A few questions

[Kitsura]

See title,

1. Is it normal to have a lot of lurkers?

I was on trending a couple of days ago and although my reader total went up my comments didn't really move. I feel like I get few comments per chapter but my readers per chapter are pretty consistent. I don't know if I should be concerned or that is pretty normal.

2. What is normal reader conversion from the first chapter?

I've been thinking about posting on royal road and have been considering rewriting my first couple of chapters before I post there(especially since I cringe reading them now).

3. How the hell do people have chapter backlogs!

I post daily, and if I spend an extra 3-4 hours today I mighttttt have like an extra 2 chapters per day. Do you people just write all day?!?

 

[Agentt]

See title,

1. Is it normal to have a lot of lurkers?

I was on trending a couple of days ago and although my reader total went up my comments didn't really move. I feel like I get few comments per chapter but my readers per chapter are pretty consistent. I don't know if I should be concerned or that is pretty normal.

Haha.
Ok, yeah, it's normal for that to happen. People can encourage you at the first few chapters, but when they get invested, they usually won't do so till you kill a character or introduce a stupid or a bitchy character.

2. What is normal reader conversion from the first chapter?

I've been thinking about posting on royal road and have been considering rewriting my first couple of chapters before I post there(especially since I cringe reading them now).

It is normal for the number of views and readers to go down. Many people just come due to the girl on the cover, or since it is in new series.
I would totally reccomend posting it on other sites too, not just RR, but Wattpad too.
And, yeah. Cringe is just normal. It doesn't mean the chapter is bad. You can cringe either because you have improved, or you believe that your chapter is unrealistic, which is very common while writing a harem or smut or a fantasy.

3. How the hell do people have chapter backlogs!

I post daily, and if I spend an extra 3-4 hours today I mighttttt have like an extra 2 chapters per day. Do you people just write all day?!?

If you post daily, then you need not have back logs initially, since the story develops as you think.
Backlogs are important when your chapters are short, or you update twice in week or so.
Backlogs are also reccomend if you are planning a sequel or patreon

 

[EternalSunset0]

See title,

1. Is it normal to have a lot of lurkers?

2. What is normal reader conversion from the first chapter?

3. How the hell do people have chapter backlogs!

1. I would assume yes.

2. Typically, reader counts decrease as the story goes on. You'd be surprised to see that even some of the very successful works would have readership more than halved at the first few chapters. I think that once you see a plateau instead of a drop is a sign to see how many devoted readers you have.

3. I finish entire volumes before posting them. That means around half a year intervals between volumes if they're being written. Once completed, I slowly let the chapters flow in once every few days.

 

[Puji-Maki]

1.yeah, it's normal. If someone wrote a comment on your work, be friendly... Even if their intentions are not.

2. If your story is interesting, readers will flow down the stream and perhaps subscribed to your Patreon if you have one.

3. I write three chapters per day, and I only post one chapter on the site so that I have many ammunitions to shoot and sharpen.

Anyway, here's a cookie and milk ? ???

 

[Reisinling]

The best stories have readers drop to ~30% between chapter 1 and 40. As in the ones with best retention rates.

Lurkers are super normal- also, people tend to only comment on new chapters. I have 700 readers, and average <10 comments per chapter (unless something very comment-able happens). The most popular novels might get 2 pages of comments, so 40-50 per chapter?

And easiest way to have chapter backlogs.. is to reduce your release schedule :P

 

[Kuropon]

1. People on SH very rarely comment. RR readers tend to comment more.
2. You asre going to keep losing readers past the first chapter till it stabilizes in one spot over time.
3. Depends on how fast you write. I only have a backlog of about a week + Patreon chappies. I just set up a daily word limit and stick to it, if I go below it I just write more the next day.

 

[Valmond]

See title,

1. Is it normal to have a lot of lurkers?

I was on trending a couple of days ago and although my reader total went up my comments didn't really move. I feel like I get few comments per chapter but my readers per chapter are pretty consistent. I don't know if I should be concerned or that is pretty normal.

2. What is normal reader conversion from the first chapter?

I've been thinking about posting on royal road and have been considering rewriting my first couple of chapters before I post there(especially since I cringe reading them now).

3. How the hell do people have chapter backlogs!

I post daily, and if I spend an extra 3-4 hours today I mighttttt have like an extra 2 chapters per day. Do you people just write all day?!?

1. Most readers are silent.

Hell, at times if I am lucky there would be a comment on the last chapter. More or less, I tend to get private messages. There are a number of factors. Some people don’t like to comment, some are not comfortable commenting, some prefer privately commenting, etc. It is just normal for this to happen, so don’t worry.

2. After the first chapter, there is drop off. By the the third to fifth there will be a significant decline. It is more or less readers feeling out their preference. Sometimes readers may misinterpret and return for another session just to realize they had to be patient. There are a number of factors going into this. To cut it short, the more important part is to find your base, which should stabilize by about half way into the book. From that point on, you’ll have a solid grasp.

3. Simple, write it all out ahead of time. My main works are very long, so releasing early would be very foolish. I have a sharp take on time, and the accuracy of it. However, there are other factors which may make a release schedule early on very difficult to maintain. The solution around this is to write it out and have it fully edited before release. As we speak now, I have two books waiting for release, completely edited. Another is complete, but under editing. I also pulled another one of my books for reconstruction, that one there can be quite a while before it is finished again.

Between the works currently available, it is about 84 parts to release.

59 from the final book in my trilogy.

12 from a novella

10 from another novella

3 more chapter to be released on another novella

You get the point. Having it written out ahead of time creates quite a bit of leeway. I’ve completed quite a bit of works, so finishing stories don’t take me long much of the time.

4 novels
—> One under reconstruction.

19 short stories

4 novellas

As well as too many to count that are offline.

 

[Sylvie]

1. Is it normal to have a lot of lurkers?

I was on trending a couple of days ago and although my reader total went up my comments didn't really move. I feel like I get few comments per chapter but my readers per chapter are pretty consistent. I don't know if I should be concerned or that is pretty normal.

The best way to push forward conversations in the comments is to stay active in the comments whenever you can. Usually the books where the author participates in the conversations seem to have a lot more comments from what I've observed. If there's no sign of the author anywhere in the comments, it kinda feels like your comments are falling on deaf ears even if the author is reading everything.

3. How the hell do people have chapter backlogs!

I post daily, and if I spend an extra 3-4 hours today I mighttttt have like an extra 2 chapters per day. Do you people just write all day?!?

If you post daily, that's pretty good already to be honest. You're already in a position to give others advice about managing time to write. Going too fast isn't necessarily good. It's like quenching thirst with poison if the quality drops because of it. Spending some free time thinking about the plot before writing more is optimal.

 

[StoryTellingGhost]

The best way to push forward conversations in the comments is to stay active in the comments whenever you can. Usually the books where the author participates in the conversations seem to have a lot more comments from what I've observed. If there's no sign of the author anywhere in the comments, it kinda feels like your comments are falling on deaf ears even if the author is reading everything.

What if there no comments the author can participate in or initiate a conversation with?

I got like ~10 maybe even fewer comments in the first few chapters, then it slowly went silent. And the readers dropped by about ~50%.

 

[Motsu]

See title,

1. Is it normal to have a lot of lurkers?

I was on trending a couple of days ago and although my reader total went up my comments didn't really move. I feel like I get few comments per chapter but my readers per chapter are pretty consistent. I don't know if I should be concerned or that is pretty normal.

2. What is normal reader conversion from the first chapter?

I've been thinking about posting on royal road and have been considering rewriting my first couple of chapters before I post there(especially since I cringe reading them now).

3. How the hell do people have chapter backlogs!

I post daily, and if I spend an extra 3-4 hours today I mighttttt have like an extra 2 chapters per day. Do you people just write all day?!?

1. Yes.

- There are different theories regarding ways of how the trending work, but nonetheless, don't get too carried away by the abnormalities, just write and serve quality stories!

2. Make it better. A.K.A. GIT GUD!

- Posting on a different website doesn't change the fact that you'll probably never attract a lot of readers and your story won't improve. Consider rewriting your best choice in avoiding releasing early-access-looking stories because unedited stories tend to become a pile of garbages.

3. Because they don't know what they are doing.

- Depending on your story's words, you'll probably make some extra chapters... however, instead of 'accidentally' creating extra chapters - make sure it's not some plain journalist mode writing that's uncomfortable to the readers and incomplete. In addition, people don't just write all day - it is not some kind of required work that has to be done all day - it is what you call optional, though rather would be said, a hobby.

 

[Kitsura]

1.yeah, it's normal. If someone wrote a comment on your work, be friendly... Even if their intentions are not.

2. If your story is interesting, readers will flow down the stream and perhaps subscribed to your Patreon if you have one.

3. I write three chapters per day, and I only post one chapter on the site so that I have many ammunitions to shoot and sharpen.

Anyway, here's a cookie and milk ? ???

Thanks for the cookies and milk

 

[LostLibrarian]

What if there no comments the author can participate in or initiate a conversation with?

One interesting question would be: Did you give your readers something to talk about? Did your chapter just burble along or did something change?

For most stories, one chapter equals one scene. And a scene is defined through the change of values. So did you make that change both obvious and important? Especially SoL stories can have a real problem with making chapters interesting enough. People might still read your chapters if they are just a good read, but there is a difference between a chapter that "is there" and one that drives a conflict or plot...

 

[StoryTellingGhost]

One interesting question would be: Did you give your readers something to talk about? Did your chapter just burble along or did something change?

If I have to leave a loose end... then no.

I might sound naive, there should be at least one thing in each chapter worthy of a small discussion.

The readers might just lurk and enjoy the work, perfectly fine with that. There is no obligation for them to comment or start a conversation based on an event or specific scene in my Chapter.

My question was purely out of curiousity.

 

[Sylvie]

What if there no comments the author can participate in or initiate a conversation with?

I got like ~10 maybe even fewer comments in the first few chapters, then it slowly went silent. And the readers dropped by about ~50%.

Author participation can increase the number of comments from the existing readers, but you can hardly expect it to contribute to the number of readers. Sometimes stories just don't do well, all you can do is keep trying I guess?

 

[StoryTellingGhost]

Author participation can increase the number of comments from the existing readers, but you can hardly expect it to contribute to the number of readers. Sometimes stories just don't do well, all you can do is keep trying I guess?

That's correct.

I'll just keep writing and enjoying it to the fullest.

 

[Alkareel]

1.yeah, it's normal. If someone wrote a comment on your work, be friendly... Even if their intentions are not.

2. If your story is interesting, readers will flow down the stream and perhaps subscribed to your Patreon if you have one.

3. I write three chapters per day, and I only post one chapter on the site so that I have many ammunitions to shoot and sharpen.

Anyway, here's a cookie and milk ? ???

Waaah, how many words d'you guys have on a single chapter? I humble myself before you.

 

[Puji-Maki]

Waaah, how many words d'you guys have on a single chapter? I humble myself before you.

1k- 1200k words per chapter.

 

[Kitsura]

Waaah, how many words d'you guys have on a single chapter? I humble myself before you.

It’s pretty easy to write 1k words a day. If you have a spare hour or so. it gets easier as you get used to it.

 

[Alkareel]

It’s pretty easy to write 1k words a day. If you have a spare hour or so. Once you get used to it it gets easier

Per day yeah, I can manage. The most I can do in one day would be a little over 2000 words. But then I spend the next day proofreading and rewriting it for better reading. (Not the whole day of course. Just the time I spend writing.)
I'm amazed that she can write 3000 words a day.