Reverse Reading? Odd trends

[tenyari]

I've got a multipart story going and I'm seeing one of the strangest trends...


I expected a lot of hits with part 1, then a drop off as people figured I was not in their style.

What I'm getting is the opposite.

Each chapter has more hits than it's predessesor.

Now I'm wondering about those extra people... They must be mighty confused wondering what's going on.

This is my first multiparter, so I have nothing to compare it against. In fact I'm a fairly new author overall.

Anyone else get this?

I saw the same pattern when I posted it to asstr, though over there the numbers were getting greater with each chapter on the order of hundreds, here the difference is much closer.

I will say though... I wish I could get hits like this on my non erotic work or in my art galleries. Even the top hit artists in the largest comunities I'm in don't get hits like my lowest results for my erotic stories...

Even for their erotic art...

Go figure. It's fun to guess at what these numbers mean...

 

[Svenskaflicka]

OK, I'm not sure about the terminology here... what exactly is a multipart story? Is it where the same hero/heroïne has new adventures in a new chapter?

 

[Weird Harold]

OK, I'm not sure about the terminology here... what exactly is a multipart story? Is it where the same hero/heroïne has new adventures in a new chapter?

Tenyari's multi-part story s more of a serialization of a single story than "new adventures" -- sort of like episodes of a TV series.

Naked Girl Ch. 1
Naked Girl Ch. 2
Naked Girl Ch. 3
Etc.

Tenyari,
It's normal for Laurel to post an episode a day rather than dumping them all at once -- it keeps a single author from dominating the new story list.

I think the reverse reading numbers are from people looking for a "longer read" than a single episode -- when chapter two or three shows up, they check it out with the knowledge that there is more to the story if it looks interesting.

There is also some resistance to reading "Chapter One" becuase there are a LOT of stories here that arejust chapter one. A lot of people won't bother opening "chapter one" unless they're sure the author is going to continue.

The trend does seem to fly in the face of logic -- even if I wait for more chapters to show up before investing any interest, I usually look up chapter one when I do finally look at a serial.

 

[pinklipstick]

I think they meant more people are reading parts 2 and 3 than part 1. And that is kinda strange. Means they are not even attempting to go back to part 1 after devouring part 2/3. Does that mean that part 2/3 was good enough to stand on its own? Or that after reading part 2/3 they didn't feel part 1 was worth it?

Personally, I HAVE to read in order. This is one of my pet peeves with science fiction. Nothing kills me more than finding out I just read Book 2 of a Series without reading Book 1.

 

[Weird Harold]

I think they meant more people are reading parts 2 and 3 than part 1. And that is kinda strange.

The views count does not necessarily equate to "reads." A higher count on later chapters just means more people opened thepage to see if it was worth reading. Some of them went ahead and read the story and other decided they didn't want to.

Consider this aspect as well:
Chapter three shows up on the NEW list;
I open it to see if it's worth reading;
I decide it is and open the author's page to find the other chapters;
I read chapter one and part of chapter two;
I take a break and return;
I open chapter three again to find the link to the author's page again (because I can find the new story easier than remembering the author's name)
I open chapter two and finish it;
I open chapter three again and read it.

That's three views for chapter three, two for chapter two, and one for chapter one -- just the pattern Tenyari noticed and thought strange.

Other people might read the three chapters differently and/or take different routes to get to them, but it's one plausible scenario tht accounts for the strange view patterns.

 

[Chicklet]

Multi-Part Stories

Not only do I agree with you, the later chapters get more views, I'll add that they usually get better scores as well. I used to note this when I read, looking at the scores I could see that the later chapters did better. I don't know why...


Chicklet