Writing books as 'parts', ie pt1, pt2, pt3 etc.
Thu, 2013-12-19 09:21
#1
Writing books as 'parts', ie pt1, pt2, pt3 etc.
I put a book on ABC Tales some time ago about the 'Long Bustard Narrow Gauge Railway'. It went on as four parts. At the end of Pt1, Pt2 and Pt3 it clearly says " To be continued". But when you see the number's who have read the book, the numbers who have read each 'part' do not make any sense! Surely people do not read just the 'middle' of a story? Other than joining the whole lot up together, how do you get readers to read things in the correct order?
NC
you don't.
Hey Nick,
There really is no way of ensuring that and celts' cryptic comment is a simple fact I'm afraid.
As a body of work, in this case sections of the same serialised story, there simply is no way that readers can be nudged to start at the beginning and completely read the whole thing in chronological order.
Hopefully if they start at say chapter three and are impressed enough by the quality of what they have read then they might be encouraged to start at the beginning and take the whole piece on board. Another thing that will encourage a disparate read count between the sections is if you have appended a particularly interesting title to one of the chapters. People will inevitably click on that one out of curiosity.
Another thing that will affect the differences in read count will be if some sections have been cherry-picked and others haven't. Have a look at different members' pages and see for yourself, the work with cherry awards will have a higher average read count than work that doesn't have them. That's human nature for you I'm afraid.
I hope that this goes someway to solving the conundrum of why it happens; can anything be done about it? Simple answer I think. No.
I try and make each part fairly short (less than 1,500 words). I've found myself more likely to commit to a longer piece if the parts are like that. I've been following Lisah's Elusive Cure from the start and that's got short parts and it's up to part 54.
Neil, if you were to put the following links to each of your stories and a note saying that in order the appreciate the full story it would be better to read them in sequence, you would draw the readers' attention.
http://www.abctales.com/story/neil-cairns/long-bustard-narrow-gauge-railway
http://www.abctales.com/story/neil-cairns/long-bustard-narrow-gauge-rail...
http://www.abctales.com/story/neil-cairns/long-bustard-narrow-gauge-rail...
http://www.abctales.com/story/neil-cairns/long-bustard-narrow-gauge-rail...
Good luck, hope it works.
Luigi,
I've just used your excellent tip to link the six parts of my new story. 'The Man Who Couldn't Stay Dead.'
I'd never have thought of that. It took about 5 -10 minutes. Easy.
A very useful tip indeed. Thank you.
Glad the tip was useful.
Best, Luigi
That's a good tip Luigi!
Neil, I write short stories that can be posted on here in one go. But my latest story 'The Man Who Couldn't Stay Dead' ran to 13000 words. (Unintentionally - I just couldn't stop !) So I had to post it on here in six parts and I've noticed the same as you. The reading figures don't follow on logically. Mine sag in the middle then pick up again for the last part. Worryingly, this could mean that my story gets boring in the middle. Alternatively it could simply be that people don't have the time or inclination to read a long piece and they just want to get to the end to see what happens. Even more baffling as the first three have been given Cherry Awards but the last three haven't, so I'd have expected the numbers to fall off a cliff after the first three. Peculiar.
I guess I'll just stick to the 'one shot' short stories.
Good Luck.
* Did you try the link idea from Luigi ? I might do that.
Long time since I've been here. Haha
I had the same issue. Seems posting full length chapters isn't possible now. I'm working o my second novel now and was considering posting. Oui, 8000 word chapters, no fun. As opposed to my last work which flew throughout its 310 pages, the new one builds slowly. I'm worried I'll scare readers off with 25 pages of little thrill, mostly development
Give me the beat boys and free my soul! I wanna getta lost in ya rock n' roll and drift away. Drift away...