So…I have been a part of the Episode platform for a while. Reads used to be strong pre Gem choice integration into the community side. Currently there is a decline on reads since this was implemented. Sad but true.
In terms of retaining and encouraging community authors to write full stories. I wanted to pitch a financial bonus on completion of a story. Obviously this will take a level of reviewing from Episodes side to see if the story is in fact complete. But it is my experience that reads exponentially increase once the story is completed so this would mean an increase in revenue not only for episode but for the writer… Not only that but it will act as a deterrent to abandon stories.
Just thought it could incentivise the community to persevere with stories until they are complete.
I get what you’re saying and I think this has potential for sure.
As a reader…
Summary
I can totally understand the frustration when a story is abandoned and never continued. Some authors don’t put anything in the title or description to make it known the story will not be finished (never say never, but still).
With this in mind I think it would be a good idea to give the authors the option to be able to choose ‘abandoned’, ‘won’t be continued’ or something like this to be shown, like we now have ‘ongoing’ and ‘fully released’ already visible in the app.
As an author, however,
Summary
I can totally understand when you don’t finish a story. I myself have been away from Episode, the community, writing and everything, for over 1,5 years. This was due to many reasons, but before I left I already had a lot of trouble keeping myself motivated to write. I got a HUGE writers block and due to some personal matters as well, I stepped out and away from it all, hence some unfinished stories. It would have been great to have the option to show readers I was away and not writing the story anymore, like with the choice mentioned above. It saves the author a lot of explaining and readers can choose to read an unfinished story instead of being taken by surprise when there aren’t any new chapters released after a while.
Old and future readers of mine can rejoice though, as I found my way back to the community and am writing / revamping one of my old stories again.
Sometimes it’s just not the case that authors get back to writing a story due to many reasons, like not being motivated anymore to continue it, having no clue how to end it and just leaving it as it is, getting writers block, etc.
And hobbies (like Episode could be seen as) don’t always last forever, unfortunately.
