Looking at "viewed" numbers...

It's interesting to look at the views when I post a multipart story. At the moment the views looked like this:
First part: 135 views
Last part: 16 views

Sometimes I'm glad that I write mostly for myself, and I thank the people who made it through the entire story.
Sysops: Set in a Pathfinder RPG like world, mostly focused around the graduating class of a local high school. Many spankings (Mostly /f) happen, but perhaps not enough to keep people interested. The plot is kick started by the death of a familiar


As someone asked "how can a sorcerer have a familiar"?
Feats 1, 3, 5, 7 + 1 human +1 bonus
Iron Will, Familiar Bond, Improved Familiar Bond - first level
Craft Wondrous - Third level
Extend Spell - fifth level
Spoiler for the story - seventh level

Is Goodgulf a spy, and the LSF Forum a modern dead letter box? He appears to be speaking in code. The only bit I understood was the bit about Pathfinder Rocket-Propelled-Grenades, clearly a smart munition.


Less seriously, the more worrying thing is when Part 2 of a series has a significant drop off in viewership.
I suspect that if Part 1 doesn't contain enough immediate hand-on-bottom action Parts 2 onwards are ignored by those readers for whom that is the main driver of the initial click.

just to confound the issue, I have just read an 8 part story (Trading places by loup and very enjoyable) in this order - part 1 (after search on at least 40 favourites) then 2,3,8,6,5,7,4,8.

It was a big investment in time which partly accounts for the order. Whilst I was enjoying it, I had the opposite thought to expressed above as there was a lot of detailed action and I am interested mainly in the psychology of the characters, with a good plot being a bonus. Rather than skim reading, which I hate doing, I was drawn in to each instalment by the synopsis and many series do work quite well as standalone instalments.

One thing I do find is that if the synopsis tells me too much, that can be a passion killer. I want to be intrigued by the synopsis and have unanswered questions. It would be the same for any great work of fiction - tell me at the beginning exactly what is going to happen in a chapter of Dickens and I could lose interest.

In the end, I read it all, partly to fully appreciate the twists in the plot which were spread nicely and because I was enjoying the predicament so much. There was also one sentence and a later short reflection on the meaning of that sentence which shifted the paradigm and that is always worth savouring.

Yes, I can be one of those fickle readers but I do enjoy so much that is in the library. I have also read a lot of series all the way through and reaped the benefits from doing that.

I too, watch the viewer numbers on my serials and short series. There is always a drop off after Pt 1 as, quite naturally, readers dip into Part 1 to see if it suggests interesting subsequent parts. If it doesn't do it for them, they will not progress.

I would normally agree with opb "I suspect that if Part 1 doesn't contain enough immediate hand-on-bottom action Parts 2 onwards are ignored by those readers for whom that is the main driver of the initial click." but have been interested in the performance of my recent three part story, Cara's Request.

The first chapter is all about her making that request and she doesn't actually get spanked until Pt 2. The figures are 424, 292, 246. The 424 surprises me as I don't think numbers normally get that high, that quickly, without repeat views. It suggests to me that some of the readership actually enjoy "No actual spanking" stories. It also gives the lie to opb's and my theory--no spankings in part one, no reading of part two.

I was aware of that risk when publishing Cara's Request so added an author's note at the beginning:

The following history concerns itself with the slow unfolding of a young woman’s plans to persuade her mentor to employ corporal punishment, as encouragement, when assisting her to realise her ambitions. If that is all that you need to know, apart from whether or not she succeeds in her objective, then it is suggested that you proceed immediately to Part 2, where all is revealed.

LSF, in their wisdom, decided not to include it.

Geoffrey Stirling.

It wasn't considered suitable for an author 'note' but there's nothing whatsoever to stop you from adding it as an author 'comment'.

Februs. It's your site so you make the rules and I try to follow them. Unaware of the distinction between what is suitable for an author note, and what is suitable for an author comment.

As, however, the purpose of the note was to spare those who didn't want to read a "no actual spanking" introduction, from having to do so, I don't think it would work as an author comment, unless readers regularly read the comments before the story.

Anyway, as previously--your site, your rules. Oh, and a very fine site too.

Geoffrey Stirling.

The author comment and author note are both displayed in the exact same place within the story viewer, i.e. just prior to the story text.

The author notes are really intended for information essential to the viewing of the story, such as "this story takes place in the 1800s" or something along those lines.

Any other information that the author wishes to convey to the reader (within reason) can be submitted as a comment by the author on their own submission.

In the case of indicating to the potential reader whether a particular part of a serial contains any actual spanking then the 'no actual spanking' icon will show that anyway, although of course that will only be shown once the submission has been validated.

Februs
I though authors weren't supposed to comment on their own stories.

Goodgulf
It's early so a lot of people are viewing it before the categories(M/f F/F etc) are assigned, and neither are the summaries. I would guess that this early feedback is a reflection of a lot of people clicking to see what kind of story it is.

Just a guess, but generally, even a well received series loses 25-40% at some point after part 1.

Way, way back authors were able to use the comment facility to effectively engage in dialogue with those that had commented. However, that was never how we'd intended the comment function to be used and it also skewed the comment totals.

We then modded the software so that the author could provide additional information on their submissions by commenting, and instead of appearing along with all the readers' comments it got displayed at the start of their submission within the story viewer.