Optimum Time to Submit

[BarracudaSwordfish]

I submitted my 41st story last night and it got me thinking.

Is there a best time in the week to submit, given the usual 2-3 day turnaround?

This one is likely to be published (assuming it is of course) on Saturday, so I wondered if it is more likely to get more attention landing at a weekend or whether the publication time doesn't really matter.

Anyone know of any research/metrics on the subject?

 

[Jada59]

I submitted my 41st story last night and it got me thinking.

Is there a best time in the week to submit, given the usual 2-3 day turnaround?

This one is likely to be published (assuming it is of course) on Saturday, so I wondered if it is more likely to get more attention landing at a weekend or whether the publication time doesn't really matter.

Anyone know of any research/metrics on the subject?

I could be wrong but I don't think stories are published on weekends.

 

[ElectricBlue]

8letters did an analysis a while back that vaguely suggested submission mid week to go live over the weekend. I wasn't convinced, since there's too much variability in throughput times. Besides, I'm in Oz, so must of you guys are yesterday, anyway. I don't think it really matters.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I've had works published on the weekends, even on Sundays. And the way it works is Laurel gives the work a live date and the server scans the list of dates on the new stories to go live and looks for the current server date and publishes those that meet the criteria. That's why you may see some stories go live in the middle of the day. The process sits in the background and keeps looking for stories to post today. Sometimes Laurel slips a story in after all the rest for today have been posted. Or she may make a mistake... no, not our Laurel.

So, Laurel really doesn't have to work on weekends if she can get ahead of the curve so to say and mark a bunch for publishing on Saturday and Sunday on Friday.

 

[Isabel_Innuende]

Sorry if this is a naive question because I'm still learning how it all works, but does it also make a difference to your overall view count if you just happened to be posted to the top of the "New" category? I just noticed that about 20 stories all showed up in "New" at once, so whichever story was at the top of "New" for those few hours would have a slight page-view advantage over the others, would it not?

 

[NotWise]

Sorry if this is a naive question because I'm still learning how it all works, but does it also make a difference to your overall view count if you just happened to be posted to the top of the "New" category? I just noticed that about 20 stories all showed up in "New" at once, so whichever story was at the top of "New" for those few hours would have a slight page-view advantage over the others, would it not?

I think being at the top of the "New" list is a huge boost. When there's a contest going on the top entries on the list are contest stories. This probably isn't true for other categories (except maybe LW) but being at the top of the list in the I/T hub is also a huge boost.

Recently there have been 100+ stories per day appearing on the "New" list.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Sorry if this is a naive question because I'm still learning how it all works, but does it also make a difference to your overall view count if you just happened to be posted to the top of the "New" category? I just noticed that about 20 stories all showed up in "New" at once, so whichever story was at the top of "New" for those few hours would have a slight page-view advantage over the others, would it not?

It's all down to your place in the queue. The moment your story goes live, you'll be at the top of the list, then get pushed down as the next story gets published.

Same on the category front pages - the order doesn't change as your story moves down the page.

 

[LexxRuthless]

Sorry if this is a naive question because I'm still learning how it all works, but does it also make a difference to your overall view count if you just happened to be posted to the top of the "New" category? I just noticed that about 20 stories all showed up in "New" at once, so whichever story was at the top of "New" for those few hours would have a slight page-view advantage over the others, would it not?

It could wind up being a LOT more than "slight." I noticed on the 25th that the "New" list atop the I/T frontpage was completely full of stories from that day. That's 25 stories. Could you imagine if your story was 26th (or later) on that list? You would get zero views from folks perusing that page looking for new stories in the category.

 

[KeithD]

I haven't found a clearly optimal day/time to submit stories, and, yes, new stories are post on weekend days.

That said about the best time to post, I post a new story almost every week (sometimes more often). Mostly I submit on Sunday and the story posts on Tuesday. In my mind I'm thinking that gives my followers some idea when to expect the next story, but then it also gives my routine story zappers the same convenience. I have no idea whether that makes any difference. It does give me some order to my posting schedule, though.

 

[HeyAll]

I think it's a roll of the dice at this point.

There are some days where there are loads of new stories. A few days ago, for Incest, the entire Hub was filled with new stories from that day. That means that stories posted the previous day only got to stay on the Hub for 1 day.

You never know.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Sorry if this is a naive question because I'm still learning how it all works, but does it also make a difference to your overall view count if you just happened to be posted to the top of the "New" category? I just noticed that about 20 stories all showed up in "New" at once, so whichever story was at the top of "New" for those few hours would have a slight page-view advantage over the others, would it not?

I think is all boils down to the category it's in. Just because it's first doesn't mean more people will read it, especially if the category is one of the rarely read cats. Now if you writing Incest/Taboo, then yeah, first int he queue is great, but people will look for their favorite categories and authors. That's what I do.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

I post when the story is ready to be posted. That way it gets in front of eyeballs as soon as possible. I do notice more activity on the weekends but Numbers are not what I worry about so I hardly ever look at them.

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

Thanks for the responses. I thought there would only be a small difference, if there indeed was one at all.

Some new stuff went into the category I submitted it to today, but mine wasn't one of them.

Oh well, always tomorrow!

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Thanks for the responses. I thought there would only be a small difference, if there indeed was one at all.

Some new stuff went into the category I submitted it to today, but mine wasn't one of them.

Oh well, always tomorrow!

On your author page select works on the left

Select the pending tab

You will see the story you submitted. There will be a gray box with the word pending in it. When that box changes to yellow/orange and says new there will be a date above the box.

On that date around 2am ET your story will be live on the site.

Generally it takes 3 days from submission to posting. It can be as fast as same day (in 11 years I had that happen once) and as long as 13 days (Once in 11 years).

If a week or more goes by, click the story title and resubmit. Sometimes stories get hung up and don't go into the queue. Resubmitting usually fixes that.

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

On your author page select works on the left

You will see the story you submitted. There will be a gray box with the word pending in it. When that box changes to yellow/orange and says new there will be a date above the box.

On that date around 2am ET your story will be live on the site.

Thanks S-S.

I have been racking my two brain cells to try and work out why I have never seen this before, despite 40 submissions.

Then it occurred to me - in the UK, the stories are published at around 7am thanks to the time difference, so when it turns orange, I am usually dreaming of my next sordid tale!

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Thanks S-S.

I have been racking my two brain cells to try and work out why I have never seen this before, despite 40 submissions.

Then it occurred to me - in the UK, the stories are published at around 7am thanks to the time difference, so when it turns orange, I am usually dreaming of my next sordid tale!

It turns orange when Laurel approves it. I had a summer lovin story and submitted it on 8/7. On 8/10 Laurel approved it and the box turned orange. It went live on 8/21 the start of the contest.

The approval usually takes place during business hours ET. Sometime between 8am and 6pm Mon-Fri.

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

And it lives!

Still cannot work out the system. 11pm in the UK and it is up, but definitely no orange marker preceding it.

Never mind, now the usual sinking fear of how it will be received.

Cheers all. It is called 'Tonight, I shall be Called Scarlett' and can be found in the Fetish cupboard if anyone is interested.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Sorry if this is a naive question because I'm still learning how it all works, but does it also make a difference to your overall view count if you just happened to be posted to the top of the "New" category? I just noticed that about 20 stories all showed up in "New" at once, so whichever story was at the top of "New" for those few hours would have a slight page-view advantage over the others, would it not?

It makes a big difference, IME, but it's not something you can really plan for.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It's all down to your place in the queue. The moment your story goes live, you'll be at the top of the list, then get pushed down as the next story gets published.

Same on the category front pages - the order doesn't change as your story moves down the page.

Dunno if it's changed, but my recollection is that stories get published in batches, so it's possible that a story will be pushed way down the list as soon as it appears.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Dunno if it's changed, but my recollection is that stories get published in batches, so it's possible that a story will be pushed way down the list as soon as it appears.

That is very likely, and a common complaint from the incest writers. Publish in the highest volume category, trying to catch the maximum eyes, what do they expect? You can't have it both ways.

 

[NotWise]

That is very likely, and a common complaint from the incest writers. Publish in the highest volume category, trying to catch the maximum eyes, what do they expect? You can't have it both ways.

If there are more than twenty-five new stories in a day then some will never appear on the hub. That used to be a rare event even in I/T, but it's been more common recently because of the large number of new stories.

My Summer Lovin' contest story was on the hub for two days, and the order of the stories did change at one point. My story was at the top of the list for part of the first day, then one of the contest stories below me on the list was shuffled up to the top.

I thought it more odd when it stayed on the new list until mid-morning on its eighth day, and quite a few stories published the same day were still up after mine dropped off.

I don't think any of that is prejudicial. I think the system is just more complicated than is evident to a casual viewer.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My Summer Lovin' contest story was on the hub for two days, and the order of the stories did change at one point. My story was at the top of the list for part of the first day, then one of the contest stories below me on the list was shuffled up to the top.

I know contest stories shuffle, but non-contest stories seem to stay in the order they're posted - on the category front page, at least. I don't know about the new story list because I never go there.

 

[Isabel_Innuende]

Dunno if it's changed, but my recollection is that stories get published in batches, so it's possible that a story will be pushed way down the list as soon as it appears.

Yes, this is exactly what happened with both my recently published stories. My story hadn't showed up in "New" yet and I was refreshing the page a little obsessively, I admit, and suddenly, boom! There were about 20 new stories all at once, and mine was way down the list.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Yes, this is exactly what happened with both my recently published stories. My story hadn't showed up in "New" yet and I was refreshing the page a little obsessively, I admit, and suddenly, boom! There were about 20 new stories all at once, and mine was way down the list.

All new stories go live at 2am ET daily. Benn that way as long as I;ve been posting stories. I'm a night owl and often I am awake at 2am to see mine go love.

 

[Sonatatre]

I like that there is some randomness to posting. Sometimes you get lucky and end up in a favorable position, and if your story is good, then it can prosper.

That time after you have submitted is story is always fun. Going between hope and fear, as you wonder what readers will think. Checking the website the first chance you get after you know stories get posted. I have had one of those middle of the day postings too. Got really surprised when I saw it.

If it was possible to try and abuse the system to improve response to stories then I think a lot of people would try and do that. A smaller website I have some stories on got a lot of people who try to get their stories live when there is the most traffic.

Personally I just hope that my stories will be able to hold up without trying to glitch the system. If they are good, people will read them, and want to tell me that they enjoyed it. Sometimes that seem to work.