šŸ¤“ 100 Reads and #100 Trending. Letā€™s talk strategy! šŸ§

No. I donā€™t believe so. I will have to find that excerpt about reader retention hold on.

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i agree with you. @EliseC

You can hit the trending section even from r4rs too but i think you need to stay at top 100 rank.

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Is there a minimum number of reads a story needs to get before Reader Retention can be calculated?
From testing weā€™ve learned that in order to get reliable data about reader engagement stories need to have at least 100 reads.

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I believe thatā€™s to be featured (on a weekly shelf) or to win a contest. Not just to be reviewed to trend.

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Ok. I thought Episode evaluates readers as well before reviewing.

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If itā€™s just to show up on the trending section, I donā€™t think so. This whole review process is still fairly new, but I believe any story that trends is supposed to be automatically reviewed.

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Even better. Thank you. If you strategize to get a certain amount of people to read your newly published story at a certain time then you can trend.

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Yeah if you trend over 100 you should be reviewed!

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Especially if your story is in horror, adventure or maybe even thriller :rofl:
Romance and drama need quite a lot of reads to hit top 100. But for sure, you could strategise.
For a newer author, having 5 episodes is probably better because itā€™s easier to get more reads from a smaller amount of people.

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The best strategy to get recognition from Episode is to have a group of people read all three of your chapters in a certain time frame. I still say shoot for 33 people in a group starting out. That gets you to almost 100 reads. You may trend if that many people read your that same day depending on your genre. You may also get on a shelf because your reader retention numbers are flawless.

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Lol. You might need 1000 plus people in the romance genre.

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It doesnā€™t matter what genre if your retention numbers are flawless. You get on a shelf with good retention numbers.

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Yes and then you can trend from there (once reviewed for a shelf you can trend), but until then you wonā€™t even be visible. Which is why most people want to get reviewed. (All my stories have been reviewed and most of mine have been shelved.)

For context- before being reviewed my new story gained 450 reads in 4 days. After being reviewed, I updated and gained 10k reads in one week. Just being visible helps!

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Absolutely. Getting on the shelf gets you an audience. Thank you for sharing that.

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My thoughts, that post said they look at reader retention. A small author has to be strategic on many people they to get to read their in a certain time frame with other small writers.

Also, they have to pay attention on days when people are not getting a lot of reads in that particular genre.

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Thatā€™s for shelves though.
To just show up on the trending section (and be reviewed so you can be seen), you just need to, well, trend. Top 100. So all you need to focus on there is reads.
Retention is important if you want to be considered for a future shelf, but thereā€™s no guarantee youā€™ll be on one, even if your story is amazing with great retention (it depends if your story fits a shelf theme).

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Well there are so many shelf categories. You need to be strategic on how you write your stories.

Starting out you donā€™t have an audience. It is hard finding readers on the forum to begin with and they might not like the genre you choose to write your story in.

Small writers tend to rely on other small writers to read their story. Why not group up and be strategic about reads?

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Oh for sure. Iā€™m not arguing that lol.
If I was starting right now as a new author (when I started on Episode, you didnā€™t need to be reviewed to be visible on the ranks) I would pick an underrated genre if possible (itā€™s very easy to trend in horror. Iā€™ve had the same short story sit top 20 for 2.5 years now lol). If you got 100 reads (or even, like, 50 reads) in horror within an hour, youā€™d hit top 100 easily.

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If you have enough small writers as a group, you may be able to trend if you are strategic about the selected genre. You have to pay attention to when big writers in that genre get the most reads. Try to avoid those days as a group.

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Not arguing. You are making some valid points as a big author that has an audience already.

I like talking strategy.

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