IS IT ADVISABLE TO RELEASE ONCE A WEEK OR EVERYDAY?

[JECU]

For example, I got 2 stories(Currently), the 1st one is releasing every Friday while the other is realising everyday.

The one that's realising once a week is being read more that the one that's releasing everyday(it currently has no readers). So I'm thinking I should release it once a week, is that a good call?

Scarlett: Supremacy Queen Release Once a Week

Dyad: Peace & War Released everyday

 

[SurfAngel_1031]

I have used M-W-F at 2pm EDT for years.

It is really how you want to put out the sections.
Once a week - with a few long sections - people can binge read and be exited
every day - that is tough on you, not so much the reader. That is like a soap opera release kinda thing.

My 3 days a week and nothing over weekends has been my staple. Gives a healthy portion through the week and the weekenders can read all three at once.
Other authors have other opinions, I am sure. I know quite a few that update every day.

Are you up for the energy required to post every day?

 

[Clo]

Daily release is best to get new readers organically. You should probably try to have 30+ chapters already before you post any, then drop one per day, to help people find your story in the recently updated.

But it's hard to sustain that output.

I do Tuesday-Friday releases usually, except this month, I release extra fast -- once every 2 days.

My chapters are a little chunky for webnovels, though. 3000 words is around what I aim for, +/- 1000.

 

[PancakesWitch]

every day or every one day is the best, i've seen most popular royal road authors write every day but take off the weekend, that also seems to work

 

[CarburetorThompson]

More frequent uploads is better but it doesn’t mean much if you burn out on your story after a few weeks. I upload once every 1 to 2 weeks, while it isn’t the best for getting readers it has helped me stick with the story.

 

[John_Owl]

Every day for a short time is best, but only up to like, chapter 5-10 ish. If you consistently release every day for hundreds of chapters, the quality is likely to drop. There's also the issue of reader burnout. As such, I can't advise more than 2-3 times a week. I used to go twice a week, but I started to burn out, then my alpha reader started to drop off. So I reduced to once a week and am working on my next novel at the same time.

 

[miyoga]

Just going to kinda echo a bit.

If you're doing long-form novels, then make sure you've got a backlog to prevent burnout (around 30-40 chapters) so that you can do a daily release for the first month or so. Check out the timing on when the best release times are and try to plan for those (lots of threads on this) to get the most reader exposure. After the first month, switch to releasing no more than 2-3 times a week (as little as once or twice a month can be done once you've established yourself and have a solid reader base). You could release on the weekend, but it may not be the most practical time as that's when everyone's off and could also be posting or take the time to get caught up on any chapters they've missed for whatever reason. Regardless, you want to keep writing so that you don't deplete yourself and leave readers hanging once you've got them.

If you're writing a short (as in under 10000 words total), then you might want to just release the whole thing with chapters coming out on the hour. With this, multi-day releases just doesn't make sense, get the story out there so that you can move on to the next thing. This could be an idea for world-building as you'd be introducing the major concepts in your novels and some potential main/side/recurring characters.

 

[aurifex]

The one that's realising once a week is being read more that the one that's releasing everyday(it currently has no readers). So I'm thinking I should release it once a week, is that a good call?

Using extremely basic logic, this observation should make you realize that release rate isn't the primary factor for gaining readers...

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I started to do twice a week on all stories but then caught up to my backlog last November and have only been posting one to three chapters a week (total, between four active stories) since then. Had my biggest increase of readers right about when I had to cut back and have not recovered either since.

 

[Shirobaxy]

Tbh, in a perfect world, everyday without the quality dropping. But that's really unlikely. I myself aim for everyday but if I see the draft (post editing) and I myself think it's too shit, I put it off. Just try to aim 3-4x a week, maybe u can aim for weekends or aim for weekdays. Up to you but as long you have a consistent upload schedule, your writing quality doesn't drop and your readers comes back, you're doing okay.

Like my own webnovel, Reincarnated into a Failed Marriage basically has a 4x a week schedule except when there's mega chapters (2500 words max). Anyways goodluck with your novel man!

 

[SurfAngel_1031]

If you're writing a short (as in under 10000 words total), then you might want to just release the whole thing with chapters coming out on the hour. With this, multi-day releases just doesn't make sense, get the story out there so that you can move on to the next thing. This could be an idea for world-building as you'd be introducing the major concepts in your novels and some potential main/side/recurring characters.

I don't know about this. When I first released Vivienne, I used my chapters complete. 3-9k each and had lots of feedback that they were too long to read at once.
What's more is that each subsequent chapter got longer 10-16k each.
My solution was forcing breaks of about 1500-2000 words. It wasn't ideal, but I found people stopped telling me things were too long.
My two later book my overall chapters started between 7-9k each and again, for ease of reading, I split those up into parts.
All I know is that I tried chapters 10k and caught hell for it.

I'm not super sure why Vivienne did so well and the other aren't, but I honestly don't think it's the release schedule since I've done parts of up to 2000 words at a time since chapter 4 of Vivienne.

With the last bits of Sylvie, I released all week towards the end and still my reader views per day stayed about the same.

Consequently, my way of doing this avoids content drought. If you know you have a 8000k chapter split into 5 parts and put that out like me, then that's a week and a half (more or less) of breathing time for yourself. Like with Amber and Vasia, I completed 3 full chapters (about 8000 words each) before I even created the story on here. So I have plenty of breathing room for my upcoming chapters that are still in outline.

I'm really of the opinion just do what you want. If people like the story they will stick around. Pick a genre that you like, and just have fun.
Be well and thanks for listening to me babble on.

 

[miyoga]

Generally, there are "golden times" where you're going to get the most exposure time per potential reader and these have been discussed in other threads. Certain combinations of times and release days have been statistically proven to give you more time on the front page and more readers as a result.

Beyond that, word count is also important because as readers we want gratification and we want it as quickly as possible while getting all the details we need to understand it. Most authors that you can think of have chapter lengths of around 1000-2000 words (the average is something like 1250). If you're pumping out raw chapters that are up to 8x that, then it's an extreme slog to finish that. That's the time where you'd need to sit down and say "how much of this is necessary right now and how much could be given at different times" as a means of evaluating your world building and explanations. In fairness, I will admit to not having read Vivienne or Sylvie, however it still should be mentioned that too much exposition at one time can kill your novel. 12 and 13 part chapters is entirely too much, imagine having to watch a movie on dvd/blu-ray that was 13 discs long. Could the director have cut some of that out? Was it really necessary to have that much drama and dialogue of nothing important?

Where I think you had success is that you had the right niche story coming out at the right time for maximum readership, which is why you ended up getting so many comments about chapter length. Now, vampires are old, GL, gender-bender or litrpg are about the only things you see, and everything that ends up doing really well is smut (because smuthub).

 

[JECU]

Great... I should try that

I don't know about this. When I first released Vivienne, I used my chapters complete. 3-9k each and had lots of feedback that they were too long to read at once.
What's more is that each subsequent chapter got longer 10-16k each.
My solution was forcing breaks of about 1500-2000 words. It wasn't ideal, but I found people stopped telling me things were too long.
My two later book my overall chapters started between 7-9k each and again, for ease of reading, I split those up into parts.
All I know is that I tried chapters 10k and caught hell for it.

I'm not super sure why Vivienne did so well and the other aren't, but I honestly don't think it's the release schedule since I've done parts of up to 2000 words at a time since chapter 4 of Vivienne.

With the last bits of Sylvie, I released all week towards the end and still my reader views per day stayed about the same.

Consequently, my way of doing this avoids content drought. If you know you have a 8000k chapter split into 5 parts and put that out like me, then that's a week and a half (more or less) of breathing time for yourself. Like with Amber and Vasia, I completed 3 full chapters (about 8000 words each) before I even created the story on here. So I have plenty of breathing room for my upcoming chapters that are still in outline.

I'm really of the opinion just do what you want. If people like the story they will stick around. Pick a genre that you like, and just have fun.
Be well and thanks for listening to me babble on.

Appreciate what you said. I should do what I want

 

[SurfAngel_1031]

Great... I should try that

Appreciate what you said. I should do what I want

I tend to look at it like we are all here to have fun getting our ideas out. Someone will appreciate what you've done or will do.
It might not be thousands on one story, but the few you do get will let you know what they like.

 

[Pulpitt]

I'm considering my release schedule too. Is it okay to post many at first and then slow down?

 

[Azeban]

Yes