What does the Episode audience really look like?

Hello everyone! :slight_smile:

I’m kinda new here on the forum and also as a writer. I tried to search a similar topic to my question, but I couldn’t find anything that could be close to what I’m looking for. So if the topic already exists somewhere, I’d be happy to read the thread.
Anyway, so I’d like to better understand what’s the main audience for the Episode. I mean, there’s a difference between what’s the company is focusing as their target market and what it’s actually reality, right? Because I see that the app is PG-13, but there are lots of fans mid-twenties, almost thirties. And like it or not, there’s a huge gap between these two kinds of audience.

On another aspect, what’s this whole concept of advertising on community stories even if the author is not part of the Payment Program? Because before there were some stories where there was no ads before and now I feel that we have been led to watch ads, read the in-built-app stories for exchanging for diamonds, etc. I kinda understand where these come from, because it’s a company afterall and not a NGO… But hey, if the author doesn’t want to have any monetary gain, but at the same time spend valuable hours to create and publish a story with original stuff and according the deadlines, then why does it need to have ads?

Thanks in advance for the help and I wish y’all a great day, night or whatever time zone you’re!

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Because it’s not the author who gains from them in that case, but Episode itself. And as you said, they need (and want) to gain as much as they can :woman_shrugging:

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Readers: mostly teenage girls (10-16), as for popular authors: women in their early/mid twenties and college students. It’s been that way since Episode’s release and if you look at some of the ads it’s intended to attract the target audience of young women with the use of female MCs and attractive male LIs

Also where my bros at :raising_hand_man:t2:

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Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I asked that because I want to publish a story there, but every day more I’m getting more and more discouraged. I wanted to understand about the audience because I’m worried about getting lost in the depths of forgotten existence from Episode. That being said, I don’t want to be super popular as well, nor even write stuff that is not reachable for every age, but still, I read a lot here about how much hate some readers send to authors and stuff. How much, for example, people hate no CC and so on.
I’m afraid to put my heart on it and people not even give a real chance to read it. It doesn’t mean that I want to write to please anyone, but it’s really hard to write something that might not get the attention of the readers from the app.
Does it make sense?

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So understanding a bit of how the general public is, makes a bit easier on how to write and interact with the readers.

My story has a male MC, I think it’s way more pleasant for me to write from the male perspective.

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That’s honestly nice. A lot of people now days have gotten tired of the female MC"s and are looking for more Male led stories, so I think you would get reads and be remembered more for that actually.

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Thank you for your input! I didn’t realize that male MCs are something that readers started to look for! I mean, as a reader, I always thought it was a nice twist, but I thought it was just because I like to write male characters… So thanks for writing about it! :heart_eyes:

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Just to add to the discussion: I think that writers that are just starting out should come to terms with the fact that their story is like a new product. No, people aren’t gonna discover its existence themselves (because there are thousands of stories already out) and no, people are not automatically gonna be interested in it. Stories get judged heavily on the amount of reads nowadays, no matter the topic or target audience. So as a writer you should do everything to get your story out there and promote it on instagram and pretty much everywhere else until it is featured on a shelf or something. Treat it like a new product on the market. It is the harsh reality of being a new Episode writer in 2020, and it’s not particularly motivating, but I do think it’s worth it! I hope you’ll one day get your published. I’d love to read it :heart:

Not really an answer on your question but it was something that came to mind…

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Yeah, I understand what you mean. After all, the main purpose of writing a story (and coding one!) is actually make someone read it. The main point is to be an entertainment to the reader. Reader is always the most important part of it. At least, that’s what I think!
I get that you also need to work hard to promote your story, because stories don’t simply become featured miraculously! There are tons of hours spent into promoting. Thank you so much for contributing to our discussion and your time to read it and reply it! <3

I’m just a bit overwhelmed with everything and I’m always afraid that my ideas are not complying with the Episode guidelines. That can be really frustrating and disappointing.
At this point, I’m just one step closer to never publish anything.

I’m pretty familiar with the guidelines so maybe you can PM me your ideas and we can go over it if you want?

I honestly think you should go ahead and work on your story because there’d always be a niche audience for whatever it is you write that strays away from the Episode norm. A lot of unconventional stories with no CC are recognized in the community, and this app can definitely use more stories with male MCs.

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Thanks a lot!! It was really great to read such an encouraging reply. I’ve been kinda demotivated to carry on with my project. I’ll definitely take upon your offer, I’ll definitely PM tomorrow with some more details of what I’d like to publish. Today I’ve been kinda busy and I have no brain left to properly explain my story!

But you’ll hear from me soon, I promise you. Thank you once again and I wish you a good night (or day!) <3

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I second that! I’m really interested in seeing more male MC stories. Like you, it’s much easier for me to write from the male perspective. I ended up writing from the female perspective for my first story since I felt it would attract more readers, but there are ways you can still write male characters by changing point of view. I’m currently working on another story with male MCs and my beta readers seem more interested in it :rofl:, so maybe you should just write what you want!

Don’t give up on your story. Getting recognised is difficult and takes some self promotion to give you that little boost, but you’ll encounter people who like your work, even if it’s one or two, and their enthusiasm makes it all worthwhile :slight_smile:

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Thanks sunshine! It feels really good to see so much support here from other authors! <3 And also to know that you like to write about male characters just like I do! Once you publish your other story, please let me know :smiley:
Indeed your idea of changing the point of views is really good. I have read some stories like that and it also helps a lot to understand what the other characters think, afterall everyone has their own perspectives!
I wish you success with the male MCs! <3

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Sure thing! Let me know when you publish your story as well! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Hi Sophie, I finally finished writing that story I mentioned, so here’s the link if you’re interested:

Since the story is based on Old French fairytales, the perspectives change, but the main characters tend to be male.

Have you published your story yet?

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I’m an outlier, as I’m male, and much older, but I still like reading the stories here, particularly the fantasy (Science Fiction) stories. I recognize the target demographic and read a few of the popular stories to get a sense of expectations, (just as when my agent got me pitching for Disney Channel I had to do some research there.) Some I liked, but I’m much more into reading creative community stories, especially by “small” authors as one more often finds diamonds in this rough.

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I’m a reader only and in my 40’s. I’d be interested to see if the reader demographic is actually accurate. You don’t add your age in anywhere, so not sure how they find out?

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Hey :smiley:

First of all, I’d like to thank you for remembering our conversation from so many months ago and obviously sharing your story with me. I’m super sorry that it took a bit for me to get your message, because I’ve been a bit away from the forum. But the important thing is: I started reading your story. And I must say that I’m really proud of you for sticking around and keep working on the story and finally publishing it <3 So answering your question about my story, well, let’s just say I’ve put it on hold. I’ve been studying a lot and I don’t have so much free time as I’d like to. I’m not quite sure if I can comment about your story here, but I’ll try to talk without giving spoilers! How would it be the pronunciation of the MC (Guigemar)? Brittany is the northwest part of France, right? There was a mention of the statue of Venus, but since it was the beginning of 15th century (1473, if K remember correctly) I was wondering if it would have an equivalent “saint” for Venus. I hope it’s not a retarded question, but since the Romans were long gone, I was wondering if it was normal to have referecens to pagan gods. I suppose the influence of the Roman culture is very important for many European countries, but maybe I just need to learn more about France. I will continue reading here, I really dig the male MC and medieval themes, thanks once again for this sweet gift. I truly admire you for grasping poetry and specially from a language different from English. It must be very difficult and some of the qualities of the text may get lost just because of translating, but I feel like I can truly learn something new and the meaning of the poems.

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Do you write as well?

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Maybe for the app developers might be easier to get data about public. But I think for the writers, it may be related to the interaction with the fans (especially via IG)