Should I upload more often?

LyssaFae

LyssaFae

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I currently upload twice a week... should I increase that? I chose twice cause the chapters I post are second draft so I do quite a bit of editing per chapter cause I am hard on myself... and I like things to read as smoothly as possible. Especially for you lovely strangers!!! But I am also currently working my own business, still finishing up the book, aaaand planning the next book for when this one finishes! (Currently have 11 other books planned...) hmmm maybe 3 times a week is okay...
 
Jerynboe

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3 is, from what I’ve heard, reasonably close to optimal. If you’ve already got everything written down it’s just a matter of how much time/effort you can commit to the edits. I don’t think the benefit to visibility will be overwhelming, but I’m sure whatever readers you have will be happy with more chapters.

If your book is still a WIP, which you seem to imply? I’d say stick to 2/week to be safe. Ending up in a situation where you have to rush or disrupt the schedule later would be most unfortunate. Even if it’s mostly done, there’s nothing wrong with 2/week. Personally I’ve been maintaining a 1/week schedule for a few years while raising a kid and doing a full time job, because that’s what is sustainable for me.
 
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LyssaFae

LyssaFae

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Jerynboe said:
3 is, from what I’ve heard, reasonably close to optimal. If you’ve already got everything written down it’s just a matter of how much time/effort you can commit to the edits. I don’t think the benefit to visibility will be overwhelming, but I’m sure whatever readers you have will be happy with more chapters.

If your book is still a WIP, which you seem to imply? I’d say stick to 2/week to be safe. Ending up in a situation where you have to rush or disrupt the schedule later would be most unfortunate. Even if it’s mostly done, there’s nothing wrong with 2/week. Personally I’ve been maintaining a 1/week schedule for a few weeks while raising a kid and doing a full time job, because that’s what is sustainable for me.
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That's amazing!!! Yeah I am pretty close to the end... maybe 10-15 more chapters for my 1st draft chapters and currently have around 30 written in my google docs... the pace i am at now is nice but I feel like I should do more... but that could just be my brain telling me im not doing enough lol
 
Jerynboe

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LyssaFae said:
That's amazing!!! Yeah I am pretty close to the end... maybe 10-15 more chapters for my 1st draft chapters and currently have around 30 written in my google docs... the pace i am at now is nice but I feel like I should do more... but that could just be my brain telling me im not doing enough lol
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It feels good to post everything the second it’s done or otherwise increase output. Consistency is much better for the reader experience than high frequency as long as each drop is enough to chew on at least a little.

The important thing to remember: You and your readers will always WANT more as long as you and your readers are both enjoying yourselves, which you should be. If you’re posting here, this is almost certainly a hobby with at best a patreon or something.

However, writing is a marathon unless you are deliberately making it a sprint (nanowrimo for example) which absolutely nobody advocates doing long term. Even full time authors who are known for their speed mostly emphasize consistency and good habits. Also, chapter length matters. 3 2000 word chapters is very different from 3 5000 word chapters.

I managed something like 10k words a week for a whole year once, updating 5/week. I wouldn’t recommend it, even if it was fun at the time. I burnt myself out and my story was basically just stream of consciousness rambling. Apparently a decent number of people still wanted to read my deranged rambling, and I DID manage to finish that story, but yeah. I very firmly set my schedule to 1/week with an occasional bonus chapter or side project after that.
 
Eldoria

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I'm revising my opinion about uploading 2-4 chapters a week. If your story has a premise that appeals to casual readers on SH, even if you upload 14 chapters a week, your story will likely gain attention and possibly even trend. I've seen these patterns. On SH, it's not good writing, nor the algorithm, but reader preference that is the dominant factor that determines whether a work will go viral or not.

But of course, this only applies if you're writing for the market. If you're writing for yourself or as a hobby, then the strategy of increasing visibility with regular uploads, appropriate tagging, a synopsis with a hook, and a beautiful and elegant cover remains a common strategy for increasing engagement with your fiction.
 
LyssaFae

LyssaFae

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melchi said:
I say unless you are trying to monetize keeping a pace that is not overwhelming is the key.
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I want to self publish one day but for right now I just want people's thoughts and interact with them! I'm having fun seeing people's opinions and thoughts!
 
jthornfield

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I posted one chapter per week and did pretty well. Even got some patreon subscribers to get the chapters a week early. The only thing I would do different is have more chapters banked for emergencies, which is what I am doing now for my sequel .
 
LyssaFae

LyssaFae

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jthornfield said:
I posted one chapter per week and did pretty well. Even got some patreon subscribers to get the chapters a week early. The only thing I would do different is have more chapters banked for emergencies, which is what I am doing now for my sequel .
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That's amazing! I didn't even realize Patreon could be used for books...
 
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