Ongoing posts to One Book, or Multiple Books?

#1
As I've recently finished the first draft to one of my works, I face a decision I hadn't expected until now.

Do you prefer authors who continue to use the same Fiction Entry page for Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, etc, treated as continuous updates?  Or do you prefer that they finish Book 1, and then create a new Fiction Entry page for Book 2?

I've seen it done both ways.  Due to my desire to have different covers, my initial thought was to be done with Book 1, and create a new entry for Book 2 - but I wanted to ask if there were reader/author expectations here on RRL regarding the handling of that?
https://i.imgur.com/JBLglrm.jpg

RE: Ongoing posts to One Book, or Multiple Books?

#4
Well, aside from the fact that i can't seem to vote on polls. Since it brings me to a screen which tells me that i'm not allowed to do that.
I'll have to use a support ticket about that,

But, i definitely would go for- continue in the same fiction but change the cover to reflect the latest change. Maybe you can link the old cover in the book 1 chapters somewhere.

Part of the rationale behind this is the less effort someone (the reader in this case) is required to do, the more compelled they would be to do it. "Path of least resistance" if you want to say it that way.

So, it would require extra effort from the reader's part if you end the fiction as book one and start a new fiction which the reader would then have to subscribe to.
Unnecessarily complicating things unless the new book has something significantly different than the previous fiction such that it would warrant a change, like a completely different protag or setting.
But if that isn't the case and it's a simple continuation, then i would rather you continue in the same fiction.

From a business perspective however, both hold their merits. You can totally make a new fiction completely blow up, like many have done already. That initial month of publicity can be crucial in garnering an audience. And it makes it easier for you to take a spot in the trending tab, and if your fiction has that special something, then it could continue in an upwards spiral to popularity, and ultimately better acclaim.

However, there's also a charm about older fictions with more followers. People are more likely to join it if they see that it already has quite a number of followers. Thus, this might actually be better for slower fictions that would benefit from an initial base of readers.

I would still recommend to stick to the initial fiction and just update with a new cover. But ultimately the decision lies with you.

Am i thinking too much into this? Probably, but probably not.
All Stats Random  , my try to perfect the 'master of all/everything' type of MC, inside a proper, realistic VR world, from a game design perspective and immersion and no convenient 'convert gold to irl currency' button.

RE: Ongoing posts to One Book, or Multiple Books?

#5
So I've considered this as an author, although I haven't (and may not for quite a while) actually released any sequels. Here's what I've come up with.

There's kinda two things to consider, I guess... look and feel, extra work, and readership.

As for look and feel, some people like complete over incomplete, or long stories over short ones. This is something the author will have to decide; whether they want one audience over the other. That being said, I don't think there's a huge disadvantage to splitting it into books; people who like long incomplete stories can be told 'the series is ongoing' and they'll read, and people who like complete stories can just read the first book(s), and be happy with the completeness.

As for extra work, it does take more effort to find a new cover-art, write up a short description, and make a new post. Sure, it's not a huge amount of work, but it's there. If you don't like doing it, don't; if you do, then do.

As for readership, I think there's two areas to consider. The people you gain by starting fresh, and the people you loose by starting fresh. Readers from your old story don't automatically transfer over to your new one. People who like your story a lot almost certainly will (as long as you launch your new story quick, and let people know about it) but there's bound to be a percentage that don't. If they're not actually reading, you're not loosing much, but you will loose your rank, your follower-count, your reviews and comments, all things that can help convince a new reader to actually read your story.

On the other hand, there's something to be said for a new look-and-feel, too. There's bound to be some people who looked at your old story, didn't like it much, and moved on. If you start a new story, you have a chance at hooking them again. Well, I'm not sure how effective this can be if it's a serial; they might look at the previous work, remember it, and then write the new one off too.

More importantly, perhaps, is the idea that you might get another shot at the front page. I'm not really certain how the 'trending' box works, but it doesn't seem to continually have the same stories in it, so my guess is that there's some sort of heat/time formula. Posting a new story is, I think, your best bet at getting in there, and that might be worth it.

The thing is, most of the advantages and disadvantages boil down to how many readers you have. Doing a simple cost/benefit analysis, it seems to me that if you don't have a lot of followers on your story, you're not risking much (but stand to gain a fair bit) by starting a new one, whereas if you have a lot of readers, you stand to loose more, and not gain as much.

In conclusion, I'd say that if you have a lot of readers, consider simply continuing your story, unless you really want a new look, or want to attract people who like complete fictions/new stories/shorter stories. If you don't have many readers, you don't stand to loose a lot by starting a new story, but you do stand to gain substantially, so it might be a better idea.

Well, my other conclusion is that RRL should put some consideration into how it handles sequels. Some sort of 'series' page might be nice, where it could show total votes/reviews/readers, stuff like that.

...maybe I should make a post in the 'suggestions' forum about that.
Overgrowth - A dungeon-ish LitRPG starting with a shipwreck on a tropical island. Not isekai.

RE: Ongoing posts to One Book, or Multiple Books?

#6
This is all great feedback!

I think with the current state of my work, and it's reader base, I might prefer to go the route of a second fiction page when I'm finally ready to begin. Partly because I really do like additional cover art, and it's cleaner for me as an author if I'm looking to share the stories elsewhere as well.

That said, as time goes on and I share other stories here, I may end up utilizing both methods depending on the audience of a particular story. They both have merits, and reader preference, as has been pointed out.

I'd be interested in a Series style page for fictions as well. I think it'd mesh well with how a long of stories are uploaded here.
https://i.imgur.com/JBLglrm.jpg

RE: Ongoing posts to One Book, or Multiple Books?

#7
'Not_A_Hat' pid='832633' dateline='1518369058' Wrote: The people you gain by starting fresh, and the people you loose by starting fresh.

Not_A_Hat summarised it quite nicely.
And, while what he said is indeed true, the simplest or the method that seems to work with the most reliability is to start a new novel, gain about 100 ish followers in the first 30 days and then your novel will be on the trending tab.

There's a bunch of complications with that, which is why i didn't say them initially.
Ofc, all of the following is through my own careful observations and not in any way confirmed by the staff, but i still believe it is quite accurate.

First of all, a fiction younger than 30 days cannot be on the trending tab. No matter how many followers or ratings it gets.
Second, even if you do get 100 ish followers, it isn't certain your novel will be featured. It might be because there's other novels hogging up space there or maybe because there were other popular novels that started around the same time as you, i.e. competition basically.
Third, that is not the only way to get into the trending tab. I think it works on a principle of how much activity your fiction had in the last 30 days. How many followers it gained and how many times was it rated?
I've certainly seen novels, 4-5 months into their publishing, suddenly get featured on the trending tab for no apparent reason. But they do have something in common which is recent activity.
So, maybe it's how many people followed / rated in the last 30 days. But it does have a preference for newer novels.

And that is basically it, as far as my analysis of the system goes. More knowledge on how things work is always useful.

But that doesn't explain some fictions which don't seem to be getting that much activity, i.e. followers / ratings but still somehow get a spot in the trending tab, and that too continuously for weeks, without any apparent change.
All Stats Random  , my try to perfect the 'master of all/everything' type of MC, inside a proper, realistic VR world, from a game design perspective and immersion and no convenient 'convert gold to irl currency' button.