I’ve seen so many stories start with those words. I get that maybe the first three episodes may have been the first time an author published and started scripting, but if one has improved since then, then fix the first 3 episodes to show the improvement.
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Yeah, I definitely don’t think anyone should fault new authors who aren’t used to the coding or are still getting a handle on writing. I also don’t think that authors are required to go back and fix all their old stories once they’ve improved their technique.
But if they’re so concerned about the quality of their old episodes that they feel the need to put a warning at the start of the story? Editing to upgrade the quality would speak volumes more instead of just asking readers to sit through the first 3 episodes to see if the story gets better or not.
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Definitely not a requirement to fix their stories if they don’t want to, but the topic here is how to get reads. To get people to read further than the first chapter one needs to make it a ‘page turner’ and make the reader want to continue.
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Hahah I hate that. I’ve even seen some like “I promise the story gets better from episode 15”. 
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With my story, The Queen of Freaks, I lamented for a long time that I wasn’t getting reads. I had no clue what was going on! I was sure QofF wasn’t a bad story! Then, I looked over the synopsis with my best friend and she helped me to improve it. Make sure you grab with a cool and interesting summary and cover.
Also, keep writing. Keep writing. If you have 2 or 3 readers, make sure you keep writing for them. Every time they read a chapter, it will boost your rating, which will bring you down lower on the app.
Finally, make sure that your first chapter is inticing. I have seen so many first chapters that say something like “I’m sorry that this chapter is bad, but I promise it gets better!” - While that may be true and it may get better, I read the first chapter of a story to get an idea of its quality. This is the chapter you don’t use a pass for, so I am happy to check out first chapters. However, if that doesn’t grab me, I’m not going to use my finite passes on another chapter.
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EPISODE 15??? I don’t believe it.
The sad thing is I’m not exaggerating 
I guess most writers get better as they go, then they’ll get to episode 15 and realise “Oh hey, my first episodes are awful” then they’ll go back and add that note rather than attempting to edit lol
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True I agree what you mean. My first story was like that and I decided to rewrite it, because I knew something was missing.
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Easy stuff, have romance and love triangle in your story, a girl and a guy loves each other, then a guy comes up and starts hanging out with the girl. Boom! You will at least get 100 reads, people love romance.
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My first story was awful I did go back and edit the really cringy bits though. The thing is, a lot of the time those episodes may not be so bad but seeing “it gets better from episode 15” is such a turn off!
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I completely agree. I feel I have made a huge jump with my second story. It’s so much better. I don’t think any story is bad. Clichéd yes they can be, but not bad. It’s just the way an author writes a story in the end.
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The way I look at it, if the author can’t be bothered to improve their story as a whole, I shouldn’t be bothered to read it. My first/main story was not that great when I started! As I said, I published this story a little over a year ago and I’m STILL making improvements starting from Chapter 1 every time I learn new things. Why not have a polished piece out there?
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You’re so right. I don’t even bother looking at the popular stories anymore because they are all the same (just look at the covers in the Romance section. Everyone looks the same with a slight variation here or there).
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This is sort of “My Criteria” when looking for my favorite genres of Romance, Drama & Comedy.
•When I’m searching for a story to read I will research the Authors profile & their published works.
• I will also then search out stories that THEY recommend reading.
I figure that if they have similar story choices that are aligned with what I enjoy & have similar tastes, I will try their story and/or other author recommendation out. Then I am always on the lookout for my favorite authors works!
• Another thing I will do is to check out the number of chapters and if in their fan mail readers request to make longer chapters.
If chapter numbers seems Excessive, I want to be sure it’s something I’ll be enjoying and not wasting tickets on. Certainly, there aren’t great stories that are long reads, but imho that is not always the norm.
• Sometimes fabulous Artwork can be deceiving & the story falls flat for me or vise versa mediocre artwork, but fabulous story!
• Other times the Titles that are not as well thought out as they should be & a great story won’t be given a chance because of cliche-like titles ie: “Pregnant by the Nerd, Badboy, Billionaire, Vampire, etc”.
NO OFFENSE to any Authors that may have that as the title they’ve chosen, but that gives me pause before reading what might be a fabulous story.
• Another thing that I look for is books that are FULLY RELEASED or at least updating regularly.
I know real life happens to people & I’d never nag an author about pumping out more chapters, because to be honest, it’s more about Quality of Work & not Quantity for me.
NOTHING is more dissappointing than to read a story you’re loving & then get stuck in purgatory waiting for updates that may take months (years?) without any word from an author that they still intend to finish!
• Word of mouth from those on the Forums also give great credence to looking at new or older stories I will want to read!
Anyway, these are some of the things that, I as a reader, will look for and how I decide what I will read when searching through Episode’s.
Good Luck to all of you wonderful writers out there! Kudos for even trying to take that first step 
~~kat
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You know what? Long back, months ago I wrote a story and published it. I was following some 3k people with 500 followers. At first, like after 5 days of publishing, I had no reads. Then slowly, the number rose. I changed my name to: [NAME] CHECK MY STORY OUT*** (shameless self promotion lol) and that really gave me a boost. Within a month I had 2k followers (having followers is not such a huge thing lol, people there have 200K+ with no stories literally!) and some 500 reads. I deactivated the google account and rn i have no info where my story stands but… LOL I’M RANTING.
According to me… I never look at how many followers a person is having or reads either, the story description (or what we can call the summary or what is the story about) and having an intriguing title+description is suuuper important. COVER ART PLAYS A MAJOR ROLE*
Your reader will first look at the cover art then the title and after that description. If they are intriguing enough, the reader won’t even GLANCE at the number of reads; trust me, they already had hit the play button by then.
I HATE CLICHÉS! But I still read 'em. You write intriguing cliches, your reader doesn’t like cliches, they will read it. You don’t write cliches, your reader doesn’t like cliches, your plot isn’t intriguing enough, THEY WON’T READ IT!
Just believe, patience is the key. Don’t include:
• Pregnant by the xyz
• The Bad Boy xyz
• The Gangster xyz
These titles are so over-used. THINK! You have read 10 featured stories that go by such titles with similar plot. You come across a story with negligible reads with title Pregnant by the xyzwhatever. You’ll OF COURSE think it has similar plot and WON’T like to read it. Just avoid making this mistake!
Always put stories in suitable categories. You write a horror story and put it in romance section. Whoa! Someone likes to read horror, they won’t even come across your story. Someone likes to read romance, they will criticize your story and will leave it in between. Placing stories in the right category is really important!
JUST REMEMBER TO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL COVER ART, INTRIGUING DESCRIPTION, GREAT PLOT, PROFESSIONAL DIRECTING AND YOU’RE GOOD TO GO.
And yeah, self-promotion doesn’t hurt. 
Lol such a looong rant, hope you read this!
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Dear Elise,
When I was reading your comment I was thinking of how well-argumented it was and then I noticed that you are the very EliseC, one of my favourite authors! No wonder your advice is so good)
My name is Alex and I actually sent you a DM on Instagram just about an hour ago. It would mean the world to me if you could have a look at my story as I took yours as an example (I love how choices matter in your stories) Therefore, I believe that your expertise would really help me improve if you have some time to go through the 4 episodes of my story (H & V: Fate: Episode Writer Portal)
You also mentioned other credible Instagram accounts that can provide constructive criticism. Could you, please, share, if that’s ok? I not only seek reads but also want to improve, so I am not afraid of criticism.
Thank you very much in advance for any advice at all! And good luck with your future stories!
Your devoted reader,
Alex
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Do you have any instagram review pages you could recommend? I have found some but anyones you could recommend would be helpful
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Once I read a story that said “the directing and grammar gets better in episode 30”
I was like: tf?? Episode 30? (out of like 40 )
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I agree.
My first and only story reached 30k views in under 11 days, mostly I think it is because of my story cover and the name of it, as this attracts the reads, like c’mon we all judge a book by its cover, and make the description suspenseful, for an example you wouldn’t do “Bella is a normal girl who finds out she has powers” no you should do “Until now Belle thought she was a normal girl, that was till she found out she was an immortal with inhumane superpowers!”