Notifying Prospective Readers That a New Story Has Multiple Parts?

[MrPixel]

I'm about to drop a big, multi-part story on LitE. Is there is a way of temporarily notifying readers that the first chapter is one of many that will be published subsequently? My last encounter with this was a 5-chapter tome that I uploaded all at once, and The Powers That Be approved it all within a couple of days but published each chapter into view one day at a time. I'm cool with that and certainly understand their motivations for doing so.

HOWever, I'm looking for a way to notify readers that the first chapter is one of many to follow according to this one-a-day scheme and have that notification vanish after, oh, about a week or so. IOW, I don't necessarily want to put that information on a header in the first chapter since it's irrelevant once it becomes obvious there are multiple parts. The previous "book" drew comment of, "I hope there's more!" when that "more" was already in the works.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

You can publish it, then add a comment saying what needs to be said. Once done, authors have the power to remove comments.

 

[HarryHill]

Dance.

 

[MrPixel]

Thanks. Merely obvious. Duh. :embarrassed: (Why is there no "embarrassed" emoji? )

 

[KeithD]

Yes, largely because so many multiple chapter series are started at Lit. and never finished or go on for years, I always include a proslug on my chaptered submissions that confirms the work is finished, how many chapters will be posted, and about when it will complete posting. I submitted such an entry just now with the following proslug on it:

[This is entry one of four of a completed eight-chapter novella that will finish posting within two weeks.]

 

[Lifestyle66]

The comment method would work only for those who go on to read the comments.

I would recommend using an author note at the beginning and leave it there for the future. The first chapter (or others) will occassionally show up in random list for the category, and it may be the first time a reader in the future sees it.

OR, you could put the author's note in, and a week or two later after it's served the purpose, submit an edit to that story to remove it.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

In what I'm about to publish, I put a general-purpose Author's note in the first chapter (well actually the prologue) that gives some idea about where the story is going (themes and kinks) and what kind of update schedule to expect.

Subsequent chapters have a little note referring to the first chapter for info, noting that it's part of larger series, that everyone in a sexual situation is 18 yo or more, and possibly indicating any specific themes in the chapter at hand.

 

[SimonDoom]

Another idea is to add the note at the end of the first chapter. That way your first chapter will get more views.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Another idea is to add the note at the end of the first chapter. That way your first chapter will get more views.

Do you mean the second chapter will get more views?

The existence of a note in the first chapter can't influence how many people go into that one, but could keep people hanging in there for the second.

As would titling the first chapter with Ch.01 as part of the title. That's a bit of a clue.

 

[Duleigh]

Why is there no "embarrassed" emoji?

That is actually a very good question, we have Japanese Yen , we have a flag for the British Indian Ocean Territory (I think that's Diago Garcia), we have Japanese snacks (Hanami Dango), we even have a guy in a suit levitating why no embarrassed emoji?

 

[Bubo_bubo]

That is actually a very good question, we have Japanese Yen , we have a flag for the British Indian Ocean Territory (I think that's Diago Garcia), we have Japanese snacks (Hanami Dango), we even have a guy in a suit levitating why no embarrassed emoji?

There's the "Oops" emoji: , the "Flushed face" emoji: , and the "hushed face" emoji

No shyly blushing emoji though.

 

[HarryHill]

:shyblushingemoji:

 

[Emotional]

Just put it as an introduction on page one of story 1, when you want it gone, just resubmit as an edit without the introduction

 

[TheRedChamber]

I was thinking something similar for my upcoming multipart story. If you've got space in the title/blurb you could do something like:

My Wonderful Story Pt. 1 of 5
- Wonderful sex happens to handsome attractive people.

or else

My Wonderful Story Pt. 1
- (of 5) Wonderful sex happens to handsome attractive people.

And then write.

This is a completed story in five parts. All parts will be uploaded in sequence a couple of days apart from the publication of this first part.

 

[MrPixel]

Another idea is to add the note at the end of the first chapter. That way your first second chapter will get more views.

That's what I did.

 

[SimonDoom]

Do you mean the second chapter will get more views?

The existence of a note in the first chapter can't influence how many people go into that one, but could keep people hanging in there for the second.

As would titling the first chapter with Ch.01 as part of the title. That's a bit of a clue.

I didn't explain that well at all.

I understood the OP to mean that he wants to find a way to start a series with a "temporary" notice that it's the first chapter of a long series.

It's been observed before, particularly by 8Letters in his analysis, that standalone stories on average get more views than chapter stories. If I publish the same story as either "Story" or "Story Part 1," it will get more views published as "Story" -- assuming no subsequent chapters are published (extra chapters will keep drawing readers to chapter 1 so this phenomenon may ultimately outweigh the first phenomenon.

What I intended to say is: He could publish the first chapter as simply "Story," which will snare more readers initially than if it's published as "Story Part 1," but at the end of "Story" he could insert a note that indicates there WILL be a chapter 2.

I would NOT recommend publishing stories on consecutive days. This seems foolish to me. You should wait until each chapter has fallen down further on the new story list before publishing the next story to get more exposure for the whole story.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I didn't explain that well at all.

I understood the OP to mean that he wants to find a way to start a series with a "temporary" notice that it's the first chapter of a long series.

It's been observed before, particularly by 8Letters in his analysis, that standalone stories on average get more views than chapter stories. If I publish the same story as either "Story" or "Story Part 1," it will get more views published as "Story" -- assuming no subsequent chapters are published (extra chapters will keep drawing readers to chapter 1 so this phenomenon may ultimately outweigh the first phenomenon.

What I intended to say is: He could publish the first chapter as simply "Story," which will snare more readers initially than if it's published as "Story Part 1," but at the end of "Story" he could insert a note that indicates there WILL be a chapter 2.

I would NOT recommend publishing stories on consecutive days. This seems foolish to me. You should wait until each chapter has fallen down further on the new story list before publishing the next story to get more exposure for the whole story.

Ahh, gotcha. To be honest, this strategizing is all a bit futile. If a note is put up front that it's a first chapter, or if it's titled Story Ch.01 so it's obvious, you've immediately lost those who don't/won't read chaptered stories.

And if you then put a note at the end of chapter one, "to be continued", you've pissed off those who thought it was a stand-alone story, and those who don't mind a chaptered yarn don't give a toss. So you might as well just call it Story Ch.01 and not suck in the standalonists on false preferences.

I'm going to disagree a bit your comment re consecutive days - I think it depends how many chapters and what category it's in. As most of us know, a chaptered story usually drops Views rapidly over the first three chapters, then runs steady state(ish) to the end. At that point you've hooked the readers you're going to hook, so you might as well feed it to them quickly and regularly, or you run the risk of losing them because you're taking too long about it.

My seventeen chapter Arthurian novel, for example, went out daily (Laurel just set a clock running), and from beginning to end it was on the category front page for about six weeks - in a slow rolling category.

In any event, a year later it makes no difference - three times as many people have read that novel length piece over the years as read it in the first few months.

 

[MrPixel]

My one previous experience with publishing multiple chapters was also good with the one-a-day release scheme. In fact, the last chapter of the five is the most read. It's also in a ghost town category. I'm good with that.

I conformed with Laurel's preferred section and chapter numbering naming scheme, so if anybody doesn't grok that it's a multi-chapter story, that's on them.