Sequels.

If we take the number of comments received is an indication of the popularity of a story, then my Back to School submission is the most successful to date. If we use the same yardstick for part two of that story however, then it becomes one of my least successful efforts.

A similar result can be seen for my latest submission, The Caned at School Forum – part 2. Judging by the comments received on part 1 the sequel was eagerly awaited but the reaction has been disappointing.

I would be interested to hear if the members here can provide an explanation for this. Do sequels simply not appeal to readers? Does the fact that they maybe missed part 1 discourage them from reading part 2? It will be interesting to see the reaction to this post especially if it attracts more interest that my stories mentioned above.

I've noticed the same trend - Part One always attracts the most enthusiasm. I think this maybe because the reader anticipates the "perfect" story in their mind, and also because there is less incentive to comment when the story is closer to completion.

It's somewhat of a crap shoot trying to rely on comments as an indicator of "success." Sometimes you can come up with something that attracts people's attention and inspires them to comment on it (and request a sequel). But once you've done so you've met their expectations but they aren't as motivated to comment this time.

I'd be more interested in how many people read the stories than the comments generated (or not generated). I have a story that was posted back in May that as of this morning has been read 371 times without generating a single comment, good, bad or indifferent. So using comments as a guide it's a monumental failure but at least people have been reading it.

How has the readership been between Parts 1 & 2, and how far apart are the Parts being posted? If the readership is fairly comparable (obviously the first will have more reads) then you can probably write the lesser number of comments off as being reader laziness. If people aren't reading Part 2, it is possible that missing the first discourages them, although it's hardly difficult to look it up. I do it frequently, because even if I've read the previous offerings I want to refresh my memory before starting the latest.

In my case I'm finally getting around to writing sequels to stories that are a year or more old. I'm hopeful that they might motivate people to seek out the original to see how things started, but it's not worth the effort to try to figure out a metric to measure if readership increased thanks to the sequel.

Just keep writing; we'll read it even if we're not good about letting you know what we think about it.

My favourite story about a sequel revolves around a very successful movie of the 1950's called The Virgin Queen in which Bette Davis played Elizabeth I. Apparently some Hollywood Mogul suggested that they make a sequel and call it Son of The Virgin Queen.

I have a very simple method for dealing with this phenomenon.

I'm relatively new to writing, but so far have gotten 39 stories posted, and of those stories, only one has generated no comments. Sometimes the comments aren't terribly complimentary, but at least in all but one instance I've gotten a comment. Like mj2001, I tend to look more for numbers of readers, comments are nice and I love to read them, but it's not always an accurate measure of how much people like a particular story.

What I find peculiar is sometimes the math doesn't add up...I might have 200 views for part 1 of something and 223 views for part two...can't figure out why that might be. Who would want to miss the beginning of something?

I have read 905 stories and commented on 420 of them.

Some series have caught my imagination and I read every instalment. I probably wont comment on every instalment though, especially if I read all of them
in one sitting. Other times, I stumble across a recent instalment but can get the gist of what has happened so don't go back and read earlier ones.

When it comes to commenting, I might not comment if someone else has already said what I would say . There are a whole lot of factors that also affect whether I comment. For example I like getting replies so will usually comment if I have already had exchanges with the author. I have some favourite authors too. I only make positive comments so won't comment if the story is not my cup of tea. Sometimes I am pressed for time or I am hungry or feeling a little guilty about how much time I am on here.

In choosing what to read I am usually drawn by titles and am not bothered how many times it has been read or commented upon. If it has been liked a number of times then that will catch my eye. There are some characters who have really caught my imagination and a series has been used to great effect to develop both character and plot. What does surprise me is that the cliff hanging device is used sparingly and many instalments are virtually standalone stories.

Sorry not to offer an answer because when I add it all up the result can look like I am just a random reader.

I love series stories. Once I get introduced to certain characters, I love to read more about them. If I don't like the beginning, I hardly go back and look for continuation.

When I read a series, if it is old (already finished), I most like comment after reading the whole series and only comment on the last part. If I catch a series from the beginning, I usually comment on the first and then on the last one. I skip commenting on the chapters in between even though I may enjoy them more than the ones I comment on, my silly habit.

Sometimes a person will see a part other than the first in the "latest loaded" list, or in another way where the parts are not presented in order, and view that. If it isn't to that person's taste, s/he may not go back to the first part.