Hiya.
I've just recently submitted my first story, and I have a few questions about release schedules.
1: When a story is new, is it better to do fast releases so you get 10 - 15 chapters out quick, so people get to read a fair amount of it to reel them in, or is it fine to doole them out with 2 chapters/week 1-2 k worlds per chapter?

2: Is there times/days one should avoid when scheduling a release? 

3: What do people feel about using scheduled releases, and having a buffer of chapters that can tide the readers over if the author hit's a roadblock?  potentially avoiding a hiatus due to the author getting the flu is good right?

For me, I came to these answers.

'Antice' pid='830071' dateline='1510952252' Wrote: 1: When a story is new, is it better to do fast releases so you get 10 - 15 chapters out quick, so people get to read a fair amount of it to reel them in, or is it fine to doole them out with 2 chapters/week 1-2 k worlds per chapter?

Both are fine. There are people who only start to read novels with a minimum word count but others who go from the start. The most important part is to show potential readers you are behind the sory. So you more or less end at the same point, but just a few weeks later. It may even be better to go with less chapters and concentrate on quality...

'Antice' pid='830071' dateline='1510952252' Wrote: 2: Is there times/days one should avoid when scheduling a release?

There isn't any real time for that. Either you stay longer on top in inactive time or are there for a shorter time in the more active times. It's probably better to "rotate" your release times in the first few chapters to get readers out of different timezones.

'Antice' pid='830071' dateline='1510952252' Wrote: 3: What do people feel about using scheduled releases, and having a buffer of chapters that can tide the readers over if the author hit's a roadblock?  potentially avoiding a hiatus due to the author getting the flu is good right?

I think it's good to go a handful of chapters in front, but you might have to rewrite more chapters if you do last-minute-changes/fixes on your release. I write mostly rough outlines for the next ~20 chapters and "full first drafts" for the next 2,3.

In the end, it's mostly "Do what feels right for you".

Thanks. I'l stick to the slow and steady then, and work on keeping quality up while creating a modest buffer of 3 or 4 chapters at max.
I have 2 that are done right now that are yet to be posted, but I'd rather do a persistent reliable schedule of 3 or 4 days per release than end up with missed weeks.

I do the same with future chapters that you described. I really like letting my stuff mature a little before revisiting and streamlining my stuff.
I liken it to making a good aged cheese. you need to not only make the curd, you need to let it mature before seeding with spores. then later on you have to turn them over a few times and remove unwanted decay. finally leaving behind a delicious expensive slice of cheese for the customer to enjoy with their wine.

For Nanowrimo, you have to write about 1,667 words a day. I've been releasing chapters on a daily basis throughout the month, and even though they're short and rough drafts, I've gotten a decent number of views and interest.

However, when your ranking hits around 600-500, your audience changes to a more demanding one. That's when the question of whether to focus on polish and length vs frequent release become more interesting.

'SJ Reaver' pid='830082' dateline='1510963687' Wrote: However, when your rating hits around 600-500, your audience changes to a more demanding one. That's when the question of whether to focus on polish and length vs frequent release become more interesting.

So you think I should consider my goals in regarding to hitting certain rankings as part of it?, or is it just that the effects of producing polished chapters only starts to become visible at that level?. by then most stories would have gotten quite a lot of chapters out right?
As it is now, I have no delusions about hitting that high.  I'd be trilled if I can get above the 2k mark on the rankings, as that would imply that I am at least doing as well as the average person with decent grammar and storytelling abilities.
I guess that once you rank above 600, you start to get some top stories exposure?  I understand that getting into the weekly top 20 is a very big deal for exposure, even boosting a story with hundreds of readers in a short amount of time.

Getting out of the 2000s isn't that hard. It look me five days/five chapters. It is random though as at that stage, every ranking you get has a high weight.

At 600s, you don't get into top stories, but you do hit the place were someone who is moderately interested in your type of story will check you out. When you first start, people reading your stories will tend to fall into two camps:

1) People who noticed your story in new releases and decided to check it out.
2) People who love reading stories on RRL and extensively read everything in a tag you've selected.

Number 2 are the people willing to wade through 30 pages of possible stories in search of something new/good, and if you have what they want, they're very forgiving.

I really need to figure out my tag's properly. As it is now, I've only really tagged it with the sexual content tag, since there will be that kind of stuff eventually, but I struggle a bit with what kind of genre it fits in except LitRPG, and fantasy. I have plans of having the MC visit multiple worlds tho. He's an uploaded consciousness playing games in a virtual multiverse. I can use any game setting I wan't, including a no stats setting between worlds.
I think the Virtual reality tag fits even tho he doesn't have a body to return to. but I'm unsure.

'SJ Reaver' pid='830087' dateline='1510968025' Wrote: Getting out of the 2000s isn't that hard. It look me five days/five chapters. It is random though as at that stage, every ranking you get has a high weight.

OK, so I guess I have to ask, because I was wondering the same thing as the OP but in my case, I'm stuck at ~11800 and nobody's commenting on my fiction even though I'm publishing chapters nearly every day. What am I doing wrong? I hoped I'd be receiving some comments by now, even if they're negative -- which would be useful for me to know what I'm doing wrong. It seems that people are reading my story but they have nothing to say about it.

Any advice about this will be welcome.