I think that Episode should make a shelf for less known authors (like myself) and upcoming authors. We all know that it is a bit hard to gain a lot of reads within the app and as well as the Episode community. Unless, you have a bomb story and your story takes off in 24 hours, others have a hard to gaining readers. Personally, I am a victim of this. So to help less known and upcoming authors, I have a suggestion. Why not make a permanent shelf on the app to showcase stories from less known and upcoming authors. Does anybody agree with me?
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I think there’s already a feature request for this
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I like this idea! Or even all new arrivals! Not just new stories from well known authors but, from new authors as well! What is the name of your story/stories? Perhaps I could read them/it!
Well I have two stories that I claim on the app. They are called Popular Girl Gone Bad & Sophisticated & Deceived.
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Curious though, what do you consider a “small” author?
With over 100k reads (I think you’ve mentioned before one of your stories has around that?), I think a lot of people wouldn’t consider you a small author?
So how would you expect Episode to determine who can or can’t be on a small author’s shelf? Total reads? Reads on a particular story? And what would you consider a high amount of reads?
What makes someone a smaller author?
Just general questions because it’s all well and good to say that smaller authors should have a shelf, but maybe you should define what you consider a “smaller” author to be.
Episode do “hidden gems” shelves occasionally and I think last time the limit was 10k reads? None of those authors had a huge amount of reads across all their stories either.
An ongoing hidden gems shelf that changes weekly would be cool though and I believe there’s already a feature request to have a “recently updated/new stories” shelf for each genre?
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A small author is basically a less known author and an upcoming author. I know with my first story having almost 100k reads, some people do might consider me a small author. I think I am a small author because not many people within the Episode platform know about me and my stories. I know the Episode platform does not know ALL of the stories that consists on the app, but I do feel like they should distinguish between an author with a large amount of reads versus an author with only 10k reads. There’s a huge difference there, and I feel like something has to be changed. However, I do feel like there should be a limit of readers that I story has to qualify for the Hidden Gems shelf or any other small author’s shelf. Wouldn’t you agree? A high amount of reads to me is a story that has over 100k reads max. Those stories aren’t written by less known authors and if they were, their stories gained a lot of attention and people started to take interest in them.
Like I said before, a smaller author is basically a less known or upcoming author. They are considered small authors because they are just getting into the Episode community or nobody knows about their story. That’s how I see it.
I do think that Episode should take some initiative to giving less known and upcoming authors a chance to buy on some type of shelf. It’ll definitely help out a smaller author because now your story is out there. Everybody can see it now. I know that they’ve created the Hidden Gems shelf to give authors a chance. That’s okay, but I do feel like they could do a bit more. Some popular authors have an opportunity to work with Episode on a story, and that’s cool. However, I do feel like they should treat every author equally .
Of course. I was simply asking what your definition/limit was as I’m sure this would vary for everyone.
For a hidden gems shelf, I personally think 10k is fair. I occasionally post stories on my own IG page and my “limit” is 2k (although it’s flexible).
See, that’s really hard to define. You don’t consider yourself a known author, but with 100k reads, some people might disagree with you. (I’m not just talking about you. There are many other authors with over 100k reads who would also consider themselves unknown.) Like… how do you prove that someone with 100k reads is unknown? Their follower count?
To me personally, I’d consider a “smaller” author as someone with under 100k reads but again, it’s hard to define because read count doesn’t take time into consideration (i.e there’s a massive difference between 100k reads in two years and 100k reads in two months).
I guess the point I was trying to make is it’s really hard to define so if you want to put forward a suggestion for a shelf, you should think about what the parameters should be 
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I see what you’re saying. You could probably base a smaller author based on how many reads they have and how many stories they’ve written. If you’re like me, I’ve written a lot of stories and I discontinued some of them, but I’ve been writing on the platform for about 2 years now. To some people, they won’t consider me as a small author because I’ve been writing on the platform for 2 years. I have the experience versus an author that just started writing 5 months ago. Do you kind of see what I mean? I’m trying to explain it more clearer.
I just want to expand on this idea:
Don’t get me wrong, 100k reads is definitely a high amount of reads, but to most people wanting these shelves for “lesser known authors” or “undiscovered gems” would also agree that 5k reads is a huge amount too.
As I mentioned above, there are already feature requests for things similar to this… And actually, I realize you’ve made a few threads with a similar topic. It’s great to see you want to support this within the community, but hearing you have 100k reads on one story, when I have less than 5k total reads makes me feel like you are a actually a big author trying to support small ones. I know you’re trying to imply that you are a small author, but that’s not how it comes across to me. I think you shouldn’t be diminishing your accomplishments and should use your status (no matter how small you think it is) to support the already made feature requests.
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haha when you consider yourself a “small author” with a 100k reads okay sure
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Actually, I know “smaller” authors (definition here being ~100k or less reads and not in payments) who have been approached to have their stories featured (whether it ended up happening or not). Some of the featured authors now weren’t “big” when they were featured. But if you’re implying that Episode should somehow officially feature every single story on the app or none at all… then I don’t think that’s realistic.
Well I don’t have a story that has 100k reads, but I’m pretty close to it. I see what you’re saying. A lot of people may think that I am somewhat of a popular author or an author that has a lot of reads, but I don’t consider myself that. If I was a top author, many people within the community would click on my story to read it instantly. That is not the case with me. Currently. I am having a hard time getting one of my newest stories out there. I’m having a hard time gaining reads and I don’t know why. It’s the complete opposite with me. So that’s why I consider myself as a less known author because a lot of people don’t know about me and my stories.
I do understand what you mean. I should’ve said that because it isn’t really “factual.” But yes, you don’t have to be a popular author to have your story featured. However, it does come with a lot of gains meaning a lot of people will know about you and your story within the Episode community. A person can go from being a less known author to being a popular author just by having their story featured. Sometimes that is the case for some authors…
Erm not really. It sounds like you’re now saying you’re a big author because you’ve written a lot of stories and have been on the platform for over two years? But your first post said you’re a smaller author? 
I’m a little confused.
If this shelf was to go ahead, what criteria do you think Episode should look at? How long someone has been on the platform? How many stories they have? Their reads? Their followers? (These are general questions- anyone can feel free to answer them lol)
Would you really complain if that happened to you though? I think it’s great for the authors who get picked up, especially if they weren’t well known at the time. It’s like anything in the real world- some people get “lucky”.
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That is not what I’m saying actually. To make this clear, I consider myself a less known author because a lot of people within the episode community don’t know about me. None of my stories are blasted on the app; I have a hard time gaining readers for any story that I write. Which is why I discontinued a lot of them because I gave up. Nobody know about my story.
I guess I’m very different to a typical reader then, because being a top author is not something that would make me click a story. I’m honestly a “judge a book by its cover” type of person… Not by it’s author. In fact, big author’s have released stories that I have purposely avoided because I’ve seen them be rude on the forums or they’ve done something else I don’t agree with. I think for some, being put in the spotlight actually hurts more than it does good.
But I’m a bit off topic…
I would go on the record to say that most TOP AUTHOR’S still wouldn’t even be recognized by their name to most people. I often know stories, and not names of the author’s themselves. I think the only author’s I know by name are ones I talk to on the forums mostly… And that turns out to be people with less than 1k reads most of the time.
So I guess all this is really just circumstantial? Based on the type of reader?
Sorry for the rant, lol 
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look if you’re gaining a 100k reads you don’t have a hard time gaining reads, and enough people know about you. And most episode readers aren’t in the community they just have the app downloaded. At least compared to the authors who struggle to even gain a 100 reads and do read for read and reviews, 100k is a lot.
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Ok, that makes more sense lol. I just got confused by this:
And I thought you were saying that a smaller author would be a newer author so you lost me a little bit there.
Okay so for me personally, if I was thinking of stories to put on a “smaller” authors shelf I would look at the total reads, the average reads across all their stories and I think you’d need to take timing into consideration. 1000 reads in 6 months definitely isn’t the same as 1000 reads in a month. So I guess I’d be looking for authors who had been around for 6+ months and had never been on a weekly shelf, had 10k reads total (or another amount to be defined) or maybe 10k average reads across their stories?
This is just my criteria. I was just wondering what yours was . Having specific criteria would probably help when making suggestions because just saying “less known authors” could honestly mean anyone not in payments or who hasn’t been on a shelf despite their read count.
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I see what you’re saying.