And this emphasis on subs is really a Catch 22 for the novels.
Even if the novel is 100-150K words, and you slice it thin, it is still a short run with daily updates... so you will be done fast. And once you are done, what's the point of people subbing?
So, a strong, polished, preloaded novel will have much shorter window of the opportunity to fish for its subs. Because, no, the audience for a novel doesn't show up every day to browse through every novel showing up in Fresh.
I mean, isn't a point of a novel to be complete and available to read the WHOLE thing, beginning to end? And if it's the case, what do you need to sub for?
If the writer is diligent, and uploads daily, why sub? It would only plug your feed, and irritate you if you don't check the site every day.
If they don't upload daily, how many books can you read with any ability to keep the plot in mind and characters in your heart every three to seven or fourteen days?
This just encourages a really low quality reading experience, when you read multiple chapters of multiple stories per day in a scattered fashion. No wonder people don't engage! I mean, I had been reading like that for three years, reading a dozen or more books simultaneously, every day, and it is tiring as heck. Particularly when I have to provide feedback on something I've last read like a month or two ago? Lol. If I remember the name of their love interest, gold star!
It also pushes to the top the stories with disjointed structure and overtly titillating characters rather than a strong, engaging storyline and nuanced story-telling.
Anyway, yeah, weird. I am willing to give time and heart to the other creators, but the way the algorithms interpret engagement and what they reward makes it less enjoyable.