I normally don’t complain but lately, while trying to promote my story, I’ve succumbed to read for reads.
I don’t really have a problem with a read for read, I’ve actually discovered some amazing stories this way.
My issue is, that half the time I complete an r4r, the other author never reads my story!!
-or-
I post my story on a thread that claims to give reviews and again the person claims they will read it and give me feedback but my story reads don’t go up.
Please comment below if this has been happening to you and what you do to promote your story besides r4r.
Because quite frankly I’m tired of it and I need new ideas on how to promote my story!
I’ve done read for reads twice, with my first story. Both times the person didn’t read my story. I refuse to do read for reads now, but fortunately I’m in a kind of happy middle ground so that I no longer have to.
Title: THE NEW GUY
Author: KELZBLOGS
Genre: Gay/Romance
Style: INK
Summary: Justin is secretly gay but when the hot new guy from CALI comes along can he keep his secret and hide his feelings for the new guy who’s straight maybe.
I have never done read for reads and that’s exactly why I don’t. I see way too many people not follow through, not to mention that if they don’t continue through with it, it ends up hurting your retention score.
And I always thought it was kind of rude to ask for screenshots as proof, which I see a lot of people doing, but I guess I can understand now why people who have been burnt before do it.
I honestly suck at promoting my own stories. It makes me so uncomfortable to post my link around on story sharing threads. But I’ll tell you what I do to promote my story (if you can even call it that)
Post the story information on threads that don’t say they are R4R only. This way, your link’s out there and people can click on it if they take an interest. I have done this for my last story on maybe 4 or 5 threads. Idk if you can say it helps, but you can see how many times a link has been clicked, so you can at least track whether or not people are taking interest.
I have the links to my stories on my forum profile, in case someone ever says “who the heck is this bish commenting on my thread?” and then they can stalk me on the app easily. I can’t measure whether this is effective or not though, but it says my profile’s had 344 views, so I’d like to think surely someone has clicked on one of my stories that way.
Not sure if this would count as a tip, because I never started it with the intention of boosting my reads, but I have found people have read more of my stories since I started my own review thread. I never said anything like “you have to read my story before I review yours”, so I wasn’t expecting people to read my stories. But I’ve had quite a few people read my story after I’ve reviewed theirs and they message me and tell me that they loved it.
Okay I put your story in my favorites. I have three others in front of it to read. I will Dm once I’m done with feedback and screenshots.
Please do the same
Hi!
Okay I put your story in my favorites. I have three others in front of it to read. I will Dm once I’m done with feedback and screenshots.
Please do the same
Thank you! Your message is very helpful! I’m just trying to get my story out there for others to enjoy. But I can’t stand being taken advantage of! I enjoy writing and even the directing and code aspect but I get discouraged when no one reads it. Mainly because finding he time to write is hard with kids around and each episode takes so long to write.
Again sorry for my earlier mistake message!
You’re welcome. I hope some of my tips work for you! I totally understand that feeling when you write something and you just know people will love it if only they knew it existed…
And dw about it. I didn’t even get the notification.
I have that issue to but even if it’s r4r I read the entire thing anyway I understand that with the tickets you have to wait 3 hours I do i wait that 3 hours to keep reading and I think some just can’t be bothered
The worst part is, I never asked to do R4R or asked anyone to read my stories, period. These people came to be asking to do R4R and then when I said “sure”, I followed through on my part of the deal but they didn’t. So now I don’t even entertain the thought.
@TLdax913 I just finished reading the first chapter and I’m impressed with how impeccable you’re directing skills are. You definitely deserve more reads. I’m not into fantasy stories but yours was definitely worth reading. I left a message on your fan mail page. I plan on reading the 9 remaining episodes. I only have four episodes published but you want to check out my story as well you can. Keep up the great work!
So true that is the worse part and very annoying! That happened to me many times! So now if they ask me for r4r, I won’t read it until they have read mine!
This has happened to me a good number of times, and frankly, it’s annoying. I don’t know why people do this. Have you considered creating a thread promoting your story? Of course, it will probably end up becoming a read-for-read thread, but you can say on the thread that they have to read your story first. Another option that I have are reviews on Instagram. Most of the time, the reviewers on Instagram will review your story and give you honest feedback. This is also a way to promote a story, because their reviews are public and they normally have a lot of followers.
