Discussion: Promoting a story

Community Episode Fan Community
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Hello everyone, the purpose of this thread is to discuss story promotion. What’s your opinion on promoting a story? Do you have any tips to offer? Do you think r4r are pointless? Do you promote your story on other social media outlets?

I’m currently in a promotion slump. I’m getting to the point of stopping my story promotion all together. If you have been in a promotion slump, how did you get out of it? As you can see, I’m in need of some advice.

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What’s your opinion on promoting a story? I promote mines and also I love to promote others.
Do you have any tips to offer? Not understanding this question. Tips on promoting a story or R4R?
Do you think r4r are pointless? Depends on how you look at it. If your doing it just for reads then its pointless. If your doing it to discover others stories and for others to discover yours than no. But sometimes with R4R you do not get Honest people.
Do you promote your story on other social media outlets? I do on my Instagram. Before it was just the forum.

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Tips on promoting your story. I’ve been ghosted on r4r, so my outlook isn’t positive.

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I love r4rs. I sometimes find stories I really like.
I do r4rs on stories where they ask me to read first. I know they are serious that way for some reason.

I do promote on IG. I take breaks if I get overwhelmed.

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I no longer do R4R for that reason. Unless if someone asks me than I do it. And sometimes they wont read mine. But it does not faze me. I did my part. I keep being myself and being honest. With promoting. Hmmm. I promote mines but I actuallt enjoy more promoting others. Getting friends that support your story is a way to help. Many of mines have promoted my story. And I never asked them too. That is what I do. I enjoy more promoting others than mine.

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What’s your opinion on promoting a story? It’s a great way to get started but after a while it gets repetitive and tiring in my opinion.
Do you have any tips to offer?
Let the other person go first during r4rs. Have people promote your story on Instagram. Have an attention grabbing cover and summary. Have friends that support you.
Do you think r4r are pointless?
At some point they do, yes. When I first published my story I was eager for r4rs since 2-3 months ago I didn’t experience much ghosting. Nowadays, r4r’s are pointless since ghosting is a problem and people only want to benefit themselves. I naturally let nature take its course on Episode. I think gaining reads may also have to do with the tags that are put on a story.
Do you promote your story on other social media outlets? Nope. Only on the forums.

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Taking a break is a good idea. I’ve been promoting my story non stop since I published. I’m probably burned out at this point.

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It does take time for stories to get recognise. And taking a break is good from promoting. I am waiting on you @amberose I know what ever you are writting is worth reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

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Yes. Take a week to yourself.

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~ What’s your opinion on promoting a story? ~

Hmm… I don’t like to be asked to promote stories? (Either by reading or sharing screen shots)? Y’all know how there’s people who PM you asking to read their story (usually through Instragram PM)? I usually leave those people on read… sorry? I think the last person to actually do this to me was Joseph Evans on Twitter xD /// I like to promote stories mainly on my instagram. I don’t usually promote stories on my FB, Twitter, Snapchat or here because easy uploading and I can usually tag the author. When I do promote I usually add smilies or words to the images.

~ Do you have any tips to offer? ~

I can’t think of anything at the moment…

~ Do you think Read For Reads are pointless? ~

I won’t ever do read for reads because of reader retention, like I think I was one of the first few people who could explain ‘reader retention’ in understandable terms because it’s confusing as hell - but read for reads can eventually hurt your stories ‘score’, and the higher the score the higher the rank. (Higher the rank equals more reads…). However, they aren’t pointless. As mentioned in other posts above mine you can find awesome stories. You can also have your story reviewed for tips on how to improve your story.

~ Promote your Story on other Social Media Outlets ~

Yes, I share my stories on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and on here. I’m thinking of also expanding to Reddit & Tumblr pretty soon but I’m procrastinating. (Maybe even Pinterest? Is that still hip?)

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How does r4r hurt your reader retention? :thinking:

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What’s your opinion on promoting a story?
In terms of promoting my own story, it kind of makes me feel uncomfortable. I usually try and turn it into a bit of a joke, but in general I only suggest my own stories if someone is asking for something specific that my stories fit into. If it’s just a general “share your stories”, I’ll skip it.

Do you have any tips to offer?
Tips on how to promote yourself :thinking:
Well, as I already mentioned, self-promotion makes me uncomfortable but here’s something’s I’ve found that have accidentally helped promote my stories:

  • Talk about your story - I don’t mean on promotion threads, I mean on discussion threads and community fan threads… And don’t even mention your story, just mention stuff about it. It’s sort of like a cryptic way I have learnt acts as promotion. I honestly never intend it to be “promotion” when I do it, it just sort of works out that way. I’ve made references to my own stories (kind like how I’m doing now without naming them) and people have replied and asked what story I’m talking about and that they want to check it out. I’ve seen people also ask @FallenAngelNight13 too. Neither of us do it intentional to promote ourselves, but it kind of has that domino effect anyway.
  • Pay it forward - I’d much rather promote other stories I like over my own. Not only does it make the recommendations seem more genuine (which is the main reason I do it in all honesty), but it sort of guilts the person you recommend into promoting you back (lol that makes it sound more evil/malicious than it actually is). I guess the point of this tip is that what goes around, comes around. If you spend time promoting the stories you like, eventually people catch on and forum stalk check you out, see what you’re working ok, etc.
  • Add your story links to your profiles on forums or insta or whatever and then just become really active on that platform. I solely believe a decent amount of my reads are due to the fact that I’m just commenting on things on the forums so much so that people click on my profile to find out why I feel the need to comment all the time and then they find my links there and then they’re trapped

Do you think r4r are pointless?
Pointless isn’t the word I’d use, because when people follow through with them, you get more reads and thus there was the point… But I don’t find them worth it. I know a lot of people have said they have found some real great stories by doing read for reads, but at the end of the day, aren’t people just doing it for personal gain? No offence to people who do them, but I’d just rather have people read my work because it spiked their interest, and not because they feel obligated to.

Do you promote your story on other social media outlets?
No, I only have the forums so it’s the only place I sort of can promote it. I guess I promote my other stories within my stories because I have a splash at the end of each episode that lists my other work… Which needs updated tbh, thanks self for reminding me.

If you have been in a promotion slump, how did you get out of it?
Lol, I just ride that slump. I honestly get to a point where I feel like that’s enough promotion for one story and just stop actively seeking out ways to promote it. But in saying that, I’m very blessed with readers who promote for me :rofl:

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Ahaha, thanks! (took me so long to write this one because I’m at work and I saw your comment and then the pressure was on)

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I think r4r is a great idea because it benefits both of you

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:smile: sorry did not mean to pressure you. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: But well said. Another wonderful comment. :grin:

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Thank you :smiling_face_with_three_hearts::rofl:

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I never thought about a discussion thread. I’ll take what you said into consideration. I’m going to take a break from promoting. I’m thankful to have a few friends that will promote for me.

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Fair enough, enjoy your break :smiley:

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What’s your opinion on promoting a story?
I basically agree with everything @amberose said, so I will start with this: self-promotion makes me feel uncomfortable. I wish I didn’t feel this way because I know there’s nothing wrong with it but I just can’t.
First I wanted to start with “I don’t even know why I’m commenting”, but that’s a lie and in the next paragraph I will explain why.

Do you have any tips to offer?

  • Participate in discussions on the forums, and I don’t only mean specific threads but in discussions in general. Honestly I won’t likely to check out stories from authors who don’t really do anything here except for sharing their stories in every single thread. On the other hand if I find someone’s posts interesting and/or reletable, I will probably check out their stories at some point because of curiousity.
  • Read and promote other people’s stories and they might read and promote yours in “return”. Plus this way you may find amazing stories that are hidden on the app. I actually found some of my favourites from other authors who liked my stories.

Do you think r4r are pointless?
I don’t do R4R, so I can’t say for sure but I’ve seen many people saying that it is a good way to start, but not the way to gain genuine readers. I definitely agree with this. The truth is that R4R is for getting reads and nothing else: people are not interested in your story, they just want you to read their story.

Do you promote your story on other social media outlets?
No, so it feels even more stupid not to promote myself here either :smile:
From what I’ve seen, Instagram is probably the best way for promotion so I would suggest it to everyone, unless they hate it as much as I do.

If you have been in a promotion slump, how did you get out of it?
I’ve been always there and I can’t get out of it. For example I have a contest entry that I wanted to share a few times but I ended up sharing it once, only because someone was asking for story recommendations and I thought it fit perfectly. But sometimes, am I seriously copying Amber’s reply? I share certain things about my writing without mentioning the story See? I just did it in the previous sentence and in some cases it helps me to get reads. As an example, I remember when I made a post about comedy stories and I made it clear I wrote in that genre. That day I got significantly more reads than I usually do and I don’t think it was coincidence.

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Lol, we’re so similar. You’re like my sister from another mister… Except I feel like you have nicer ways of explaining things and I just dgaf that I made it sound like I only comment on things to get more reads :smile:

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