Do reads really matter?

Just a question I’m curious about! I’ve published my first story on here a few days ago, and right now it has around 20 reads. And honestly, I’m delighted that even a few people decided to give it a try! :blush: For me, I decided to write a story as a way to escape from reality even if it’s just for a few hours, and I’m sure you all can relate too! I love to write as it allows your imagination flow and create a whole new universe! And simply, it’s fun! I also love to draw and I drew my cover as well. :slight_smile:

But it is nice to have at least a few people keeping up with your story, to motivate you along the way! What are your opinions? :heart:

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I always say if you write on episode for reads, dont write, because reads here are really hard to get, you can have an amazing story with an amazing cover and still struggle,

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Yess my thoughts exactly!! And as long as you’re enjoying it, that’s what matters!

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First I just wanna say I love the cover :heart: It’s beautiful. Secondly, I would say while reads can be motivating, it doesn’t determine how good a story is. There are SO MANY stories with millions of reads that are unreadable to me and many others. It’s also why I really dislike it when authors put “author with x number of reads’ on their IG bios :woman_shrugging:t2: Write for yourself, first and foremost. Everything else will come accordingly :purple_heart:

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Hi! First of all, CONGRATULATIONS on publishing your first story! You legit created something from scratch, that’s like a whole level of achievement in itself! And omg… don’t even get me started on how AMAZING that cover looks! I mean… it’s absolutely stunning, actually scratch that, it’s perfection. I love it so much!! <3

I too published my first story in the month of July this year. :slight_smile: I too started writing, because I thought it would be fun! I just wanted to write something that I’d myself want to read you know. (lol.) And that part you said about allowing imagination to flow, I relate to that so much. When I started I literally planned nothing, and just went with the flow. (still do the same thing even now.) I feel like it’s natural for any author to want to promote their work. It’s an instinct we just can’t escape, irrespective of the fact whether we are writing for reads or not. NGL there was a time when I was obsessed with getting more reads, and honestly it drove me quite mad at that time. But now I feel I have reached a point, where I’m comfortable with what I have. Do I want people to read my story? Yes. of course I do. But I make sure I don’t go overboard with that. The fact is, I still write for myself. And if people read it and like it then it’s always a HUGE bonus for authors! But that’s all it is, it’s a “bonus”. Your story is your baby and as long as you like it, it doesn’t matter if others don’t. Of course we want others to read and appreciate it, but we must try not to get discouraged just because we don’t have xyz number of reads. Everyone has a different journey :slight_smile: It’s honestly, never about the reads, it’s about YOU and what joy your story gave you. I feel like as authors we tend to overlook the fact, that as much as we think it’s about our readers it’s really not. It’s about writing what makes us happy, it’s about us! Ok. I feel like I’ve said a lot. Bottom line is: Yes it’s natural to want reads, but no, not getting reads shouldn’t discourage you from doing what you started in the first place. Much love, and Good luck on your story. Keep writing as long as it makes YOU happy.

PS. I don’t know about reads, but literally everyone who’s legit published anything on episode has my UTMOST RESPECT because it’s a tedious job to code and direct omg, I can’t even. So kudos to all of us!!

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Well said!! I absolutely agree with you! Sometimes it can get to our heads and we forget the main reason as to why we want to write and share our story in the first place, but we should always remind ourselves to write it for yourself as you say! :blush:

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Gosh. Thank you so so much for your kind words! You’re so sweet :pleading_face::heart: and not gonna lie, reading that just made me tear up a little. I really needed to hear that. What you said was literal facts! When you mentioned about writing for yourself to read, I could relate to it haha!! It’s fun to see the characters you’ve made come to life. Nonetheless, I understand where you’re coming from and I’m glad you’re happy with what you have! I’m proud of you!! And be proud of yourself! I’ll definitely make sure I take this into account ALWAYS. Thank you for commenting on this. All the best to you and your story! And to everyone out here too!! :heart:

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I’ve read amazing stories with almost no reads and now is even harder for authors stories to be noticed and it’s pretty sad

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That’s such a beautiful cover

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As much as reads really motivate anyone (myself included), writing for yourself should be the main point of writing a story :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I relate to you because I also started writing as a way to kind of escape reality, and I feel good writing. I’m actually currently reading your story and it’s really good!! So maybe one day you’ll be picked by an editor’s shelf or something :two_hearts: keep writing if you feel good about it!

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Moved to Episode Fan Community. 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. :wink:

It really is! :frowning: all we can really do is show our appreciation and motivate them! :blush: It’ll mean a lot!

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Thank you!! :pleading_face:

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Awe thank you so much!! :pleading_face: WELL SAID!!

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Honestly, I wrote for the reads. Published 1 month ago and gonna hit 1000 reads any minute now. I never promoted my story to extreme lenght or did massive amounts of r4r (did 5 r4r in the beginning and got tired). Just posting stuff to my IG.
At first I promoted it here but it gave me no results. Here are mainly writers in the forum, not actual readers who never write. So I found a place where the actual readers are and post about my update once a week or so.
I feel there is no point to write a thing that nobody reads. I’m all about perfect coding so it takes so much time. I’m a working adult and got no time for bull s*it.
I also choose stories with many reads to read ’cause they simply tend to be better. I’ve read and reviewed soooo many stories that I can say that READS DO MATTER.

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Interesting!! Fair enough, I see where you’re coming from. You do have a point! I see where you said there’s no point in writing if there’s no reads, but personally I still love to write nonetheless if there’s reads or not! Because really, I’m only writing as something to pass time and I love doing so! Especially with the coding and seeing the characters come to life! But I see where you’re coming from. :blush: And congratulations with your progress!! Nearly 1k that’s truly amazing, and I wish you flourish and all the best!

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Thank you :blush:
My goal is different :grinning: I wanna be on the shelf or even picked by the editor. If not, it’s not the end of the world ’cause I’m really happy with the amount of the reads and positive feedback that I’m getting. In fact, no negative feedback so far :hushed: surprising. :joy: I thought I’m gonna be hanged.

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Awe and there’s no problem with that! Aim for it! With that positive attitude and outlook, anything is possible. That really is amazing :blush: And I’m proud of you!! :heart::heart: I’d love to give it a read!

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Now, it’s a drama. Kind of different theme from what we usually see, especially the CC part. The CC for the MC is done step by step actually. Rest of it comes clear from the description. There is currently 11 chapters. Working on 12th one.

Summary

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I think only for motivation but reads don’t influence the quality of writing. I’ve read some stories with 1k plus and were unreadable, genuinely I had to just exit since they were so badly done or carelessly written. What counts in my opinion is the quality of the writing, whether you have 1 read or a million reads. I’ll be paying attention to how engaging the story is, the directing, the grammar, spelling, character development and diversity. That is what counts to me imo.

I’ve just reached 500 reads on my story so I let myself make a congrats post about it and I made a big promise to myself not to overly obsess over things like being on a shelf (it would be nice for my new story to be on a shelf lol but I can cope without it being out there), etc like I was with my first story. I think I’ve grown a lot as a writer and person since my first story which pretty much achieved everything I wanted as an author (I ended up on a shelf, reached 10k reads and found lots of great readers). I’m now in a stage where yes, reads somewhat affect me but I care way more about my creative process, how my scenes look, taking the time to make or find overlays, etc. I think that matters more to me, the process instead of the results.

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