I am sure it has been asked before, but the key word I used did not reveal an answer.
What is the best day of the week to submit a story to get the most readers?
I am sure some days are a lot better than others.
I am sure it has been asked before, but the key word I used did not reveal an answer.
What is the best day of the week to submit a story to get the most readers?
I am sure some days are a lot better than others.
What is the best day of the week to submit a story to get the most readers?
I am sure some days are a lot better than others.
It isn't as straight-forward as you might think.
First there are those days where most potential readers have more free time to read: Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.
But, as more authors submit their stories then, the list of new and updated stories on SOL's homepage gets longer quickly and the entries scroll down out of sight fast. Potential readers looking for something interesting to read will start on top and scroll down until they find something they might like.
OK, I admit there are some readers who scroll down the whole list and decide after they've seen all.
Then there are those – like me – who immediately switch from "Stream" to "My Stream" and only switch back to "Stream" if there is nothing new in "My Stream".
One thing is IMO obvious: if you post your story chapter-wise you should post regularly. Few things are more frustrating to the reader than missing a posting because you couldn't post according to your schedule and then after some weeks finally post the next chapter at another day of the week.
To me large gaps between posting will cause me to stop reading, because my memory is – due to my age – not up to remember enough of the already read part to seamlessly continue reading. I may or may not restart reading the story after completion, depending how well I liked the already read part and how much I remember of it.
HM.
Few things are more frustrating to the reader than missing a posting because you couldn't post according to your schedule and then after some weeks finally post the next chapter at another day of the week.
If a reader 'follows' the author, don't they get alerted when there's an update?
AJ
One thing is IMO obvious: if you post your story chapter-wise you should post regularly. Few things are more frustrating to the reader than missing a posting because you couldn't post according to your schedule and then after some weeks finally post the next chapter at another day of the week.
To me large gaps between posting will cause me to stop reading, because my memory is – due to my age – not up to remember enough of the already read part to seamlessly continue reading. I may or may not restart reading the story after completion, depending how well I liked the already read part and how much I remember of it.
100% agree!
When I look at the new stories posted I go through the entire list and open each one that looks interesting to me in it's own tab as I see it for a further look.
SunSeeker
What is the best day of the week to submit a story to get the most readers?
Diverging from the question, I know my stories won't get many readers but I try to choose days when the amount of new content is relatively slim in a hope that evening out the flow will help make the site more attractive to new readers.
Anecdotally, posting on quiet days seems to get me more readers initially but it seems to even out over time so there's no long-term advantage.
AJ
I like to post on weekends because I think there might be more readers looking for something to read then, but I have no statistical basis to support that idea. It's more of a superstition.
I think it's more important to post enough content to establish yourself as a worthy(?) poster whenever you post.
The key detail here is, how quickly can you post? If you're posting as you write, as most SOL, yet few professional authors (other than bloggers) do, they you really can't speed or decrease your postings much. I've always preferred completing the entire first draft, go back and revise and edit the entire story, before posting it. Yet I'm the exception, hardly the rule. Can you imagine a best selling author writing and posting each chapter as he writes it? They wouldn't remain renowned for long.
Plus, personally, if you look at anything for too long, you begin to see what you expect, rather than what's on the page, so with all of that work, you also need a bit of distance to actually see your own errors. Some are better at this than others, yet if you're on a constant treadmill, where's the distance, where the objectivity and where's the time to perfect anything?
However, preparing everything in advance also gives in greater freedom, to post however is the most beneficial to you. Posting one chapter a month may be a sensible posting schedule, or you, yet it's destined to frustrate readers, who'll likely give up on your story entirely, before it's even halfway through.
So, I've always preferred two to three chapters a week, so in my case, that's usually Tuesdays and Thursdays, or Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. As others have noted, since most readers have more time to read on weekends, ensuring the more dramatic posts appear on Fridays is a sensible solution, with Mondays or Tuesdays being the followup day.
That allows the most to read the most exciting chapters when they have the most time, then to read the follow-up, slower and more tedious detailed chapters on those 'off days', where there's no pressing need to read them immediately (i.e. they can certainly wait).
However, posting regularly is essential, so readers know when to expect to find your story. Also, the more frequently you post, the higher your overall score. Thus posting three 3,000 word chapters will garner you much better scores than posting a single 10,000 word chapter each week. Yet in the end, a sustainable pace is more essential than an unsustainable one. And much of that posting pace depends on your typing, revision and editing speeds (i.e. tough typists do better than hunt-and-pecker two-finger typists do). Just as being a speed-reader also helps the entire process.
So, in short, past as frequently as you can maintain for your highest scores, yet never post faster than you can maintain, as every time you miss posting entirely, trust me, you'll most definitely hear about it from readers, and your overall score will also drop on those days. That's just a necessary inevitability.
The other question is when to post everyday. You've no doubt noticed that most stories post first thing in the morning, generally meaning they were submitted the previous day, so they're essentially 'dumped' first thing in the morning. So to garner the most attention, it's generally to post later in the morning. In most cases 9a.m. or even 10a.m. is preferable to those pre-morning submissions, as readers will pay more attention to the story if it's not posted with all the other early morning crap.
However, posting regularly is essential, so readers know when to expect to find your story. Also, the more frequently you post, the higher your overall score. Thus posting three 3,000 word chapters will garner you much better scores than posting a single 10,000 word chapter each week. Yet in the end, a sustainable pace is more essential than an unsustainable one.
One thing to note is that while you can sometimes adjust chapter breaks if you write the entire story before splitting it up, breaking up a story into very small chunks could also be harmful to your scores. For instance, while there are multiple ways to split up a 10,000 word story, splitting it into 2-5 roughly even parts might give the best results in terms of score and number of downloads. I know of some stories with less than 1,000 words per chapter which for me is worse than a large story not broken down into chapters.
That's very true, yet if you maintain a consistent minimum size, few readers ever complain about getting MORE story for their daily allotment. ;) Thus I tend to veer more to the higher end of my usual word-count variance.
I've NEVER written a 1,000 word chapter, my closest is 1,500, which isn't far off, yet I've also regularly written 15,000 word chapters.
But again, you're right about irregular sized chapters, yet I find those 'solid-walls of text' to be more common in short stories, rather than in novel-length or saga-length stories, as they either post the whole thing at once, or update the chapter length with every post, which itself can be equally as annoying. Frankly, natural breaks in reading make for easier reads, as we all gotta pee occasionally.
In my opinion, the Author needs to decide why they are writing and posting stories.
If the reason you write is to satisfy a desire to create, when you start to post your story is irrelevant. In my opinion the best time to start posting is after you finish the story because you have reviewed and fixed everything you found that is an error. The day (days) you post is also irrelevant because ratings are important but not that critical to you. The frequency of posting needs to be often enough that your reader maintains interest in your story. I think once a week is good.
If the reason you write is to gain attention, Then, when you start posting, the day you post, and frequency you post is important. If you plan to post as you write, you need to select a frequency of posting that allows you to create the next chapter before it is due to post. An erratic posting schedule disappoints readers if they are expecting your next chapter on a specific date and you don't deliver.
I feel the two reasons I suggested are extremes. For most authors, their reasons for writing are a mix of the above reasons.
I've always written for myself, writing stories that challenge me the most, rather than based on popular themes of concepts, yet I still like my stories to be appreciated, so I'm always concerned with my frequency of posting, as if you don't care who reads it, then why bother posting it at all. (Though, honestly, I've pretty much reached that point, where I'm more inclined just to write for myself than I am to post, as I learn more about writing when I DON'T post on ANY schedule. And thus I'm more able to concentrate on more experimental writing and techniques.
If you never vary your techniques, then you'll essentially always write the same types of stories, whatever the plot or genre may be.
As I said, many authors are a mix of the two reasons for writing.
Personally, I write for my own pleasure and post to share what I wrote with others. Yes, I do enjoy receiving complimentary feedback, however the feedback is not my reason for writing.