DISCUSSION: Quota for Featured Stories?

Community Episode Fan Community
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I first got the idea for this topic weeks ago, but it never felt like the right time to make. No time like the present as they say.

For reference, when I use the term Featured Story I’m referring to the stories Episode either writes themselves or that they remake into “featured stories.” I am not talking about stories on contest shelves or weekly theme shelves. With that out of the way…

I’ve noticed during my time on the forums that there seems to be a large discrepancy between the romance and drama stories that dominate the episode original/featured stories section and pretty much any other genre. This leaves people with a lot of different feelings. I think it makes the authors/readers of other genres feel unappreciated/left out, for one, but for two, I think it also causes a bit of a divide between authors/readers of romance/drama and authors/readers of the other genres.

My idea/suggestion that I’d like to discuss is that I think there should be a quota for the number of stories in a specific genre that can be featured. I know for audience and perhaps even income assurances romance/drama would have to be the slightly more dominating force but that doesn’t mean it has to be the only one. I think something as simple as making sure there’s more of the other genres (action, horror, action, adventure, fantasy, thriller) would help a lot with what honestly feels like a bit of a divide in the community. Not to mention it would introduce readers to newer authors and types of stories.
I think it would also help bring to light some of the issues in other genres as well since here on the forums discussion of these stories is a common thing to see.

More than that, though, I think it would be a good way for Episode to widen their horizons some and gain more diversity in terms of their audience. They’ve already proven themselves capable of being able to gain success for romance and drama, but imagine how much further ahead of the curve they could take it if they also focused on horror, action, comedy, etc.?

  1. Do you think there should be a quota? If so what would the perfect one be for you?
  2. What’s one genre you think has been overlooked far too long when it comes to being featured?
  3. In this genre what’s one story you’d like to see featured?
  4. Do you think this would solve any of the issues a lot of people have with the app?
  5. Additional thoughts?

I hope this makes sense. :woozy_face::see_no_evil::sweat_smile:

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Do you think there should be a quota? If so what would the perfect one be for you?
I personally would love to see this, because I think it would like you said to broaden the horizons of Episode. I think they would gain a wider reader base if they featured more stories other than romance and drama, especially since new readers now have to read X number of stories before they can gain access to community stories. They would get more, diverse, readers. I can’t say how many friends (male/female/trans/non-binary) that I have convinced to download the app, but after seeing the stories that they have to read at first, they decide it’s not for them. I have had some success in sending direct share links of my favorite community stories to bypass that, but I think Episode would actually profit GREATLY if they expanded beyond romance and drama.

What’s one genre you think has been overlooked far too long when it comes to being featured?
REAL Adventure and Thriller. Also Mystery and Fantasy.
They used to have good stories (Campus Crush, The Secret of Rain, The Ember Effect) but now everything is a romance.
With the exception of Mystery on Hanging Hill Lane and The Infected (which they ended up messing up), they haven’t bought anything outside romance or drama. Those stories are basically hidden from the main page anyways, as well.
Most of the other “genre” stories they bought (SciFi/Action/Fantasy/Mystery/Adventure) are really romance/drama in disguise. Romance stories are in Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery, Action…
Can we please have something that romance is NOT a major plot point of the story?

In this genre what’s one story you’d like to see featured?
Adventure: The Wall by J. Miley
Thriller: The Game by Amber J. Martin
Fantasy: Thick as Thieves by Spiegel
Mystery: Chicanery by J. Miley
(I know that’s 4 stories, but since I mentioned 4 genres, I figured I’d better give a story for each genre.)

Do you think this would solve any of the issues a lot of people have with the app?
I think it would help a LOT!
Right now, it is obvious that Episode only cares about romance, so of course, that’s what a lot of writers focus on if they want the reads. There are writers that push out a particular type of story, just in the hopes to get high reads and possibly get purchased, and don’t care about the quality of plot or directing. Featured stories now are a joke. It used to be a big honor to have your story bought by Episode. Now, it seems that they are not only buying a new story every week, but they’re buying the same type of story. I used to read featured Episode stories, but now I refuse to because they’re all the same.

Additional thoughts?
I think that if Episode expanded and purchased more non-romance stories, they would gain a LOT more readers, which ultimately would make them more money. Isn’t that their goal?

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1. Do you think there should be a quota? If so what would the perfect one be for you?
I kind of do, but I don’t have any particular preference. I just want to see more genres in the featured section.

2. What’s one genre you think has been overlooked far too long when it comes to being featured?
Pretty much every genre apart from romance. But I’m gonna go with comedy, because that’s my favourite and I think it is something that might attract more new readers.

3. In this genre what’s one story you’d like to see featured?
One of the Girls by Amberose. I’d hate if they shortened it to 8 episodes though :woozy_face:

4. Do you think this would solve any of the issues a lot of people have with the app?
I agree with what @AnnieAEpisode said.
I think it would definitely help to ease the frustration about romance stories dominating on the app, because authors in other genres would get more recognition too. New users who download the app are forced to read featured stories, and if they only see romance, chances are they will either end up in the romance user stories section, or they will just delete the app because that’s not what they were looking for.
So it’s a win-win situation: if Episode would introduce other genres at the very beginning, people wouldn’t necessarily consider this an app for “cringy, cliche romance stories”, which means they would be more likely to stick around imo.

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This is an interesting idea and I think you actually should make a feature request for it in conjunction with this topic

See, in every genre tab, there’s two rows. One was meant to be for the featured stories in that genre and the other was for the top community stories in that genre. The fact that each genre is so imbalanced with their top row has always bothered me because I just like it when things are equal. Like, the top community stories was always the top 100, so before the guidelines updates even though romance and drama stories might have always been more popular, at least you knew there was 100 stories showcased in each genre. The top row for featured stories has never been consistent like that. And even though it’s not a big deal for me because I don’t read featured stories anymore, it’s that lack of balance that irks me. I guess it’s more of a pet peeve. So I don’t care what the quote would be in this hypothetical situation, as long as it’s the same across all genres. I guess ten featured stories in each genre would be nice because ten is a very well rounded number and then if each genre also had 100 stories in the community section, the ratio also seems fair too.

Thriller/Horror. If you check that part of the app, there’s no featured stories there. In fact, one of them was written by my friend and Idk whether it sucks that Episode never bought her story but they treat it as if they did? Or if she’s lucky she gets the exposure that the featured stories do without selling the rights to it and having episode butcher it.

Hit and Run by Elise C. Duh.

If I’m honest, I don’t think this will particular solve these issues you mentioned:

But I do think it will have an impact on the app audience. We all know that the target audience is generally teenage girls, which is why romance and drama do so well. But just showcasing some of the stories in other genres would be awesome for those who are interested in the platform but fall outside of that targeted audience. Especially because Episode now forces new readers to first read a set amount of featured story episodes before they can unlock community stories. I wrote a story for a youtuber to live-read on his channel, and so many of the comments talk about how they tried this app but couldn’t find anything except romance stories or high school stories where you have to play as a female MC. Granted, the story I wrote for him was tailored to his audience and so it is kind of messed up and definitely not something Episode should promote. But I do kind of feel bad that he and I managed to bait all these people into liking episode only for them download it and then not find anything that can actually tolerate.

Like I said, make a feature request for this.

But I also want to add, if you actually click on the featured stories within the genre tabs, they hardly actually reflect the genre they’ve been put into. In fantasy, half the featured stories are labelled as romance. In mystery, there’s some romance, one thriller story, one drama story and some mystery stories. In comedy, there’s a mix of comedy, romance and action(?). In action/adventure there seems to be everything: romance, drama, mystery, fantasy and action/adventure. I think this also bothers me. Like, just put them in the right genre to start with??

You’re so kind :kissing: But let’s be real, if they were going to shorten my story, this is possibly one of the only stories that could still make sense going from 40 episodes to 8. And if they let me choose which episodes to keep, I could ensure all the best ones make the final cut without ruining the overall continuity of the story :relieved:

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Yeah, I completely brain farted on this one.
The Game is amazing, but there aren’t the choices needed for a featured story.
Hit and Run would be amazing.

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OK, you convinced me. Episode, you have my approval :smiley:

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0 romace stories lmao

Just kidding. I think there should be more stories of different genres that don’t include romance. They could limit romance stories, but they can always add romance to other genres. I was never a fan of romance, I’d really love to read other genres.

Every genre that isn’t romance and drama. There are comedies, but they’re rom-coms. I’d love to see more horror, thriller, mystery, adventure, as well as fantasy. But if I had to pick one, it would be comedy

I have a lot of stories in mind, but I don’t want any of them featured. Featured stories are so much worse than the originals.

Yes, I think it’s gonna bring way more readers. I’ve seen a lot of people complain about the amount of romance and drama. Considering they have to read featured stories before even discovering community stories, they quit the app right away

Speaking of new readers quitting before they even start, stop making those stupid ads lmao. They aren’t helping

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Actually, I thought about saying The Game too, because imagine the directing in that story being the pedestal for a featured story?! :eyes: But I thought there might be too many sex scenes for it to be appropriate for episode to promote beyond a weekly shelf, so they’d probably have to edit some scenes out and likely butcher it in the process whilst they also try to add in gem choices lol

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1. Do you think there should be a quota? If so what would the perfect one be for you?
A quota seems nice, but I think my one question would be how everything would be organized. Episode could implement a feature or something new for all users to gauge what kind of genre they prefer. If they had this feature and used it to expose the reader to new possible hidden gems, I think it could help retain new users who aren’t that interested in romance.
2. What’s one genre you think has been overlooked far too long when it comes to being featured?
I think mostly just all of the genres. Like you could see an action story with romance get featured, but it would just be a romance story with action added to it. I wish there was a way to balance it.
3. In this genre what’s one story you’d like to see featured?
I’m not sure I would want any story I like get featured because it’ll most likely be cut down, “reimagined”, or the plot won’t make sense because they may have felt the need to add more emphasis on the romance than the original.
4. Do you think this would solve any of the issues a lot of people have with the app?
I think it would solve a good amount of issues. There would most likely be less complaints, and some writers won’t feel the need to write romance into their stories in order to get more reads.
5. Additional thoughts?
I wish there was a higher focus to improve on featured stories’ directing. I don’t know if it’s me tapping too quickly, but I’ve just seen things like a character’s head at the corner of the screen, and it makes me wonder if there’s a lot of quality control of the stories before they go out.

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I think if they

  1. had the original author have a big part in the final product, like what scenes to cut, what choices to make gem choices, what changes to make, I think it would work. I know in the past, featured authors worked with Episode on the featured stories (I know Clover White actually did the work on Fake Love True Love, and of course Joseph Evans did all his work), but that’s also before they started cutting them to 8 chapters. The quality of stories REALLY declined when they cut the author involvement completely out.
  2. they quit making everything about romance. Episode is supposed to be supportive about diversity, but yet they cram romance down readers throats. They did make a positive change when they started allowing readers to choose gender of love interest in featured stories, but what about readers who are aromatic or asexual?
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Definitely, but of course I don’t expect Episode to stop or at least immediately decrease their releases of romance and drama stories. Honestly, I hope that Episode would release more comedy stories (not lol random stories) and more mystery like they did in the past and fantasy.
I also agree that Episode needs to reconsider which stories to promote for new users. I get promoting some of their Official stories but they can have a wider range of featured story genres, like I mentioned above.

Comedy, I guess. Not the ‘comedic’ romance stories which are hit or miss, but really light-hearted ones like a toned down Pick your Poison cough cough

I can’t think of a story at the top of my head, other than Amber’s One of the Girls, but hopefully something from Kayla Sloans and Hanna KM, because all of them deserve some recognition.

Hard to tell. It’s like a chicken and egg situation where the current (problematic) cliche stock is a hit with the target audience and so Episode promotes more of these stories. But as @amberose said, widening the genres represented equals to a wider audience base.

Episode should definitely allow current featured stories to get feedback, especially when they are beta-tested.

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  • Do you think there should be a quota? If so what would the perfect one be for you?
    Kinda dont care, I dont read featured stories because you have to use diamonds all the time in them. and its to expensive
  • What’s one genre you think has been overlooked far too long when it comes to being featured?
    horror and thriller. they finally made thriller a featured and it was placed under mystery.
  • In this genre what’s one story you’d like to see featured?
    No I like fantasy. though I personally dont think they made good featured fantasy story. they are like 70% romance. which makes them a romance story not a fantasy. when a story is a genre you shall be able to remove another without ruing the story. if you cant your story might be in the wrong one
  • Do you think this would solve any of the issues a lot of people have with the app?
    no
  • Additional thoughts?
    I think maybe episode should remove the part where they force new readers to only read featured stories. that would get more people on the app
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This is a good idea. However, for those of you who are newer to the community, there are a few things you need to be aware of.

When Episode first started out and was still in the Classic style, they had a percent decent variety of genres. They slowly began to rebrand and decided they would only focus on romance stories. When they first did this, a lot of users were upset and begged them to rethink this strategy. If only you all could have seen the old forums lol. The explanation we got from the staff was that they decided to focus on romance because those are the stories that were read the most. We could talk all day about how horrible of a strategy only focusing on one genre because it sells the most is- in fact, we did try to tell them this. They didn’t listen.

The fact is, Episode is squandering its platform by only focusing on one genre and they’ve been doing it for years. How big of an audience would they have if they broadened their reach just a little? It’s a discussion we’ve been trying to have with Episode since Ink days, and sorry to say, I really don’t think they’re going to change their approach. Not for Episode and not for Ivy. They may occasionally do a few mystery, fantasy, or sci-fi, but the main focus of even these stories will always be romance. Episode listens to a lot of community feedback, but this is the one of the few things they’ve never really budged on.

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Do you think there should be a quota? If so what would the perfect one be for you?
Actually, no.
While I do think that it would be nice to have more stories that aren’t primarily romance-focused featured, I would still skew the balance in romance’s favour simply because this is the most popular genre and likely the one that drives readers to the app. You only need to look at the trending section (where technically, any genre can trend), to see that romance will always be the most popular.
With the new “read 20 stories (or whatever it is) before unlocking the app”, I do however think that Episode is doing themselves a disservice by only offering featured romance. Even most of the competitor apps have stories in other genres.

What’s one genre you think has been overlooked far too long when it comes to being featured?
Horror. I just started reading one on another new app which I’m really enjoying.
Thriller and mystery as well.

In this genre what’s one story you’d like to see featured?
Something brand new because in all honesty, I’d prefer to read the original gem-free version anyway. I’d love to see a brand new mystery, thriller or horror created to be featured. A new story could be created to have meaningful choices and work within the 8-12 episode limit too.

Do you think this would solve any of the issues a lot of people have with the app?
I think it would help, particularly for new readers.

I have a gem version. They can have it :rofl:

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You’d think it would be their goal. :woozy_face::woman_facepalming:t2::sweat_smile:

Same. And I don’t think it has to be massive numbers either. Something as simple as 10 non-romance stories to tide newer users over until they can move onto community stories would do a lot of good I think.

:clap::clap::clap:

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Good idea. :grin:

I think this ratio is good.

Yeah, that’s the hard thing. And even just trying to search for stories outside of “the norm” of episode is oftentimes difficult and unrewarding.

I think a good comedy would be nice. Especially since sometimes people want a good laugh instead of something overly dramatic.

I don’t think it’s really a matter of organization at this point, but more a matter of Episode simply writing/featuring stories in other genres. I think once they’re there and people can read them it’ll help a lot.

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This is a really good idea.

Yes. :clap::clap::clap:

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Oh, yeah, definitely. I mention:

So I know romance and drama would have to be the top dogs for episode to not lose their audience, but I think adding in at least a few from the other genres would maybe show readers the app is 100% just romance and drama, especially when they get to the community stories.

We definitely need all of this.

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I mean, some part of me wants to say yes just on my personal preference, but I don’t even know how this would work. And I think all it would do is encourage people to write stories in other genres that are still mostly romance for the sake of trending and getting featured. Romance is popular and it’s probably going to always be the most popular. I don’t think they need to set a specific limit so much as feature a larger variety of content in the first place. Instead of buying 5 mafia romance stories, they could just buy none one and try to search for stories to feature by genre instead of by retention / reads, or whatever their criteria are.

I mean, pretty much all of them besides romance lol. Even the “drama” is mostly romance. Even the fantasy section is mostly romance, but with magic! I love Thriller and Mystery stories, so I would love to see more of those. Especially since I agree it would offer more variety to new users in particular who don’t want to read 40 chapters of Pregant By the Bad Boy’s Vampire Teacher before unlocking community stories.

Haha i hardcore agree that I would love to see them contract writers specifically to release something new that always had the intention to end in ~8 episodes. A lot of mystery stories aren’t 80 chapters long, but condensing them can be really difficult without erasing all the context clues people need to try solving the mystery.

I guess an it depends on what people’s issues with the app are. I do think it could help attract and retain new readers. And it could help put less pressure on people to write in certain genres if that’s not the genre they actually want to be writing in. but I think the issues are deeper than just having a wider range of genres for featured stories. If they buy fewer romance stories (or romance-heavy stories in any genre) but all still contain toxic relationship dynamics or sexual assault used as a plot device, then it makes very little difference imo. I love the fantasy genre but it’s already full of stories that are mostly problematic romances but with sExY fAnGs or ~some magic~ and those stories getting featured in fantasy won’t change a lot of my feelings about the app. And same goes for any other genre.

But I think if they focused more on creating new content that was always meant to be a gem choice / featured story in a variety of genres with diverse plots and subplots - that could definitely help show they’re finally taking some steps to show they actually care about any of the issues we have with the app. Though of course that’s only a small part of it.

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I actually want that to happen too, I wonder why Episode kinda stopped with those.

Whelp, I didn’t think about that at first. Because there are some problematic stuff happening at almost every genre.

This can really improve on a few of the current issues imo. It’s fair to the authors of long complex stories, Episode has more content in general and possibly not involve as much screw-overs during the featured-story process.

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