Venting for small authors

Community Episode Fan Community
32

I do agree that I don’t think it’s really fair when the same stories are featured twice but I think Episode have been doing a much better job than last year.
I have to admit that I had the same story featured twice last year. I was going to email them and tell them not to feature me but I didn’t want to hurt my future chances and truthfully I was being a bit selfish and didn’t want to deny myself the opportunity :flushed:. I don’t think I’ve seen the same story being featured twice this year though? Although I could be wrong.

@Dmfan91
At least if you get reviews, you’re guaranteed some reads (albeit only three episodes or however many the reviewers promise to read).
I get the frustration, especially as you’ve been writing since December, but don’t give up. Maybe try entering a future contest with a new story? You’ll find that a lot of community members like to check out contest entries to support the authors, so you could get a few more reads that way?

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33

I’m not too keen on writing anymore stories, especially with the way this one is turning out. The whole process really is time consuming. I’ve started on this story last August, and over time it’s become more difficult to get what I want done in a timely manner. I really want to focus on this story, because it may be the only one I ever write and I know it has the potential to be just as good as any other story that so many people read.

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34

The newest episode of my story He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not was published 4 days ago and I only got 3 reads -_-

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Hello!

For all of you who have posted here, please feel free to promote your stories on my thread and if I do check them out & I really enjoy them - I will post them on the top post on the thread.

Here is a link to my thread:

Anyway, back to business - I will tell you this, the number of reads does not always correlate to the quality of your story. I have read stories that are below par and have had a lot of reads but I have read stories that are excellent yet have very little reads.

A lot of factors come into play regarding how many reads you will receive in a story, and there is also the case of luck. I’ve gained around 176 reads (as of 27/08/2018) and I know the struggle of promoting your story.

These are a few things I did to help me, this not only for the original poster but any authors out there!

  • I promoted my story! I did have the typical template of Title, Link, Description, Etc. but I also opened a thread which helped me gain some reads - this promotion was filled with screeenshots of my favourite moments & even added some gifs to reel some people in.

  • To further pique interest, I added details on why people should read my story. As well as making friends on the forums, this helped as they supported my story and gave feedback as well as enjoying their work too.

  • Read for reads are something which you have to be careful about, these can be great to help boost read numbers but they could harm your rating rank (my rating fluctuates all the damn time).

  • To help, soon - I will post some links to places you can promote your story! I hope these will help you.

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I will be posting some links for places you can seek feedback and promotions, hope these will help you :heart:

Also, I recommend you all put a link of your story in your bio!

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You see the link right at the bottom? Just copy and paste that then put it in your bio - people are bound to be curious and some people will click it!

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37

This is from the amazing Eri, I had the privilege of reviewing her story and she reviewed mine as well. Her story is a fantastic read, make sure to check it out and in exchange, you will receive a review on Instagram which in turn, promotes your story!

This is another group who offer reviews, they offer them via Instagram - they have a ratings system, in exchange - you read three chapters of one of the members’ stories (I read Riches to Rags, I loved it so much I recommend it!)

I am unsure if this is still open, but I found another promotion thread.

I don’t know who made this but she seems pretty awesome and funny so you may as well go to this thread :wink:

This is a really nice example of a promotion thread made by someone, Producing a promotion thread can really help attract some readers.

I will post my promotion as an example to see if it helps:

As you can see this is a very extra example of a promotion but what my intention was to make sure this was a promotion that stuck out from the crowd as well as helping potential readers get to know me.

Another brilliant premise - this is a way that all readers and authors can gain sustainable reads as well as helping each other out in the community! If you have an Instagram then fantastic!

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38

Usually it’s not that you’re doing anything wrong, but rather you aren’t advertising yourself well enough.

When I was a smaller author, my best friend completely rethought my story bio summary thing and I got 40k readers in a month!

Don’t fall into the trap of doing a summary just like everyone else’s. Make your story unique and let the summary reflect that uniqueness. Who wants to read a story they think will be like every other? Also, refrain from the rhetorical questions: “what happens when…?” — if you don’t know, how am I supposed to? We’re doomed

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Wow, that’s brilliant! With my previous story, I did not advertise my story that much but due to to advertising my story (revamp) I did gain a decent amount of reads that way. I agree completely with what you’ve said - I am sure all the authors on this thread have fantastic stories but establish what makes these stories stand out.

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I’ll make sure to check your stories out - I can add them to a batch of recommendations on my thread if you like :heart:

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41

Exactly! Also, make sure you put your best foot forward with your first chapter. Since people don’t have to use a pass to read it, it’s like a free sample. People use the excuse “it gets better” too often. While that might be true, create intrigue, or people aren’t gonna wanna put in the passes to read the rest

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I only have 144 reads and it’s going at such a slow pace. As soon as I hit 100, I got 35 more reads instantly, but now it’s gone slow again. Idk what to do. It’s making me super drained and unwilling to write because it’s not like people will read it :see_no_evil::see_no_evil::see_no_evil:

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43

Indeed, the first episode does create an impression on readers and I found reviewers gave me brilliant ideas on how to improve my first episode to attract readers.

Reviewers are a gift and they will help out majorly when you search for one who is very thorough.

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44

Personally, I’m never gonna read a story where they Capitalise Every Single Word In The Summary Like This. It comes across as childish and silly.

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45

I do find that off-putting, I will be honest ahaha

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Meadow, I promise you will get there - it takes time but I know you have been advertising your story very nicely and even maybe in your art thread you could post about your story there to gain some traction?

I will check your story out as well and make sure to add a thorough summary to it.

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47

Reviewers are a god-send… although I feel like some otherwise good stories suffer from something that it’s really difficult for reviewers to correct: unnatural dialogue. Like… I’ve reviewed loads of stories where I say “the dialogue here doesn’t seem quite natural”, usually for them to say well I speak like that.

Lord help me

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Just ask yourself “what makes my story different from every other story on the app” and use that as it’s main selling point. Run with it! Don’t stop! It will help you find interested people.

For example, I asked myself that question and realised I was turning a popular trope on its head. Instead of an average girl who becomes a princess, my story is about a princess who loses everything and has to function as a de-facto slave. I ran with that. Kept going until people found themselves interested in the uniqueness!

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Oh dear sometimes it is hard to get through to reviewees -_-

Just a few days ago, I fixed up my first episode to add a bit more intrigue and I asked the reviewer for their input on my idea - also, they helped me make certain aspects of my dialog more realistic. I just received a review and I am going to make sure I tweak some things according to that. Even now, I am fairly into my story but I still seek reviews to see where I can improve.

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Exactly and the premise of your story @meadowh is very unique indeed - so make sure to sell that.

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Thank you so much, it means a lot. But I don’t think my art customers will want to be guilted into reading my story :joy:

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