Hey there guys, I am an episode writer and I plan on finishing up my first story before publishing it. However, I do wonder how stories are put on Stories we 
, or under a genre because there are thousands of stories out there but only some in the trending lists.
I hope this helps any new author out there who is wondering the same thing, or any author that is struggling to get their story out there for people to know.
Thank you for your advice and suggestions!
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You just need to do A TON of advertising
Also, good directing and a unique plot are also important. There are a lot of factors that determine which stories are popular, but advertising is the main way of getting your story out there
Here are a few ways you can get more reads
- do Read for Reads. These can get old and annoying, but it is a great way to boost your reads
- Join the episode community on instagram and be active. A lot of people are on instagram, and the more active you are, the more followers/interest you will gain
- Join a writing group. There are a lot of these on the forums, and being a part of one can help (I am a part of Seventh Heaven, if you want you can PM me for more details)
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Thank you!
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anytime
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How well do get reads for reads work cuz I’ve had a hard time getting people to do it,
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I have a story on episode that I started writing last year, but I would say try making friends in the episode community and ask for shout outs or even, having a character appear in an episode even just as a background character
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Firstly, with the new rule where stories won’t show up on the ranks unless they’ve been reviewed, that needs to happen first. To be reviewed, you either need to be trending top 100 in any genre (you won’t actually see your true rank, but I guess Episode has some system so they can tell) or be considered for some kind of weekly shelf.
The new rules have also cut the genre trending sections off at 100, so that’s why you can’t see many stories.
To get to the top 100, I think these things help:
- Promote on IG. I released a new story recently and didn’t advertise it on IG. I gained 10 reads in a day. The next day I promoted it and gained 200 reads in a day.
- Publish frequently- at least one episode a week if you can.
- Shorter (but not too short) chapters seem to do better as they’re “bingier”
- Romance is the hardest genre to trend in, followed by drama then probably fantasy? It’s much, MUCH easier to trend in horror, thriller or adventure, but don’t just put your story there if it doesn’t fit.
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I wanna include mystery in my story but it seems it isn’t trending 
oml this is great advice
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How often do you update?
How many chapters do you have?
Has the story been reviewed?
Do you promote on social media?
Of course, being a new author or an author without a “big” following is still going to make things hard, but you tend to find that a story which has a few chapters released and updates regularly will pick up a following, even if small. If you update fast or even in batches, this can push your ranking up and more people can see your story.
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What if I don’t have Instagram?
You can use the forums. There have been plenty of people still have success with their stories despite not having IG.
Also, I don’t think IG is that useful when you’re new, although sometimes someone might see a screenshot that looks interesting and decide to find out more.
Focusing on updating frequently I think should be a big focus, social media or not.
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Thank you so much!
bump! 
How did you promote on insta? I’ve been adding screenshots to instagram of my story and such with the max number of hashtags but it doesn’t seem to be gaining traction…