I’m gonna get so much hate for this. But here’s the tea.
All of the forums are full of stuff like “I hate cliche stories! Bad boys, pregnancy, bla bla! Stahpp!!”
fam, why aren’t you supporting newer and smaller authors then? like… why???
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let the tea begin
BTW, don’t say “you can’t talk for everyone!!!11!11 I support small authors!!1!1!” just like how y’all think the whole trending section till 100 ranking is cliche, I’m saying that many people don’t support it.
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i don’t think there’s any tea here. people do support small authors.
you gotta know that not everybody on episode thinks the same about cliches as some of the people here. a majority of readers really likes that stuff, so, it’s what sells.
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nahh, some people really don’t support, i’ve seen people ALWAYS recommend bigger authors to shelves they ask on instagram, it’s not hard to pull a small author in you know?
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I agree with you completely.
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true, true.
i dunno. i guess i’m wrong, but? i still feel like since readers to tend to enjoy cliched stuff more, that it’s what’s promoted more. it’s what gets reads.
also, my comment was locked from being edited for some reason? 
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i love a good cliche when turned into reality, so many stories being pre-judged for being on the romance category 
weird stuff, i know halloween is coming, i guess goblins strike first
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Well…
I’d like to think I make a conscious effort to support smaller authors. I recommend more unknown stories over popular ones because I figure people already know the popular ones and that my suggestions should be ones people haven’t heard of.
But…
I see self claimed small authors only recommend stories with hundreds of thousands of views. So I kinda think like… why would you expect people to read and promote your under 100 view story if you yourself don’t read stories with under 100 views
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exactly, people be saying stuff like “small authors should support each other!!” then do it? i started reading new user stories just for this.
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Not all big authors write cliche stories.
A lot of small authors do write overdone cliche stories.
You can’t say that new and small authors don’t sometimes write the same cliche stories. The trick is weeding through them all. I’ve actually found some amazing non-cliche small stories that later go on to become featured. You just have to know where to find them (ie… where to promote your story)
I find stories through 5 methods.
- Recommendations from other users who like similar stories as I do.
- Recommendations from authors I follow.
- Review groups on Instagram. I read the reviews, and if it sounds good, I’ll check it out.
- New User Stories on the app (which sadly, most I see pop up ARE cliche stories)
- Shelves. I look at the description and if it interests me, I’ll read it. There are usually a few stories under 10k reads on almost every shelf Episode has been putting out lately.
Small authors just need to promote their stories more and get them noticed. A good way to get noticed is to have review groups evaluate them.
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I think that cliche stories mainly ruined my interset for reading romance stories…
I agree with you, I’m still searching for Romance story that at one point isn’t cliche.
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Confession: whenever I see someone complain about this on the forums I hunt them down on the app just to see what’s on their recommendations shelf and that’s what determines if I read someone’s story
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nice but i didn’t say big authors write cliche stories, i actually like cliche stories when it’s well done. and I agree with smaller authors not doing enough, don’t be lazy like me guys promote your story
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i have a lot of small and non cliche stories on my shelf (imo) 
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I’m a ‘small’ author and since doing read for reads, I have found some stories that are far better and far more unique than the stuff that ends up popular.
My problem isn’t so much with the people that don’t support or read the stories of small authors or authors just starting out (since they were probably all small authors to begin with), it’s with Episode not doing enough to encourage or promote new stories from authors just starting out. Some of the stories I have read have been hidden gems and far superior to the crap that Episode shoves in your face, but the authors of said stories will either never get noticed or it’ll take years for them to get noticed. But if these stories worth reading got the attention they deserved, Episode could make more money from them. Instead of flooding the app with the same cliche rubbish time after time which eventually gets tiresome, more interest from a varied audience could could bring more people to the app. People that don’t want the bad boy, pregnant by so-and-so, gang member trash that represents the app so strongly.
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Sorry, I took the “yet no one supports small authors” as saying that all the big authors write cliche stories.
But yeah, I think self-promotion and reviews are the way to get noticed.
It’s hard to find good stories with few reads without weeding through the cr*p.
You look at stories and see the read count, you have to assume 1 of 2 things.
- Gem that just hasn’t been noticed.
- There’s a reason it doesn’t have many reads (cliche, bad directing, poor grammar, bad plot, etc).
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yes but trending section and ranking is totally by users, if I’m #30 its because of my reader engagement, so many “cliche” stories in the trending section is, yet again our fault
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i mean, we all start from a place, if the author started with a cliche story and got bigger, i’m not gonna judge them, there’s obviously a twist in it that made people enjoy, and that’s what makes it unique among all other stories. we all take risks with our unique first stories, thats why we fail i think
I agree, and the advertising for Episode is all about the cliche stories so people who are into that kind of thing will download if for those stories, which is why they are the most popular, I assume. But there’s so much more to episode than those kinds of stories but they aren’t advertised or promoted, so everyone thinks (as my husband would say), they are just ‘sex’ stories. I get the romance thing, admittedly it is something I enjoy about the stories but I like the storyline that goes with it. A good, strong plot that hits you where it hurts and makes you feel something, at the same time as being light-hearted and being well written and directed. Not just ‘guy-is-a-jerk-but-the-MC-adores-him-anyway’ crap.
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that’s where episode comes in with the hidden gems shelfs, they have been doing a pretty good job lately, if our community ever starts also recommending smaller authors for themed shelfs, it’ll all be great
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