Is this something that I should expect? Question regarding reader retention

[Venior]

I'm a new arrival to this site (I made the account a year ago but only took notice of SH this week), and I'm not sure if my reading retention is atypical or if its something everyone deals with.

Spoiler

I'm currently at this as my stats, so I'm not too concerned and its definitely not life or death, but I am a bit worried that something is causing a majority of readers to drop it after chapter 1. Also I posted my first chapter on July 27th, so I've had a bit over a day to accrue the statistics below.

498 Views | 13 Favorites | 7 Chapters | 2 Chapters/Week | 16 Readers


Should I carry on like normal, or is this something I should be more concerned about?

 

[Nahrenne]

I'm a new arrival to this site (I made the account a year ago but only took notice of SH this week), and I'm not sure if my reading retention is atypical or if its something everyone deals with.

Spoiler

View attachment 3257

I'm currently at this as my stats, so I'm not too concerned and its definitely not life or death, but I am a bit worried that something is causing a majority of readers to drop it after chapter 1. Also I posted my first chapter on July 27th, so I've had a bit over a day to accrue the statistics below.

498 Views | 13 Favorites | 7 Chapters | 2 Chapters/Week | 16 Readers


Should I carry on like normal, or is this something I should be more concerned about?

I'd say that a number of factors are the reason for that.
One factor is that people like binge-reading, so add the novel to their reading list and wait for more chaps before reading.
Another factor is that people read all of the chapters but forgot to bookmark the latest chapter they read, making it look like they only read the first one.
Other factors might be due to stats not being updated yet.
'-'

In other words, don't worry about it.
It would be more worrying if your reader count went down to 0.
>w<

Good luck with your story!
*huggles*

\(^o^)/

X

 

[PandaSempai]

I think this is quite normal. I've been in this platform for 3 weeks now and I'm already used to people adding my story to their reading list but not reading it. Hey, my story is already at chapter 25 with 70k words but they just want to keep it in their reading list.

I also have this habit even when I visited the other platforms as a reader so I don't have any problems with them doing this. When you see a new reader, just don't get your hopes up.

In my case, I just assume that they will just add it and not read it so I don't get that disappointed when there's a string of 1/2x in the statistics.

 

[Kaguro]

For a novel only being up for 2 days that's not bad at all, better than my initial stats at least. I was getting like 70 views my first few days. People adding it to the reading list is encouraging, since that is rarer than favorites here. I think it's too early to be drawing any conclusions though, so I'd just carry on as normal and write the story that you want to write.

A word of advice would be to space out your releases. If you dump a bunch of chapters it gives you a spike, but you will pretty much always end up with more views by releasing in a consistent and evenly spaced manner, because that way you get to maximize the frequency your novel shows up on the newly updated tab while minimizing duplicate exposure to the same readers.

 

[TRNRLogan]

Most people don't update which chapters they've read. In addition people dump stuff on their reading lists to binge later AND some people don't like when a story drops a dozen chapters in a couple days and will drop it.

 

[binarysoap]

Seeing a whole bunch of 1/X in the recent readers list is perfectly normal, and often times, they haven't even read your first chapter. All that means is they added your story to a reading list, be it their personal never read list, a read later list, etc.
As people above me said, not everyone reads it immediately, and some might be lazy to update it.

So yes, carry on like normal.

P.S. if you really want, you can stalk the readers in that list and see where they put your story. If you see a whole bunch of them in a dropped reading list, then yes, you should be worried. Otherwise, if they are in a "new" or "to read later" list, just give them time.
Also, nice stat padding btw, adding your own story to your own reading list

 

[Riese]

Don’t worry about it and keep on writing. It would get noticed more and more as you add new chapters.
Keep up the good work!

 

[DubstheDuke]

Pretty sure those stats are better than my current ones and my story is at 400k words with daily uploads

 

[Arkus86]

As a reader, I have this to say:
When I see an interesting story I don't feel like reading right now for any reason, but want to be able to easily find it again, I add it to one of my reading lists, which sets my current chapter to the first chapter. It will then sit there, marked on the first chapter, until I get around to actually reading it.
I suppose it is similar with most of those 1-chapter readers you see.

 

[Deleted member 29316]

I have to agree with those who were saying that the readers here tend to binge-read. I uploaded my story in May, and there were readers who have just began reading now (bookmarking my work back in May).

Well, I guess most of us would agree that we don't like waiting too long for upcoming chapters, so we just let a story that interests us accumulate chapters then read it up to morning...

 

[RepresentingCaution]

When you first post your story, reader retention may look like that, but it will look different as your story matures!

 

[Discount_Blade]

When you first post your story, reader retention may look like that, but it will look different as your story matures!

I saw the "It's Perfectly Normal" title and thought it was just for the response. And then saw the rest of the cover and idk why but I spit soda laughing. Good one. You win the internet for the day.

 

[Venior]

I'm very happy with all the feedback and responses I've gotten, thanks everyone for alleviating my worries!

I'll continue as I have been, looking toward the future with glee knowing that I'm not making any apparent mistakes. As always, I'm consistently blown away by the community at SH, especially in comparison to other certain sites (not naming names.)

Always a pleasure, though.

 

[PandaSempai]

I'm very happy with all the feedback and responses I've gotten, thanks everyone for alleviating my worries!

I'll continue as I have been, looking toward the future with glee knowing that I'm not making any apparent mistakes. As always, I'm consistently blown away by the community at SH, especially in comparison to other certain sites (not naming names.)

Always a pleasure, though.

No prob. No prob. Apparently, everyone here are good guys/girls. The community here is so good that I actually felt like crying when I first got into this forum. Imagine coming from a toxic community like the Dota Community and such. I'm sure anybody would be overwhelmed by the way people here are interacting.

PS: I also came from the most toxic community of Dota. All hail the SEA server! The land of the most toxic players! Hahaha.

 

[Saileri]

Yeah, like many people already stated, most of those 1/X are from people just bookmarking the beginning of the novel to check it later. Nothing to worry about. This might change if we ever get a feature that allows readers to add PTR lists or bookmarks without it showing as them starting the first chapter. It was already suggested.

And yeah, the community is one of the best. People are really helpful and kind, both on the forum and on the site. Best place to start and build up your stories if you are worried about instant flame and reviews after 1st chapter.

 

[LazyPanda]

No prob. No prob. Apparently, everyone here are good guys/girls. The community here is so good that I actually felt like crying when I first got into this forum. Imagine coming from a toxic community like the Dota Community and such. I'm sure anybody would be overwhelmed by the way people here are interacting.

PS: I also came from the most toxic community of Dota. All hail the SEA server! The land of the most toxic players! Hahaha.

Agreed the SH community has warm my heart truly.
I came from the toxic community of League of Legend. Just breathing is apparently a big mistake in there.