I have held a poll on my Instagram story over the last 20+ hours to get people’s input on what they prefer to spend gems on out of the options of:
Bonus scenes (that are not key to your character’s progression through the story.)
This could take the shape of any of the following random examples of additional scenes… for example: Ones in another character’s POV, Extra scenes involving LI’s/Side Characters etc. Alternate scenes, Bloopers …
And
Support the Author
Choices.
I am asking now, because I, like many other’s, am having to cave to the realisation that the gem choices now are a huge factor in your story’s succession in the app, and as someone who is working on a few stories in drama/romance genres, I don’t want them to never go beyond about #6789
So I will be adding gem choices to the end of the episodes and would like to consider as many views as possible on what people are happy to spend their gems on.
Bear in mind that, some people, like me, see every single gem choice as 15 gems! therefore some people would prefer to have extra for their money.
So… if you’d like to share your view, please vote on the poll, and/or have a comment if you’ve got other ideas, or input.
Please note that this isn’t a place to debate about the gem choices, there is a topic for that!
I don’t mind a 5 gem “support the author” or buying points choice… it feels less obligatory. When it’s bonus content, I almost feel as if I’m insulting the author if I don’t choose to view it… idk
Still 15 gems to me and many others. It’s an android glitch.
Hence asking for preferences, as some find the support the author at that height a little lacking.
I have Android and since yesterday’s update gem choices are no longer just 15 gems. There were actually 5 gems options. I just hope that’s the case with all stories and that they fixed this glitch with last update
Honestly I don’t spend gems on really anything, because a lot of authors keep their support price at 15 so I don’t click on it. But if they actually set it at 5 I might.
I will always support the author in the middle (about 15-20 episodes in, on most stories I read) and at the end of the story. I have just noticed a story I am reading is asking for gems to read the next episode early or I have to wait 13 days! And there are 2 episodes to read.
If I’m honest this puts me off a bit. I read a lot of stories and try to spread my gems to as many community authors as possible. If I have to use them all to just read the next episode, other authors will miss out. I did actually stop reading a story that did this but it was early on and I wasn’t invested, unfortunately I quite like this other story
Edit: If the support author option is over 10, I may only support once.
Yeah, the early access option is one I’m not even considering, I’m too impatient myself to wait for new episodes of my favourite stories , and so wouldn’t ask that of those (who hopefully!) Will be eager to read more of my future ones.
I think 5-8 gems is ideal, I agree that 10 makes it less likely I would be able to do it more than once myself.
I chose other because I think there’s some other cool content community authors can offer for gems. In my story for example, there’s two alternate endings in episode 3 that depend on an important choice the MC makes. At the end of that episode, I offered a choice that pays 8 gems for the reader to see the ending that they didn’t get.
The 15 gem thing will be up for a while until Episode releases the actual gem prices (that authors have personally set) to Android users.
I personally prefer to have the supporting the author or buying the points because then I know what I can expect from either choice (for support, I am simply supporting the author. And points is so that the scenes or characters I want to see/be with or have a good relationship with will come up.)
What a reader views as a good bonus scene and what an author views a good bonus scene will always be different and if the readers don’t like the scene, they might regret spending the gems. Providing support the author/point choices provide low risk and are the longest running type of gem choices community authors have offered. So I’d recommend providing those.
@Cheyara_Skadi I had the same realization, I need to accept that it’s a reality and broke down and added gem choices.
Since I have 2 completed stories I decided to add an 8 gem “support author” choice at the end, and with my story in progress I decided to add bonus scenes, also for 8 gems (obviously knowing those will appear as 15 for some.)
I’m surprised that with less reads on my new story I had WAY more gem choices selected for the bonus scene than supporting the author on a story with more reads. Like more than I ever expected to get. I put a lot of effort into them making sure they’re relevant, but not giving away something that should be in the story, and so far I haven’t had one complaint about content or length. But I did include information on my FAQ page on what to expect from bonus scenes, so that may have helped too.