1. Do I have alot of readers? / affect you badly / want more? - Compared to some, yes. Even before I was featured, I had a fan base of dedicated readers. Right now, it’s probably alot less since I’ve been on hold for like… a month+. Like what has been mentioned before, I really dislike answering the same questions over and over again, but that’s unavoidable really. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have more - haha - only cause the next step after being featured is entering the payment program which is my next goal
2. Fans or Friends? / Read anything you publish? - Oh, def Fans. However, it started with my internet-friends reading my ‘hit’ story. I forced like all 12 of them to read the first three chapters for a face-reveal xD Now it’s mostly fans. Though I like my fans, I wouldn’t call them friends because usually they say Hi, I love your story, and don’t ever contact me again I love conversations, but it feels weird if I am the one asking about my story . Would they read anything I publish, yes - but it’s kind of a curse in two ways. When I published my Thriller Entry, my title was literally DO NOT READ as I fixed errors through my phones. People were reading my story- when it said DO NOT READ Like, no. This is not how it works. I got like 25+ reads during the time it was DO NOT READ. (only three were me!) Another annoyance is that though they will read my stories, there is no certainty that they will continue them. Like if I wrote a really bad story- and all my dedicated readers hated it, and stopped at episode one. My reader retention would sink so fast because so many people in a short period of time stopped reading my story at episode one.
3. Prejudice? Greed / Unknown? IG or Forums? I spent like an hour typing a response to this and deleted it because it was like completely rambling and my head is super foggy so I’ll prob answer this later I will say this tho- The forums is very anti-big author. I mean, I think most ‘big’ authors aren’t on the forums for a reason
4. Demanding Updates - I’ve never asked an author when they are going to update again, but I really want to sometimes. Perhaps by asking they’ll know someone wants them to continue the story?
5. Alot of readers? Can we make like a ranking system because Big / Small is too lame and outdated? Can we make like levels? Like level one authors… level two authors… ? DISCUSSION TEAM LETS DO THIS. If I recognize your name, you are big. If I recognize your stories, you are big.
Hahahaha if there was a ranking system, I personally think it would look a bit like a pyramid. Like “tier 1” would only have a couple of authors and be those with over 50 million reads, 100k followers and most likely also featured (officially) by Episode. Then tier 2 would have a few more authors, tier 3 would have even more etc.
Sort of true, which I really don’t like tbh. Everytime a really popular author comments on something, it’s so interesting. I like hearing what they have to say, because it’s usually so different to my own experiences with Episode. It’s like seeing a school teacher on the weekend!
Big authors and small authors sound weird so I say unknown and known authors. You don’t need millions of reads to be known. Some people get featured on a shelf once and become known.
This is really difficult to answer… I believe the unknown authors would definitely be hurt but I think big authors might be, too. I mean, it must hurt when people ‘hate’ on you simply because you’re a big author, especially if you really have been putting a lot of work into your stories. If I had a known author who had worked my ass off and created a story that became quite popular, I’d be genuinely hurt if people thought I didn’t deserve it just because I was already a known author.
You’d probably think that it’d be easier for a known author to just not care about people’s criticism as they (unfortunately) might be used to it but I believe these prejudices about them hurt more than we know.
Do you think you have a lot of readers?
I’m neither wildly popular nor undiscovered., but I definitely have more readers than I thought I would. I’m happy with having readers in the thousands rather than, say, the hundred thousands; there’s something to be said for having a small reader base that’s still big enough for that external validation we all crave. I can actively communicate with my readers and it isn’t usually overwhelming, and being relatively obscure means I don’t get people barging into my fanmail with demands that I make my protagonists cis, straight, and customizable. It’s like I get attention but also peace.
Do you have a reader base consist of fans or friends? Or both?
I’d say it’s a mix, including friends who call themselves fans and fans who become friends.
2a. If fans, do you think they would read anything you publish?
I can’t speak for everyone who reads my work, but I’d say that’s not necessarily true for most of them. I do have a handful of loyal readers who do read everything I publish, but I also have a lot of stories, so they always have the freedom to pick and choose what they actually want to read while trusting I’ll publish something else soon enough.
Do you think there’s a prejudice against known/not known authors? (Like not known authors have bad stories and don’t get reads for that/Known authors are greedy and think of themselves highly)
I think there are a lot of stereotypes against both. It causes a lot of hostility in the community though, so I try to distance myself from any real discourse that tries to pit them against each other.
3a. If so, is this more common in IG community or Forum community?
I’ve definitely seen more of it in the forums, but it’s also easier to avoid things you don’t want to see on Instagram, so who knows?
Do you think demanding updates are just affection for story or just negative impact for authors?
It’s a bit of both. I don’t think it has negative intentions, but the impact is also negative. Readers should consider the fact that authors are humans, and the author’s well-being is crucial to their continuing to produce work their readers will love.
Since we all agree on this, what do you think led to this prejudice? Why do people think unknown authors have bad stories, known authors are greedy and think of themselves highly? Is this something influenced by Episode? (They didn’t feature unknown authors in the past, only known authors. They were afraid I think?)
I think insecurity is the reason behind many problems, partly including this. First, I believe that only unknown authors think of known authors as greedy etc. but I don’t think that known authors think that about other known authors. I think the unknown authors think like this because they’re insecure because they either haven’t got a lot of readers or are very known, so sometimes it’s just easier for them to think like this of the known authors because maybe then they’ll feel a little better about their own position.
Also, jealousy is definitely a factor that weighs in here! It wouldn’t surprise me if some people spoke badly about known authors in order to take the focus away from them and instead perhaps create more attention to unknown authors who, in their opinion, aren’t greedy, doesn’t ‘steal’ readers or ‘only do it to get paid’.
Do you think you have a lot of readers?
Well, I can say that my first story EVER on Episode has gotten over 100k reads. I’m proud of that, but I’ve been waiting to receive that many readers since last year! Just because my first story has that many readers, I feel that I don’t have a lot of reads because I am a small author who no one knows about that much.
1a. If so, did this ever affect you badly?
N/A
1b. If not, would you want to have a lot of readers?
Yes! Most definitely.
Do you have a reader base consist of fans or friends? Or both?
Fans. My friends don’t take out time to read my stories
2a. If fans, do you think they would read anything you publish?
Yes and no.
Do you think there’s a prejudice against known/not known authors? (Like not known authors have bad stories and don’t get reads for that/Known authors are greedy and think of themselves highly)
Yes. Unfortunately, I feel like less know authors, like myself, have a hard time becoming know within the community because I lot of people will click on a story by a popular author anytime. If they see a story with over a million reads, they are going to read it without taking the time out to search for stories with less readers.
3a. If so, is this more common in IG community or Forum community?
Instagram community.
Do you think demanding updates are just affection for story or just negative impact for authors?
Both actually.
What do you consider “a lot of readers”?
A story that has OVER a million readers.
Yes, I think Episode has huge influence on this. If they only feature authors who are already popular that will only reinforce in readers’ eyes that small authors can’t write good stories. I’m glad that lately Episode decided to take the "risk"of featuring new, undiscovered stories. I say risk because if those stories don’t do well on a shelf, they lose readers and probably a lot of money. So I agree with you, they were probably afraid.
The other reason I can think of is that stories with less reads can be usually found if they are promoted somewhere. The more you share your story the more reads you get, but excessive self-promo is howcanIputthis not necessarily for the best stories, but they are the ones in sight.
About known authors being greedy: it’s easy to be nice if you barely receive any fainmail, DM etc. But if I got asked the same annoying question/request over and over again, I would either stop replying (which would seem rude) or I would possibly reply something that would make me seem even more rude.
I’ve always thought the opposite… It would make sense to feature lesser known stories because there’s less chance they’ll make it to the payments program thus Episode doesn’t have to pay them squat and get to keep all their revenue. Lol. People have said before that even with the boost of being on a shelf, they still wouldn’t have got to 500,000 reads in 60 days.
I think if the Payments Program took away that much of their revenue, they wouldn’t feature stories that are already in the top 50. I believe they have a crazy amount of money from ads and therefore it is worth for them to pay the authors who make their app even more famous.
I love conversations, but it feels weird if I am the one asking about my story 
. Would they read anything I publish, yes - but it’s kind of a curse in two ways. When I published my Thriller Entry, my title was literally DO NOT READ as I fixed errors through my phones. People were reading my story- when it said DO NOT READ Like, no. This is not how it works. I got like 25+ reads during the time it was DO NOT READ. (only three were me!) Another annoyance is that though they will read my stories, there is no certainty that they will continue them. Like if I wrote a really bad story- and all my dedicated readers hated it, and stopped at episode one. My reader retention would sink so fast because so many people in a short period of time stopped reading my story at episode one.
