Should I submit all currently finished parts of my story at once, or wait until the first is published?

[significantdot5647]

Hello, longtime reader, first time writer. I have a story I'm currently working on that is so far in 10 parts, as well as two separate one part stories. Originally, I was posting them on Reddit, but my account was banned. I have a non-porn/erotica linked account that was banned, so they banned my linked erotica account. The ban was lifted on my main account, but they refuse to unban my erotica account, so I decided to repost the stories here. I submitted the first part yesterday, and judging by other posts here, it will probably he a while before the first part gets published. So basically I'm wondering if it would be worth submitting all parts at the same time, or should I wait? I don't want to clog the queue, but I would also like to get feedback on my writing, as Reddit clearly doesn't seem to be the place for that.

Sorry for the TL;DR, just curious how I should go about this. Thanks!

 

[filthytrancendence]

How long is the whole thing? How long are the parts?

My guess is you might want to combine some. As someone who's subjected themselves to the brain damage of posting stories to Reddit in the past, the length limits are pretty restrictive. And it's more the norm here to post longer work.

 

[significantdot5647]

How long is the whole thing? How long are the parts?

My guess is you might want to combine some. As someone who's subjected themselves to the brain damage of posting stories to Reddit in the past, the length limits are pretty restrictive. And it's more the norm here to post longer work.

I suppose I could merge parts. They aren't terribly long, so it probably wouldn't be the worst thing to do. I did keep them short-ish to keep within the limitations. They also got like zero feedback, other than one person who followed me because they enjoyed the story. I feel bad that they'll never know how the story ends unless they stumble upon it here lol

 

[NuclearFairy]

I second the combine them advice.

I'm posting my stories on another site where the suggested chapter length is 1.5k-4k words long because of app utility, but a lot of the stories I've enjoyed on this site with similar chapter length complain of the chapters being too short, so I combine six chapters to a submission.

Although, I think next time I'll just wait until I've finished the story and post it all here in one go.

 

[filthytrancendence]

I suppose I could merge parts. They aren't terribly long, so it probably wouldn't be the worst thing to do. I did keep them short-ish to keep within the limitations. They also got like zero feedback, other than one person who followed me because they enjoyed the story. I feel bad that they'll never know how the story ends unless they stumble upon it here lol

Part of why we end up doing longer stories here is that the publishing process is a lot more of a thing. Your first is likely to take a few weeks to actually see the light of day, and that's if it doesn't get sent back.

The conventional wisdom for 'ideal' length on Lit seems to be in the range of 4k-8k words. Ideal being what's likely to get a lot of views/favorites/follows. You can do what you like, and stories run the gambit from 700 words to hundreds of thousands. Just keep in mind you're going to have to go through the publishing queue for every single part.

My first work I put on here was a pretty long story I already had mostly written. It was around 70k words at the time, and I split it into 6 parts. I wasn't super concerned with length, just finding natural break points in the story. Worked pretty well.

Anyhow, Reddit is a horrendous place for publishing stories and you will get a lot more eyes on your work here. If you know your followers user name you can DM them once it gets published with the link over here.

If you really want deeper feedback, you probably won't get it in comments. You can request feedback in the feedback board here if you feel up to it and get a lot more involved thoughts than you are likely to get from regular readers.

Good luck!

 

[TheLobster]

Reddit post length limit is 40k characters, so approximately 8k words. If you’ve been skirting just below it, then you could post the same parts here. Otherwise, I’d strongly consider merging them in a logical fashion (i.e., based on more than sheer length).

Or just post everything at once; 80k words is novel-length but there has been plenty of novels posted here.

 

[THBGato]

So basically I'm wondering if it would be worth submitting all parts at the same time, or should I wait?

One advantage of publishing in Chapters is that it means to get your story into the New List more often, so may pick up more readers that way.

I've tried both - I've published two 80+ plus stories, one as 5 chapters, one as a single submission. You definitely get more comments if you split into chapters.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I'll provide my two cents worth...

I always recommend finishing a story in its entirety before publishing any part of it. There are several good reasons for this, including:

1. You maintain full control of your story. Few things are more frustrating than getting to a point in your writing where you want the direction to go a certain way, and find that what you have already published makes that impossible.
2. Context counts, and sometimes the context that would make something in chapter one appropriate isn't clear until subsequent chapters.
3. Organic breaks within a story, whether section breaks or chapter breaks, become much clearer when the story is completed. You are able to dictate the flow more precisely.

There are some here who would advocate for a writer wait until one submission drops off the "New" list before publishing the next piece. I never did this, and I'll tell you why...

Readers can be more impatient than some writers. You will lose quite a few if you make them wait days or weeks between parts. What I used to do when I did break up my stories was to submit them one right after another. Not only did this allow the admins to have the full story for context, it also had them being published day after day until finished. I saw a lesser drop-off in views in the subsequent chapters as readers came to expect the next installment daily.

 

[significantdot5647]

This is all great information, thank you all for your kind words. Turns out, my definition of "long" is actually quite short. The first part was only about 800 words, haha. I've pulled it from submission and intend on merging the parts into one cohesive story and will resubmit it when it's ready.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I prefer combining into one submittal in most cases but there’s something to be said for a new author (on the site) having a presence on New board for a while, giving more eyes a chance to see the chapters and become interested versus a one and done that is gone in seven days. For chapters, I like submitting with a note at the top of each that the story is complete and is being published on whatever schedule and then stick to that. I prefer every five to seven days to give readers a chance to see a chapter but also have a new chapter published before the old one disappears. Some readers prefer to only start after a series is complete (SC waves hand) but the promise that it’s done and being published on a schedule draws some of us in anyway. Good luck!

Edit: just saw your post from while I was typing. Yes, 800 words is generally too short unless it’s part of an event. Combining that should be best.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

As others have noted, it depends.

My suggestion would be to post in 5-7k word chapters, if possible. Don't do them all at once. I would post one, wait a day, then post the next one. That should get you in a good rhythm, depending on when they are set to go live. That's how I did it when I started my series.

I don't believe you need to finish the whole thing before you start posting, as the adrenaline of getting your work in front of an audience will help you keep going.

 

[Carnevil9]

.... What I used to do when I did break up my stories was to submit them one right after another. Not only did this allow the admins to have the full story for context, it also had them being published day after day until finished. I saw a lesser drop-off in views in the subsequent chapters as readers came to expect the next installment daily.

Is this some sort of policy? Even if you submit all chapters on the same day, they will publish them one chapter per day? That would be great but I've never heard that it was an option.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Is this some sort of policy? Even if you submit all chapters on the same day, they will publish them one chapter per day? That would be great but I've never heard that it was an option.

Make the request in the note to the admin field. Bare in mind that if one submission gets rejected for whatever reason, the remaining ones might still get published and your story will be out of order until the reason for the rejection is resolved.

 

[significantdot5647]

So the combined word total for the first three parts is just over 5,000 words. The other combined parts are more in the neighborhood of 7-8k words. Combining them in this way would make about 4 parts total. Does this seem like a reasonable length?

 

[NuclearFairy]

So the combined word total for the first three parts is just over 5,000 words. The other combined parts are more in the neighborhood of 7-8k words. Combining them in this way would make about 4 parts total. Does this seem like a reasonable length?

Sounds good to me.