With apologies to the Bard...
Waaay back in 2015, I wrote a story called Making Mindy Mine. As without of what I publish, I had no idea how it would be received, but it went on to be one of my most successful stories. Many reader were hoping I’d continue with the characters.
Over the years since, a sequel, Making Mindy Moan, grew until today when some 11k words were completed and returned by my editor and friend, JWren. Obviously, as Lush generally allows only 10k or less, I will have to post it in two parts.
My question is, would reader rather see a continuing story posted in a large batch like 10k words, or in daily, weekly, bi weekly or monthly serials?
Personally I usually don’t mind long works but I know many do. Most readers though seem to lose interest over time, so dear reader, I ask you, how do you prefer your stories submitted?
Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of tea?
I see 'novels' as different from sequels.
If you're writing a novel, I think you should write the whole thing ahead of time, and then break it into chapters as makes sense to you from a narrative standpoint. However, you should publish them all serially within as short a period of time as possible, which is what I did with my "Room for Rent" series, so readers don't have to wait too long to follow up the next installment. I find that 'novels' that are published as the author goes (usually at 500 words at a time, with long gaps between chapters) are usually pretty tedious, and end up not being completed or simply getting lost in the flow of the site.
As for sequels, I'm very reluctant to write them. I know a lot of readers request them, especially when I leave things a little open-ended, but I feel like the sequels they want pretty much write themselves, so why should I bother? I mean, for me, the excitement in the story is all about the build-up, the character and situation development and the suspense. The sex is just a logical conclusion to all of that, but without everything preceding, I find sex scenes in themselves to be dull. So if I've done all of that work in the first story, what's left for a sequel? If I do write a sequel it usually involves some kind of plot twist to keep the suspense alive, but for the most part I'd rather just write an entirely new story.
Anyway, that's my opinion.
Don't believe everything that you read.
Tough call. My longer works and series, like The April Stories and Wedding Interrupted, have tended to be unplanned so writing them all at once tends to not be an option. I'll write something I like about a character(s) that I really like and suddenly I'm having ideas for new stories about them. That's why Wedding Interrupted was written at irregular intervals over about a year. Basically, a sequel or series happens if I have the need and interest. I don't think I have ever done it just because of reader demand.
Now, as a reader, I don't tend to read series on here. In fact, I don't read long stories much. Time and discretion constraints come into play. So I tend to stick to short to mid-length standalones. But that's me and may not be especially representative.
I think the question as whether to put it up all at once or in instalments is probably more important to the writer than to the reader.
If you've got x-thousand words and are eager to post what you have before it's complete, then why not chapterize it?
On the other hand, if you've got it complete and it's under the 10,000 word restriction, put it all up at once. If readers don't have time to read it in one sitting, they need only bookmark it so that they can come back to it later.
I have written a few stories that are not novels, but episodes and sequels in the life of the characters concerned where a relationship develops. I feel the 10,000-word limit is reasonable and any story that exceeds that should be submitted as a sequel or episodes.
Faced with a 10,000 word story, I will split it up into two parts, and I have done this for a few stories. To do that, I'll wind the story down to a natural stop and then reset the scene at the start of the next part, a bit of 'glue' in the form of a couple of paragraphs.
I find it works well and I do leave a little time between them, a few days to a week.
What also works for me is by splitting them up, the edit time seems less and less bothersome too.
