How long does it take to get reads on a story?

Community Episode Fan Community
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Hello, does anyone know how long it takes for you to get reads on your first story?

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It really depends. Read for reads and gem for gems can help give your story a push but a good description helps also

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Thanks.
Would you mind talking a look at my story description to see if it gets you attention?

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Sure :blush:

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Thank you!
Let me know if you would like me to read any of yours.
Also the story is called “My savior”

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Can you send the link?

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Sure, give me one minute

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I love My savior! Check it out! https//bit.ly/EpisodeHere #episode Episode Writer Portal

Also let me know if you can here music at the beginning of the episodes and during the episodes.

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take part in read for read, where you can support other creators and be supported in return, that will help you gain your first reads.

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Well I feel it all depends how much you’re promoting your story, if you’ve just posted your first story and you’re just waiting for reads you either won’t get many or none at all, I suggest making a read for read thread also maybe doing gem for gem as gems can help your story get a better ranking, or you can just promote your story on here :blush:

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Your description isn’t bad. There’s some key words in there that’ll definitely help your story, but what if you tried “You’re trapped in a toxic relationship, but what happens when a nice, hot boy comes to your rescue? You decide!”

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Love that idea!

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Thanks! I’ll give your story a read now

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Hey Rosie-2020,

Read @Marysol.Episode’s advice, because it’s a good one. Promotion is the key. How more you are going to promote, how more readers you get. Just realize, getting readers needs time. You don’t get readers instantly, so, please don’t expect the first time you promote to get thousands of reads, immediately.

What you need for promotion:

  • a proper cover (made by an Episode-related artist). Don’t make covers yourself, when you can’t draw, don’t just search on google for a nice art (because that can be theft). But go here on the forums and search for an artist that draws/edits covers for a low price or makes covers for free. Ask them nicely.;
  • a proper description of your story.;
  • your authors name on Episode and your Instagram-handle (or Facebook or TikTok);
  • Tell readers if your story has CC, which genre you can find your story in if you can choose gender and other important extra’s they can expect.

If you need other help PM me on this forum or DM on Instagram @angelwings_1983.

Love A-W

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Hi @Rosie-2020

Reading @Martini_98 advice has good direction for your story on getting readers and tip that guide you on your journey.

Overall

  • Catch’em readers! - Things that draw you potential readers’ attention:
    • Cover - Make it eye-catching.
      Don’t publish your story with the default cover ever - it looks very plain and won’t interest your readers. Try to avoid messy looking covers as well. Don’t steal other people’s art or images from the internet you’re not sure are free! Ask around the forums, there are plenty of artisit and editors that do free story covers.
    • Title - Take time to come up with something good and catchy.
      New authors tend to name their stories something very plain and clichĂ© (most seen example: “Falling for [insert any clichĂ© word]”)*Tip: Make your title have a ‘pun-like’ meaning for the plot. Word plays are catchy!*If you’re uncreative when it comes to story titles or can’t seem to find a fiting one - feel free to visit my Story Title Shop
    • Story description: This is what most probably will make a reader decide wether or not they’ll start your story. Try to summarize what’s your story about without revealing too much, make people want to find out themselves.
  • Promote your story!
    • Forums: There are a lot of story promoting threads here on the forums. You can also create one yourself and ask people to read your story.
    • Social media: Use lots of hashtags, post a lot of teasers/trailers and sneak peeks. Ask fellow authors for story shoutouts or check out some episode helping pages on instagram. (example: @episodeaxiom, @episode.advocates, @episode.luxe)
  • Get a second opinion - don’t rely on yourself (sorry). This is important! You as the author may see your story as the best and most interesting out there. But from a reader’s perspective it can be quite the opposite. Ask around for a story review (there are many threads here on the forums as well as on Instagram) or a “read for read”. Take some criticism! Don’t get offended when someone dislikes something about your story - instead ask yourself how you can make it better.
  • Update your story frequently - people tend to lose interest quickly, if you take forever to update. (I know everyone has a life outside episode, but I still think it’s possible to write one episode every 1-2 weeks).
  • Have your story proofread and beta tested before publishing.
    • Proofreading: have your story checked for grammar mistakes. I, as a reader tend to stop reading a story when the author doesn’t use commas and periods. Even though many readers are not native English speakers - good grammar and punctuation are pleasant for the eye and make your story more proffesional. There are many authors and pages that provide proofreading services here on the forums and social media as well. Use the opportunity!
    • Beta testing: even if you haven’t published your story yet - you can still have it read and tested by your friends and/or fellow authors. Send them your story link (not the URL at the top of the page), you can find it at the bottom of your story creation page on the writer’s portal. This is especially important when you’re using a lot of branches, mini games etc. It’s easy to make mistakes in advanced directing.

Link

Here is key tip of guideline that will help with your story to success with readers @Rosie-2020

In my option:

For authors to get readers. It depends on how good your story plot, outline, background of character and details that make your readers feels connected to your story. @Rosie-2020

Well, I would say don’t focused on other authors story on how much readers. They have gotten into their story. Because everyone writes different in their own ways and ideas. @Rosie-2020

I would say don’t put pressure to yourself. Just make your story grow on its own. Story takes time to get more readers. It will not gain thousands of reads immediately in one day. don’t think that readers will pop up fast because readers have to scroll through every story to look for your book and see on how they will prefer your story ideas and if they really love your story and support it. @Rosie-2020

I see that a lots of authors from community. Some of authors left. Because they look on their story and saw their story is not gaining lot of readers. Please it is very important to give your story chance to grow more followers and readers. Because I understand that you have works hard on getting readers. But there is still hope out there for your story to grow don’t give up just yet. @Rosie-2020

It can give you hopeless but there is a chance that your story will get more readers. Just make sure that you have a strong story outline and details. If you love on writing your story as your hobby. Give it a chance. I sometimes feel others author’s pain. Because they get mean comments about their story and even when you gain readers and get fanmail don’t shut yourself down. Keep on pushing with positive mind set not negative mind. Because it can make you feels down all the time and make you overthink everything on what you have done. Please keep on going. There are other authors and readers that will support you and others. @Rosie-2020

Sometimes failure is successful. Because it keeps on making us see our mistake. It called fighter who never back down and give up on their journey. That is energy and strength that helps us grow more and more each day. @Rosie-2020

Readers looks through story on how good coding, Narrator were grammar words are used for character to speak through for readers to follow along. Also, Readers will look for characters bonding on how well characters communicated with each other. @Rosie-2020

There are ways, how long does it take to get reads on a story?

I agree with @AngelWings1983. You don’t get readers immediately out of thin air. It’s takes time for readers to read your story. There are ways to get more readers not just one way. So, many ways that help get readers. It best to focused on how your story will end, what happen, what is character struggle, motivation. Details that will show on how the readers will know your character life in the story and your ideas. Make sure there are plot twist that can help surprise your readers. @Rosie-2020

you could have added art scene that would help gain more readers. @Rosie-2020

I agree with @Marysol.Episode. you have to keep on promote your story. If you don’t have a social media, you could have posted your story on forum. Also, you have a free time, where you can gain more readers. Meaning continue your story. Until your story is finished completed.

I would recommend Instagram. Because Instagram will help with more views and readers too. App is easy to use. Also, there are sneak peek you could have posted and trailers that help you along the way. You could have tried different app like twitter or Facebook. @Rosie-2020

You could have used Bio website link where you could have posted your story. @Rosie-2020

Example:

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It will be easy way for readers to click on link into bio link website and go straight into your story. Bio link website help with your information for story, about yourself and much more that you could have added for your bio link website. @Rosie-2020

Example:

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Link bio website will be located under your profile. @Rosie-2020

There is different bio link website to use for your social media. @Rosie-2020

I agree with @Mi_writes @denaxepisode @Inagitaepisode

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My opinion your cover, title and description are important
Even if you don’t use advanced directing
As long as your story match with I tell before it will fast to get reads
R4r and g4g it’s helping too.
Btw, I’m up do r4r and g4g dear

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I’m down!

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Do you have IG dear?

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Yep. It’s EB.episode (@episode_writes20) ‱ Instagram photos and videos

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It can take awhile and the biggest thing is consistency. If you have an IG, post updates, fan art, q&a to interact with the community of readers. Here on the Forums, look for R4Rs and (if you can) Gem4Gems (g4g) and be sure to complete the ones that you agree to. If you can’t because life gets in the way, let the other person know asap so they don’t feel that you’ve lied and ghosted them for reads because that will definitely stop people from wanting to do them with you. Also, on the Forums, check the Promote Your Story section and share your link around. At the very least, it’s exposure.

And a tip for the “promoting”: Include the following in EVERY promotion post you make or reply to: Title, Author Name on the app, The COVER (super important, it will get people interested but also help people find your story if they’re on a device that links tend to mess up on), and the Description/Genre/Special Features – You can make your descriptions more in depth here than on the app so feel free to add a little more than what you have on the app/Special Features – CC, choices matter, are there Art scenes? Mini-Games?

Good luck and try to be patient because my only story on here only had like 100 reads after a couple weeks then it was reviewed and placed on a shelf and now has over 19k. Just be consistent, try to interact as much as you can with your reader base and give yourself a little grace because you did something awesome-- you wrote and published a story :slight_smile:

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