Well, whether it’s a glitch or not I think people are going way too far by stating things like their money depends on these ranks so it all needs to be fixed ASAP and shit. The only real remaining issue with this new system if the ranks are glitching is that you won’t get to see those in-between ranks anymore but rather just your overall rank at the end of the day (but it refreshes every single day so I STILL don’t see how that should demotivate anyone from writing in general). But even then, some people are acting like their whole career ended bc of this tiny change which is ridiculous. And if it is indeed a glitch it’ll get fixed soon. If not, I’m happy they implemented a new way of rating and ranking stories which is the real way of giving more exposure to smaller authors, not with the old system lol.
First off, congrats on getting featured on the shelf! That’s amazing 
The only explanation I can think of is indeed that those 15K readers in total might not all have continued reading after the 1st or 2nd chapter (or they didn’t have time and saved your story to continue reading it later - I do that all the time so don’t worry too much!) which caused your reader retention and thus your overall rank to drop. However, I understand this might feel a bit unrewarding at first but from Episode’s point of view, this will cause stories to trend not just based on the amount of reads but quality/engagement as well. In no way am I saying your story isn’t good at all, I mean it was featured on the shelf so that in itself says enough! But generally speaking it makes way for more of those ‘hidden gems’ to be pushed up in the ranks. Obviously the system of rating based on retention rate is far from the perfect way to judge. But compared to the ‘based on amount of reads’ method it’s definitely more fair and equal. We can’t please everyone of course. And at the end of the day, you gained so much more readers so be super proud of that! 
Oh sure, I’m not disagreeing with any of that.
To be honest, I find this funny more than anything because it just seems that every time Episode releases a big update, something goes wrong.
You would think if the entire system had changed, something would have been mentioned in the original post but I guess we’ll hopefully get an explanation from Liz or someone soon.
Haha, agreed. Yes, let’s hope so!
This update is aweful really.
I’m just a small author who writes for fun and I find motivation in reads.
Before the update my ranking was usually around 300 in trending user story & around 120 in romance. Because the ranking updated multiple times per day, the visibility of my story was pretty okay. Making sure people would find my story in the app and getting 300+ reads within 24 hours of updating.
Now my ranking has dropped to 6160 in trending user story and 2339 in romance. My story is almost invisible on the app unless you actually search for it by title. My reads has dropped to like 50 reads within 24 hours of updating.
Yes, I write for fun, but don’t we all want people to read and like our stories? If you end up with less and less reads, it doesn’t really motivate to continue right?
That would be lovely!!!
Something that makes me wonder is that two of my published stories, I sadly haven’t updated them in many many months. If you do delete ones that are just being tested or discontinued, you should ask and see. Then delete them after a confirmed thing. That might help. (You can ignore me too. I’m saying some random stuff)
Actually some of the top trending authors write on Episode for a living and can get 100,000 reads in a day or more when they update. This is their only source of income and 100,000 reads can get them over $100 in writer payments.
If this continues on for much longer without a fix, their pay for this month could end up being hundreds less than it usually is, and many of them depend on this money to provide for their families and pay their bills.
That’s why it’s such a big deal to them. If my pay for the month was suddenly cut without warning by hundreds, I would be both livid and panicking all at once.
Oh no, I can’t fight a fellow zombie writer! Damn.
Also the ranks are 100% certainly NOT calculated solely on retention, because I know for a fact that The Infected has better retention (otherwise it wouldn’t have made Editor’s Pick) than my other story in horror, which is currently trending at third for some reason. That story has never made it into the top 5 before.
This is just the same old trending section glitch, except on speed thanks to the new “update”. By which I mean “downgrade”.
I am sorry but if these authors are relying on soul income from stories they are creating, then they should be doing more then letting Episode make sure they get seen, I didn’t market my stories any differently then another, I do not know why one of my stories skyrocketed and the others did not, most of the stories that I think would generate serious income for an author, or the stories that were originally trending most were complete, if they are relying on income from a story that is over, that’s pretty dumb, write a new story, most of those authors have a following and people eat up what ever they put out, create new content its actually really simple.
I’m sorry, but by looking through all of these replies, I’m starting to get worried. Will any of my stories ever be noticed? I don’t know if I’ll get any motivation from this. Just like others have said.
Plus I am entering the MC contest and I am a small writer. With this, I doubt I’ll have any chance at being able to win like all the big shots.
And I want to be able to believe that I have a fair chance at winning. That’s the excitment of it.
They do do that. But it’s hard to write more than one story at once.
I am currently writing 3, and update them pretty regularly, I don’t think there is anything special about me, you can’t expect to be a one hit wonder in a writing community, like I said most of the trending stories were complete, if a story is finished then there is no reason you can’t start another… we are talking about the stories with millions of reads (at least I am) LOL
@amberose you summed it ut perfectly.
Our College Days story gained only a few reads ( like 10 lol) and with this update, we didn’t move up at all-we didn’t have that small moment after gaining reads where our story would go up just for a little while - and we dropped in rank even more. Small stories with like 3 chapters doesn’t have a chance to compete with stories that have more chapters.
As I can see people have lot of theories on how this works. I would really appreciate a proper explanation, because right now, we are all just guessing.
Their stories aren’t over. They’re ongoing. The majority of them work hard to publish a new chapter of a story every week, or two every two weeks.
A lot of them have quit their jobs to write full time because they’re making good money off it. How can you think it’s okay to act like Episode suddenly messing this up and causing them to lose reads is no big deal when they rely on this to provide for themselves, and some of them, for their children?
It’s not their fault that the trending section is suddenly broken and their hard work is suddenly going to waste.
That’s not what I was saying. The writers will continue to write and come up with new ideas, but it is hard to start another story at the exact same time. Because you have to keep both readers from both stories happy
Ok so because for 2 days there stories aren’t number 1-50 the system is broken? how do you think they got to the top or even stayed there? by having a following, a group of royal readers. I am not saying they don’t work hard, or they don’t deserve to get paid, but what about the authors who work just as hard, put out just as much content but get lost in the shuffle? I am sorry but at least 65% of the stories that were 1-100 ranking at least in romance have been complete for a long time, so they are not getting updated… if a story is getting updated regularly and is still ongoing then yes it should be trending, I am not talking about stories that are ongoing I am talking about the majority that have been finished for months…
I also would like to add, if you want to get paid to be a full time writer why would you do it on a app? I mean in all seriousness how consistent could that be? if I was going to quit my job to write full time it would be for a publishing company or a newspaper… It is a risk that was taken to quit a consistent job with consistent pay for a hobby with inconsistent pay,
Well I’m talking about the top 10, the majority of which were ongoing and only trended that high because of the authors’ careful planning and hard work to keep on a rigid update schedule.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that the trending section is broken - this isn’t even a new glitch.
It’s the same old trending section glitch that rearranges all the rankings at random, usually pushing old stories that are getting little to no reads into the top spots. It just never lasted this long before because when the ranks updated every hour or so, eventually the most read stories would work their way back up to the top.
Stop acting like this is their fault and they should’ve had a backup plan. Maybe the employees who work at Episode should also stop relying on the money the app makes them since it also pays their bills?
Stop victim blaming. These people need to feed themselves. That’s a despicable attitude and you should think it over and be ashamed. I can’t believe you.