Looking at "viewed" numbers...

I don't write many multi part stories but for those I have I seem to lose 30-40% after the first episode. This I consider unavoidable and is probably not much influenced by the level of "action" featured. Generally I prioritize plot narrative anyway.
However what I do look out for is when someone clicks on several separate stories in sequence spending sufficient time to read them through.

I've only written 3 serials, and the views stats are puzzling.

One, with no spanking in first installment, it seems to fit the theory that readers don't return if there was no "action" in episode one (even though that makes no sense, since the content icons show that there IS action in following episodes. I attributed this drop to readers not connecting with a plot, scenario and characters (one at least) that didnt fit the expected norms for spanking fiction... because they didn't.

In another, the number of views actually INCREASED for the 2nd installment, even if by a mere 2%. Here again there was no action in in episode 1. I figured readers just paid attention to the content icons and skipped "the boring part" to get to the "action."

My third serial had spanking in each installment, but the number of views dropped over 40% from 1st to 2nd. Exactly what they were expecting to find but didnt in a tale entitled clearly, accurately and appropriately "Alice's Adventures in Spankoland" I'll never know.

That's really helpful Februs. So, in the case in point (my note warning some readers off Cara Pt 1), I should have waited for the story to appear on the site and then made a comment (usual place) and my words would shortly appear at the beginning of the story?

Geoffrey.

Exactly that.

First, allow me to apologise for the "sour grapes" post. 'Twas quite late here and I was in my cups...

As an aside, ice wine is the nectar of the gods. It is normally served in half bottles, but the alcohol content is much closer to a brandy than a wine. That's something that can easily forgotten as it is a wine. Two wine glasses of ice wine will you (or in this case, me) roughly the same as two wine glasses of brandy.

Being much more awake (and sober), I can see that the word count is playing a large role here. That is, people are only reading X amount of words at a time. And it is a long story with a high word count.

As for the cryptic note about feats, that only matters to those who can understand it. It is an explanation for readers who were surprised to see a sorcerer with a familiar.

Many thanks. It was one of my earliest stories and I have to admit that at the time, my English was even less developed than what it is now, so I'm delighted to hear that you still found it worth a read. I hope to one day get back to it and give it an appropriate ending. It is still a thorn in my side that I haven't been able to wrap it up properly. Any suggestions for the continuation are much appreciated.


A read-on ratio from the first to the second episode of 50% I would say is pretty normal. Many, if not most, of the views come before validation, meaning that the readers click the story out of the blue to see if it's to their liking, not having anything but the name to go on. Naturally, many readers will find that it was not their type of story and move on instead for clicking part 2. Once a story has been validated, a larger percentage of the readers clicking the first episode usually read all parts, because now they have something to go on when selecting it. Having that 50% drop doesn't mean that the story is worse than any other. The difference is when it's a single story, you don't know how many who actually read it after clicking it. You can guess that about half of the readers follow it to the end, while the rest just close it and move on. It gives the false impression that single stories are better/more successful than serials.

Just a thought - maybe the numbers for the second part are not lower because people have stopped reading, but are higher for the first part because they have to re-read it to remind themselves of the story so far. At least, that's what I tell myself when a serial nosedives.

Surely the same thing must happen with a single part story. Sometimes the reader does not read the whole story because after the first say 25 percent they decide that it is not for them and stop reading and close the story

I don't believe that the "viewed" numbers work that way though.

As I understand it, if a particular Library member clicks on a posted work, that counts as one "view" (even if he/she clicks off right away after reading only the first paragraph), however the same member clicking on it again doesn't count as another "view."

Many people apparently decide that they don't want to invest the time and effort to read an entire serial after starting out with its first part, especially if they don't find its content immediately appealing. Also, they may resort to 'picking and choosing' which parts to read based on the validation data.

As for those readers who might give up if part one of a serial strikes them as slow-moving due to the background being supplied by the author, it should be possible in numerous cases to start out with some spanking action, then gradually fill in much of the background as the plot progresses.

That's also just a thought... --C.K.

And some (like a reader I had today) don't want to invest even a minute on a short story. This chap viewed 16 stories in 8 minutes.


I was advised, when writing for publication, to get to an 'action scene' asap, but here in the library surely authors should feel free to start a serial or a story just the way they want? It's the quality of the views (as measured by comments) that matters, not the quantity.