What are some major milestones to track for your stories?

[tantrayaan]

Question for all authors here. I know everyone obsesses over the stats of their stories.

For those that have done this a while here on this platform - what are some major milestones/metrics that you track to see how you are doing?

 

[Wamba2K]

Everything. I'm aware of every view count of every chapter, and all the recent reader numbers, and the user stats. I'm also constantly tracking how many people have dropped each story. It's very sad. I need to get a life.

 

[Lookbehindyou]

it does not matter unless you are trying to have a Patreon or publish. Whatever number makes you happy, aim for that.

 

[tantrayaan]

it does not matter unless you are trying to have a Patreon or publish. Whatever number makes you happy, aim for that.

It matters to know what your readership likes/dislikes even if you do not plan to be commercial.

Readership trends show what story points resonate with your audience IMO.

It's more than just about the numbers. Plus, the higher your numbers - the more readers you get. This results in better engagement and surely that is something that authors want. Otherwise why publish to a public site in the first place?

 

[Eldoria]

Question for all authors here. I know everyone obsesses over the stats of their stories.

Not true. Not all authors here are obsessed with engagement. I've seen authors who regularly release hundreds of chapters, with over half a million words. Yet, they don't complain about engagement, even if their fiction only gets around 1k views.

For those that have done this a while here on this platform - what are some major milestones/metrics that you track to see how you are doing?

Well, if you talk about metrics, there are many measures to measure the achievement of your fiction. Some of these metrics include:

(1) the number of words that have been released. SH does not really care about it, but RR gives special badges for every author who reaches a certain number of words such as 50k, 100k, 200k, etc.

(2) Number of readers, both RR and SH count the number of readers as an achievement. RR gives badges. While SH, the author title is determined based on the overall number of readers.

(3) Number of views, both RR and SH also count views as an achievement. RR again gives special badges for each level of views achieved. While SH uses views to determine the ranking of fiction based on tags.

(4) Favorites, comments and ratings, both SH and RR also pay attention to favorites, ratings and comments as indicators of healthy fiction in terms of engagement that influence a fiction to enter trending.

(5) Reviews, RR and SH also consider reviews as an achievement for fiction. RR consistently gives badges for every review achievement. In SH, the number of reviews is included in the total author statistics on the profile page.

If you're measuring how well your fiction is engaged... perhaps the metrics above can be a benchmark.

However, going back to the beginning of the discussion, not all authors care about engagement. Some author simply use fiction as a hobby or a means of self-actualization.

So, instead of worrying about engagement, perhaps... perhaps it would be better to focus on enjoying the creative process of writing fiction.

 

[tantrayaan]

Not true. Not all authors here are obsessed with engagement. I've seen authors who regularly release hundreds of chapters, with over half a million words. Yet, they don't complain about engagement, even if their fiction only gets around 1k views.

Well, if you talk about metrics, there are many measures to measure the achievement of your fiction. Some of these metrics include:

(1) the number of words that have been released. SH does not really care about it, but RR gives special badges for every author who reaches a certain number of words such as 50k, 100k, 200k, etc.

(2) Number of readers, both RR and SH count the number of readers as an achievement. RR gives badges. While SH, the author title is determined based on the overall number of readers.

(3) Number of views, both RR and SH also count views as an achievement. RR again gives special badges for each level of views achieved. While SH uses views to determine the ranking of fiction based on tags.

(4) Favorites, comments and ratings, both SH and RR also pay attention to favorites, ratings and comments as indicators of healthy fiction in terms of engagement that influence a fiction to enter trending.

(5) Reviews, RR and SH also consider reviews as an achievement for fiction. RR consistently gives badges for every review achievement. In SH, the number of reviews is included in the total author statistics on the profile page.

If you're measuring how well your fiction is engaged... perhaps the metrics above can be a benchmark.

However, going back to the beginning of the discussion, not all authors care about engagement. Some author simply use fiction as a hobby or a means of self-actualization.

So, instead of worrying about engagement, perhaps... perhaps it would be better to focus on enjoying the creative process of writing fiction.

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. What are some milestones (by those who do track them) that you have found to be impactful

I'll rephrase my OP. The intent is not to say that everyone should care. I am interested to understand what are good metrics/milestones from those who do care.

For example.. I think 10k reads was a good milestone so far. I see that it moves you into the top 150 in most tag categories (not the popular ones). I'm assuming breaking into the top 100 would be a big deal.

% of active readers vs total readers (not counting to read, dropped, completed etc) is important. I wonder what benchmark some of the most popular stories have.

Also avg number of fav chapters (chapters that have most favs etc.). I find that my 18+ chapters have the highest reads although my other chapters have better engagement in terms of number of favs/comments. These I find interesting.

Another is %True reads vs Views (I think > 50% sounds good).

Things like that.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

The only stat that matters is the number of readers asking you to write more. If that is > 1, you're doing well. If it's less than 1, you need to work on something...
If it's exactly one... well, then you might be me...

 

[Lookbehindyou]

I suppose if the number of readers dropped x 10 is less than still reading that is a good metric. Some stories have crazy good hooks and get tons of views but the actual writing causes many people to drop.

Personally, I think a ratio of words to stats is a good way to measure.

You can compare to other stories by going to advanced sorting, putting in your tags, putting in a range 10k above and below for words, and seeing what metrics other stories are getting, if you wish.

Some stories have 100k+ words and basically the same stats as stories with under 50k, minus favorites, as favorites gets inflated by chapter number, some stories have huge chapters and naturally fewer favorites.

For favorites, you can look into statistics and see the most favorited chapters, and these chapters are a better representation of the number of engaged readers.

There is also an average views stat to get a look without chapter spam inflating your numbers.

Finally, I believe that comparison is the thief of joy, and you run the risk of putting too much brainpower into stats rather than writing if you do all this examination.

 

[Corty]

I mostly track views and how well that number grows. Stagnating view count is what I hate to see; it hurts my motivation.

Also, crossposting on multiple sites helps to see an actual average and determine if the story is working or not.

 

[rileykifer]

If someone reads something I've written and enjoys it, I consider that a success. I try not to pay too much attention to stats. It's a big distraction from actually writing, and it's easy to get caught up and obsessed with it. I do check them from time to time though, mostly out of curiosity.

While on the subject, how is the number of views at the top of a story's page (below the title, where it has the number of chapter, readers, etc) generated? Is it total views across all chapters? Or is it the number of people who clicked to read the blurb? Because the number of views listed under my title doesn't equal the number of views on all of my chapters combined.

 

[Eldoria]

While on the subject, how is the number of views at the top of a story's page (below the title, where it has the number of chapter, readers, etc) generated? Is it total views across all chapters? Or is it the number of people who clicked to read the blurb? Because the number of views listed under my title doesn't equal the number of views on all of my chapters combined.

That's the total number of views (synopsis and chapters). Chapter views are generally slightly lower, around 40% to 80%, depending on how effectively the fiction engages readers.

 

[tantrayaan]

I mostly track views and how well that number grows. Stagnating view count is what I hate to see; it hurts my motivation.

Also, crossposting on multiple sites helps to see an actual average and determine if the story is working or not.

What sites do you crosspost to? How do they compare to SH?

I like SH a lot from a publishing pt of view - but find that it is an ocean. Getting readers is the hard part.

 

[Eldoria]

What sites do you crosspost to? How do they compare to SH?

I like SH a lot from a publishing pt of view - but find that it is an ocean. Getting readers is the hard part.

Home | Royal Road

Read stories online for free, or write your own story!

www.royalroad.com

 

[Grizzly18]

Not everyone obsesses. But I think as a reader more than an author the stats that are most important are number of chapters, # of readers, # of likes, # of views, and the star rating of the story and how many reviews there are. Thats not necessarily in order of importance and if it’s a 4-5 star rating but less than 25~40 reviews then I take the review with a grain of salt. Also any review with 5 stars I take with a grain of salt it it’s below ten that’s fine but more than that something’s wrong. Nothing makes everyone happy and internet trolls exist so someone will put up a one star review.

Really for a reader those numbers show how good other people find the story and if they like the synopsis they might like it too.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I know everyone obsesses over the stats of their stories.

I don't anymore. Obsess with that, and it's one helluva depressing ride.

For those that have done this a while here on this platform - what are some major milestones/metrics that you track to see how you are doing?

As I'm not looking at my stats, I'm just happy with the fact I finished a long-running series with coherence and how I envisioned it to be. Got a million word count, 400+ chapters, and 5 arcs behind me now, and I plan to finish several shorter stories, too.

 

[NotProudofmySmut]

I look at the different categories and hope to get on top of them. Like currently, i am at Nr. 18 for bnha. I enjoy every step upwards from here :)

That being said - if youre looking for bnha smut, check out my story.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Question for all authors here. I know everyone obsesses over the stats of their stories.

For those that have done this a while here on this platform - what are some major milestones/metrics that you track to see how you are doing?

1, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000,...

 

[Corty]

What sites do you crosspost to? How do they compare to SH?

Royal Road & Webnovel. The latter is only for my fanfics, because it turns out that place really likes them. My originals are here and on RR. As for readers and activity, it's pretty even.

 

[expentio]

I guess it was pretty special for me when I had around three hundred readers after the first couple of weeks. Combined with staying quite consecutively on #1 trending. Given that I truly had no expectations, am a non-native English speaker, and was acutely aware that my writing abilities are not on par with a dedicated author, I still think that this warm and fuzzy feeling I had back then, and this sense that this is beyond my expectations, was some kind of milestone.
Another would be anytime when I find some new reader binging through one of my soon-to-be 300 chapter series. To think someone developed this much engagement to spend all this time on what I wrote is a huge honor, and I don't take it for granted, but it gives me the confidence and self-esteem that it must be good enough, so I can consider it good as well, and develop a sense of pride.

 

[Macha]

I don't anymore. Obsess with that, and it's one helluva depressing ride.

As I'm not looking at my stats, I'm just happy with the fact I finished a long-running series with coherence and how I envisioned it to be. Got a million word count, 400+ chapters, and 5 arcs behind me now, and I plan to finish several shorter stories, too.

As it should be. Milestones should be about something we can manage like word count, chapters, and finished arcs. Those are achievements. Celebrate them. Even something as simple as having our story approved and not having someone reporting or review bombing them because they don't like it thinking they know better than the author is already something to be proud of.

We shouldn't obsess over something outside our control like stats. Feel free to celebrate numbers going up, but unless you are writing for money they don't matter much. I have seen so many authors quit because their stories didn't get the quick tractions and interactions they think they deserved.

They all failed to grasp that most readers in SH are silent and will only consider clicking on stories after it has enough chapters to be binge read your stories might as well be invisible to them. This is why I always say it's important to number your chapters on your chapter names because your story's title, cover, and chapter names are the only thing visible in the latest updates besides your author name and genres. The latest updates will be where you get most of your readers from.

Unless you are an established author or someone migrating from other sites with their audience, you won't gain readers if your title, cover, and chapter numbers don't make people want to click on your stories.