It’s pretty common to get discouraged when you don’t see all your hard work appreciated or praised by others. When you’ve done your best, written the best story you could write and loved writing, but don’t see it reciprocated on the app, can make you doubt your talent and passion for writing. Doubt and discouragement can make your favorite hobby feel like a waste, can make you feel disappointed.
This is my opinion. And I’m not here to discourage you any further, I just want to give you a different opinion on the matter. Personally, I think what people don’t understand is that this app is very competitive nowadays. More people are joining the community and writing stories every day.
So, releasing your story on this app will not guarantee the reads you deserve. I wish it was that easy, it used to be like that. But now, it seems like you would need to gain community support. Make connections with people in the community so they can help you get the reads you deserve. Building your fan base with other artists and authors can give you a boost with reads and encouragement to write more. Of course it’s easier said than done, but remember, you’re on this app for a reason. The reasons may vary but I know you are here to do great things!
For now, just take a break from this app. Clear your head and do something else, spend time with your family and friends. A break can help give you clarity on what your next move should be.
Please don’t think of me not being empathetic. I really am because I’ve been discouraged many times, I just deal with it differently. I hope you get your ambition and encouragement again! 
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Moved to Episode Fan Community since this is about Episode stories. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about creating topics, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got questions. 
To be honest, sometimes I do feel that way. My story has 1K reads at the moment, and I’ve gotten very positive reviews from readers, reviewers, and authors. However, it has not been reviewed by Episode nor has it been chosen for a shelf despite the fact that it has been recommended for three different shelves. I guess it wouldn’t be too discouraging if it weren’t for the fact that my other 2 stories did make it on a shelf the first time they were recommended. But what motivates me to continue is that I do have loyal readers that comment it, read it as soon as I publish a new chapter, and share screenshots, so even though I’d love to be on a shelf and be trending, I’m still happy to actually have people that are still invested in my story after 12 chapters.
As for contests, I only entered the Squad contest and didn’t get my story reviewed even though I received 300 reads. Needless to say, it didn’t win, not that I was expecting it to because I wrote it during a very hard time in my life, and it wasn’t my best work.
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Hun, it happens to EVERY authors, trust me. As an author, you care about your readers. Of course, you may think your story isn’t good enough and so on. But, let me tell you one thing. You should write stories because you WANT to, not because you HAVE to.
And I think EVERY stories have a uniqueness which makes it stand out. Perhaps, the story you’re writing may be the MOST fav of a reader who likes stories with that type of genre.
Let me tell u about me, 
I also sometimes felt demotivated in writing stories. It doesn’t get reads that it should be or, some people will not like it, I have felt like that , LOTS of times.
But, don’t let your pessimism take you away. Fight it with confidence and positive thoughts.
Your goal is to make yourself happy first that you’re writing that story and letting your imagination whisk you away in your own world. That’s the happiness and the good feeling we get.
Take a break, deepbreaths, and then I hope one day, you will be successful in not only just in your stories, but in every aspect of life.
Hope you have a great day/night! 
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Thanks, dear, I need this🌷
It wasn’t a long time after I published my story and I felt this way, but like you said, do this because you want it, not because you have to… 
My story :
[My new story in episode… WHO ARE YOU?]
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Sure🌷
Send me the link to your story.
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I’m just happy that there’s nothing wrong with you 'cause I really don’t care about read counts.
Okay, jokes aside…
There are two types of content: content that many people read, and content that readers love to read.
Those that are reviewed by Episode are stories that have lots of reads, regardless of how popular the author is.
For popular authors, it’s easy to get their story noticed, so their read count is high. Episode reviews stories that are high on the leaderboard and one of the criteria of a high-ranked story is the read count.
Take note: Episode reviews high read count stories, not limited to good stories.
If your story is good but not reviewed by Episode, it’s not bad. It’s just that your story isn’t popular enough, it’s a hidden gem. It’s worthy. So are you.
I’ve read stories that are allegedly “good” as it has so many read but my reaction be like “what the heck-”
I’m not saying the read count and gem count are useless. I’m saying it’s a nice bonus to pay off your hard work. But if you’re gonna use the same metrics people use to measure your story to measure your ability to write then you’re too harsh on yourself. People judge your story, but you’re judging yourself.
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I just don’t get episodes, and there never ending hypocrisy. I literally just saw an SWY entry that is about a celebrity (I was always under the assumption that was against guidelines) But nope it’s approved/reviewed/trending. I don’t know what is wrong with my last 2 contest entries but I am beyond disgusted at this time with Episode and their constant bending of rules.
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I think Episode means by that, is to not promote the real celebrity (which is hard not to fall into that trap when you’re adapting a real-life celebrity and giving them a huge role).
I mean, if the celebrity is based on a real celebrity but not the exact image of them, I still consider this acceptable (although not recommended). However, if it’s basically adapting a real-life celebrity, I’d say that’s a big no-no.
Maybe the fault was never about you. I would say if Episode gave a story that violated the guidelines a green light then it’s on both Episode (for being careless about rules they created) and the author (for being careless and irresponsible).
We couldn’t change everyone, so I suppose we should change ourselves. We don’t have to put them down, we just discourage the community members from following the said paths.
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Not trying to put anyone down, I guess kudos to whatever you have to do to get noticed. I definitely wouldn’t be using a celebrity without their permission. In fact, I have a message to Sebastian Bach currently with permission to use him in a story.
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To me, it isn’t about getting noticed. I write because I have a story to tell and if no one finds it? Well, not my loss haha.
Also, it might have something to do with time. The longer you as a writer stay in this community, the more reads you’ll get in a given time.
Some took a month to get to… 0 reads, while others can get to 500.
Know this, the author who took a month to get to 0 reads is quite a well-known author right now, and that story I’ve mentioned is her first.
Everyone starts small, but the highest grounds require the most steps to reach.
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It’s normal to feel bad if you’re spending time writing a story to then don’t get the recognition you think you deserve. There are plenty of stories out there and it’s really difficult to get to the top if you’re starting right now, but you’ll get there with time if you’re constant!
Most of the known writers in the episode community started just like most of us, having a few reads but continuing the story because they love writing. And look at them now! Having millions of reads in their stories. Have in mind that most of the stories with that many reads have been published for over a year or even more, so don’t feel bad if your story doesn’t go well the second you publish it.
There are a lot of ways to get more reads and let me tell you a few:
- Instagram: Follow people from the community, post your story, post any update… etc. That way people will see your story and they will read it if they see your post and like what you’re writing.
- R4R: A lot of writers do Read For Read, basically you read X episodes of their story and in exchange they read the same amount of yours. This helps you get more reads in many ways. Firstly, you get the reads the other writer is giving you, then, if they like it, they’ll continue reading whenever you update the story, also, as that helps you increase your reads it also increases your story rank! So it’s easier for your story to get recommended to other people.
- Reviewers: On instagram you can find lots of accounts that review episode stories. Most of them have forms you have to fill in to get reviewed, but for some of them you can just ask them directly on their DM’s if they can review your story. Almost every one of them will then publish the review on their instagram feed, so other people will see it and read your story if they seem to like it! A lot of these accounts also do shoutouts/recommendations so they help a lot with that too!
- Readers: Once again, on instagram, there are plenty of episode readers who love reading new stories and sharing them on their instagram page. You can find some of them by searching “episode reader” on the instagram search bar and recommend them your stories! A lot of them will be glad to help you out, if not, you can always try with new people!
These are ways of getting some reads that will certainly help you a lot. As I said before, you start like this but once you start getting more and more reads, episode will recommend your story to other readers as well as helping your story reach the top of the shelfs/rankings!
I forgot to add that usually, stories that get recognition are stories that have been already finished. People tend to go for finished stories because they don’t have to wait for new episodes to get released! Most of the non-completed stories that have lots of reads are usually written by already well known writers (they already have a “fan-base” that reads their stories because they already know how they write and they like it) or have lots of episodes (20 for example) and it’s a good amount even if it isn’t finished. Once again, there are other factors like, R4R. Many people do that with plenty of authors so you’ll see some stories having 1k reads thanks to it.
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I have 2 stories that were semi popular years ago and i stopped writing both of them. I find for
me the pressure of people always asking for new episodes is lovely but also puts pressure on me that i need to get a chapter done
now I am writing a new story and putting a disclaimer that episodes will be released in my own time.
: 
