I usually use the app it hinders the searches if we have to go back and find the first story,
other down falls of the lit.app is rating only works maybe 10% time, cant search for author (at least I can't figure out how)
it would be neat if on computer or the app the prequal's could be hyper linked in the story byline then you might get more following.

I tried the unofficial app but it has its own issues

 

[Maxiine]

As a reader I usually use the app it hinders the searches if we have to go back and find the first story,
other down falls of the lit.app is rating only works maybe 10% time, cant search for author (at least I can't figure out how)
it would be neat if on computer or the app the prequal's could be hyper linked in the story byline then you might get more following.

I tried the unofficial app but it has its own issues

If you have a couple key words, a title, or author, Google works better than the site itself.

 

[dmallord]

It could work, if the installments are not sequential. But if they are, how would a new reader know where to start or the proper sequence?

Recently I wrote several stories with the same characters and posted them. I thought they would be looked at as stand-a-lone stories since they were not numbered. Nope. A reader or two took me to task for not 'giving them the order to read the stories in.'

I suppose I could 'bother' Laurel to regroup them or somehow fix that. I haven't, so far. I just posted my own comment in each of the stories listing the order and names of the other related ones. If a reader scans the comments they will get the order there. If not, then I just hope they enjoyed the story they were reading ... I thought each was a complete story in and of itself. They posted close together in time, so the readers made the connection between the stories and felt they were chapters not stand-a-lone stories.

As to a series spanning different categories, I have done that. Depends on what takes place in that particular story. I have incest in several scenes, but another chapter is just boyfriend-girlfriend connections in erotic category. So, yes cross-categories work. I saw a significant change in number of readers between the categories. Not sure that is related to categories or actual content of the stories though.

 

[Maxiine]

Recently I wrote several stories with the same characters and posted them. I thought they would be looked at as stand-a-lone stories...

I have over a dozen stand alone stories with the same cast of characters. But they are topical, not chronological. Instead of adding a comment, which is at the end of the story and not pinned, each story is titled something like:

J & C: The floating dock
J & C: Ford Econoline
J & C: Without a paddle

And each story opens with a paragraph that says something like...

Another Jonah and Charlotte story: Jonah is with Ruth, while his sister Charlotte is with Ruth's cousin Three. They all live in Ruth's mansion just outside of Osage Beach with Erin, Rachel and Frank Jr..

 

[RowanWrites]

You *can* search for authors:

At the very bottom of the stories page! There is a "Search the Site" section. I know, I know. It is possibly one of the worst design patterns in history. But it's there, and it works.

That said, I agree with you that navigating series would be a top-10 feature add to make the site better. It would be trivially easy, given that series are already structured and grouped, as seen from author pages.

The UX *should* be:

At the top of every story that is in a series:

"Sexy Title, Ch. 07"
[First Chapter] ... [Ch. 05] [Ch. 06] * [Ch. 08] [Ch. 09] ... [Last Chapter]

I am pretty sure that the reason this isn't happening is that the story pages are rendered into static html on publication. That would have been a good performance optimization in 1997, but it's no longer meaningful. If they are using an edge-caching CDN, it could also be a cost-saving feature, even now. However, even if they re-rendered the static html each time a chapter was added to a series, it wouldn't blow out the budget.

Anyway, a million things could be better about the structure, design, and functionality of this site; but we love it anyway. Consider it part of the charm.