Romance category question about breaking into chapters

[Tomh1966]

I'm trying my first romance story.

I'm at 32K words and still going, likely in the 50K range by the time I am done. The story is complex and pretty standard fare for the category, but the length!

Opinions on breaking it down into several chapters?

 

[Bamagan]

I'm trying my first romance story.

I'm at 32K words and still going, likely in the 50K range by the time I am done. The story is complex and pretty standard fare for the category, but the length!

Opinions on breaking it down into several chapters?

Anecdotally, I believe the typical readers of that category are among the most receptive to long-form stories, so you're likely fine to leave it as a single piece. Breaking it into installments is probably fine, too, in the sense that it likely wouldn't greatly affect the critical reception, unless some parts happen to be weaker or more poorly edited or something, which might get forgiven if they occur in a single work.
It could increase your exposure to chop it into thirds or quarters or whatever seems logical, though.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I would give thought to whether the story is well suited to a natural division at particular points in the narrative. For example, Chapter One, the first meeting, Chapter Two, the relationship deepens, Chapter Three, a conflict emerges. Or does it have a straightforward plot that moves along smoothly without breaking points?

50k is not a prohibitive length, in my opinion. But I do tend to write long myself.

 

[AchtungNight]

Are there specific scenes in each chapter that readers might want to revisit? When I wrote my multi chapter stories here, I tried to incorporate one hot erotic scene per chapter and some other key scenes. Do your chapters do the same and would it make sense to help readers revisit their favorite parts of the story?

 

[Cagivagurl]

Personally, I prefer a long story to chapters.... Romance is full of long epic stories, and they are always appreciated.
I wouldn't worry about putting off readers with a long story.
In my experience. It is preferred.

Cagivagurl

 

[Cali_Love]

I only write in that category. In my poorest rated, which I actually thought were my best, I was told they were too short. And I would never, ever break them up into chapters.

Xellibabex’s Her Fairy Tale Life is 69k words and is sort of the gold standard for the category. No chapters.

Next up, DreamCloud’s The Promise at 33k words, no chapters, but could have easily gone longer. Best tale spinner on Lit.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I view the OP's question as whether to break the story into chapter submissions rather than where to insert breaks in the story.

My first advice (as always) is to finish the story before submitting any part of it. Patience is rewarded with maintaining control of the story from beginning to end. This includes the ability to insert chapter breaks where it best suites the flow of the tale.

My second advice is to submit the story as a single file, regardless of how long you think it is. I have several stories over 75K that do quite well and feedback from readers indicate this is their preference. The stated reader preference for single submissions of longer stories motivated me to convert four chapter submitted stories to single submissions and they are all doing better with their ratings since then.