Updating frequency for Novels

[RcMich]

Hey there, I'm kinda new to Tapas and I currently have a novel that I'm posting here. Well, for now, it's only the first chapter though.

I have used several other websites to post my work and I usually update once a week, on the weekends, when I'm done writing the new chapter of the story. In this case, I already have several chapters (around 30) already written for my novel and I am unsure if I should keep the once per week posting schedule or just upload one each day until I reach a later chapter (for example chapter 28).

I am hesitating because I believe it is important to keep the readers a bit in suspense, and posting on a rarer basis assures I have my story in the Fresh section (not sure how much it helps to be there but from my previous experiences, it does).

But then again I believe my story becomes interesting only from the 3'rd chapter in when the male MC comes into the stage. The POV's of the story are alternating between her and him if that's any help in understanding the rhythm of the story.

What I could do would be to change the updates to be 3-4 days apart in order to keep it fresh, but not overwhelming. What are your opinions on that?

Also, where can I post my updating schedule? Is there a special field in the story info that I did not notice?

Also, I'm from Europe, so if my readers are from USA the posting times might be weird, should I switch to an American posting time? What times would there be good or reading activity on Tapas?

Am I asking too many questions?

Thanks for reading all this. Let me know what your opinions are on this issue.

[LordSeriphus]

I'm not super big here. But I hit the forums up. So I can't say my advice is credible.
But I tend to update extremely slowly, but my readers are pretty engaged with me and said they don't mind. I'm trying to provide the best quality I can.
When I finish a Part (I have three in total for my story) I edit it, then let three chapters drop on scheduled days per week.

As for posting a schedule for readers to see, I stuck with that through posting on my own page. But I don't know how many people read over those, so...

Maybe someone who's more successful and has an ongoing story would be able to help you out better than I can.
But this site helped me get some much-needed feedback, and motivated me to finish my novel. I personally use it as a gateway, and I'm looking to publishing my works through publishers. So if you're here for views, I'm not much help. xD

Cheers!

[RcMich]

Hey,

I also work a normal job while writing and often don't have time to write as much as I should, so my update schedule for unwritten work could be unstable depending on the workload I have, which is why I am hesitant to make it a daily update.

It's not so much that I want to be super big, such a big one-time wonder will not happen to me. :)) I just want my story to be heard I guess, or better said to be read. For people to enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

The way you present your story, or in this case when you schedule it, will affect the readers. If the story updates are really slow, readers might get bored, impatient or forget about it, if it's too often, it might miss some opportunities with new readers and a high amount of chapters, especially longer ones, might be tiring and overwhelming for a people.

And of course, the more people see my work, the higher the chances for feedback, and that's always welcomed.

Regarding the posting of the schedule, like you said it would be an idea to use the Profile page. I noticed that the personal description is always there, so I could try to use that to post my updating schedule. Or I could add it to the series description but I'm not sure if people would actually scroll down to read it all

Thank you for the response and providing your opinion on the issue. ^^

[Penni]

Most novelist post once or twice a week. Unless you have short chapters, novels take longer to read so some readers may get overwhelmed by all the updates, especially if they have several novels they are reading.

In regards to your schedule, if you go to your main page this a block where you can write messages

And if you click the bell next to the share button, your message will go out to your subscribers. This is a common way authors will let their subs know about schedules or any changes. Some will post their schedule in their synopsis box or in their comment box at the end of their post.

The time frame doesn't really matter, people will read it when they're ready. When people post and the opinion varies. I've tried during the week and on the weekend but I got about the same result. You should go with whatever will your for your personal schedule.

Nope not too many questions at all

[RcMich]

My chapters are around 1300-1500 words, can't really call them really long nor 500 words short. That's one of the issues that is bothering me if I update too fast, it might overwhelm readers (I'm a reader myself so I can relate).

I did not know about the bell option. Do readers subscribe to the series or to the writer account? I mean if you have multiple stories with different genres, do all those subscribed receive the same message no matter which story they came through?

[moodyfd]

I usually try to update at least once a week. Or I have in the past. If you're looking to share your story with as many people as possible then that might be your best bet especially when you consider the length of your chapters. Updating once a week will give you the exposure on the "fresh" tab and also create a predictable routine for your followers.

[Teowi]

I've actually been getting very little to no new exposure by being on the "Fresh" tab. Did you hear about the new mobile update that supposedly buried all the non-premium content to a little link at the bottom of the page? (I'm not a mobile user, so I can't check for myself).

As for the problem of overwhelming readers, I was actually surprised when I came to Tapas and realized they had a character limit for novel updates. I came over from Top Web Fiction and Web Fiction Guide, and over there many works have updates thousands of words long. The most popular writer there (and he is extremely popular) has 5k+ word updates every 2-3 days, and his readers are still able to keep up. I think what I learned was to not underestimate a reader's attention span for online novels.

Then again, most readers there are adults and there seems to be a much larger teenage/young adult userbase here.

[emmyengberts]

If you've got a big backlog, I'd say twice a week is probably fine until you've caught up. That way you get exposure but your story also won't stay way behind the rest of the places you post, and lets it catch up with the rest.

I'm also a EU user and I update around 3 or 4 in the afternoon ECT, which seems to be a decent update moment for the whole world when it comes to time zones (will be morning US time and evening/night Asian time, but late afternoon EU).

I write 2k words chapters and I normally update once a week (on Saturdays), but I recently started a new story which will be updated twice a week (Tue/Thurs) so that if people follow both of them they get them spread out through the week.

[375]

I would say post every other day or every two days just to see if that will work for you. It normally works for me if I havent written a lot. I live in the PST time so I normally update in the morning before I go to work or to school!

[laiscnogueira]

What I could do would be to change the updates to be 3-4 days apart in order to keep it fresh, but not overwhelming. What are your opinions on that?

Usually your novel stays on the "fresh" section for 2-3 days, so yeah, I would say updating every 3 days is ideal.

[RcMich]

Thanks for all the information, opinion and experiences you shared. I will take this into consideration and let you know what I decided on in the end. At the moment, for some reason I got really inspired and managed to write another 2 chapters, hopefully, I will write the ending by the end of the week and then I can take that into consideration and schedule it accordingly.

Thank you again! I appreciate all the help.

[RcMich]

@moodyfd I've followed through with how long my story will stay on the Fresh, it's less than a week, more like a couple of days. One of my stories is now on the last page and I only posted it yesterday, so I guess it depends on how many updates there are overall in this case, as they are not the same number at all times. I agree with the routine, but considering I have the chapters already created, I might post them more often. Thank you for the advice. ^^

@Teowi I am not sure about the new version of the app, I have the current one, and there's no Fresh category on the page. Only Noteworthy and New Premium and Tapas Exclusive/Originals. Indeed I am not sure how much exposure the Fresh page will help with getting more people to read unless they use the website version. Are the number of users from the mobile a lot more than the ones from the website or is it around the same?

My novel was written to have around 1200-1500 words per chapter so I cannot split them up or add them unless I want to do 2 POV per chapter, but where would the fun be in that? It was basically written to allow for short reads while on the bus or train, at breaks, and so on.

I'm happy for the young adult userbase, my main target is young adults and adults,

@emmyengberts I do have quite a large backlog and most of it is already published on Wattpad, so if one looks for it, it will appear almost posted, so I don't feel the need to wait too long to post it here. I think I'm actually going to do as you said and post it twice a week. That way it can get some visibility and hopefully it won't be too fast or too slow for the readers.

Regarding the update time, I've looked over an Alexa for Tapas info, it said there that 43% of the people accessing it are from the USA, 5% UK and then Europe. From the forum exchange, the times when I felt the forum was the most used was at around 5-6 pm my hour so around 7-8 AM PDT and 4-5 PM CEST. So it seems you hit the perfect times for the updates. Thank you.

I think I'm going to go with Monday and Tuesday or something similar for the updates, during the week, to avoid the rush when everyone else is updating on the weekends.

By the time I will have everything posted, the story will hopefully be finished properly.

@375 & @laiscnogueira I think once every 3-4 days should be enough in my case, don't want to get overexcited and post everything at once. XD

Thank you all for sharing this information with me and helping me out.

[moodyfd]

Wow! You've done a lot of a research about Tapas in general. Or just have a better attention to detail than I do lol. That's really informative!

[RcMich]

I actually did some research regarding all these. It's always a good idea to be informed when starting something new.

I have just scheduled the rest of my chapters, around 30 of them, I have until the 22nd of October to think and write about the ending. I hope I can do it in time...

[Teowi]

It really sucks to hear that there's no Fresh tab on the app. A lot of us rely on it.
As for the numbers, I'm afraid I don't know the ratio. Maybe someone else will be able to answer your question?

[RcMich]

Update on the Fresh Tab. There is one but it's not on the main page, but in the Discover section.

After the New releases, for comics... after the Gift Box for premium stories, after the Promotion part, after the Daily Snack, after the Sale, there is the NEW EPISODES, the first tab of it are comics, the second tab is for Novels. And then you have the Weekly Best, Wait or Pay and Daily Calendar for the comics I think only.
Then there is Trending, Binge Worthy and finally Popular Tags.

As you can see, the Fresh is there, under the name of New Episodes... and after 6 premium promotion spots, I guess you can say. Not sure how much it helps.

Or... nevermind, it seems the New Episodes is mostly for Premium as well...

Oh well, guess it's to be expected.

[Teowi]

Yea...guess that was what people meant when they said the community stuff was buried. D:

[RcMich]

Now, all we have to do is to... well just wait to be discovered? Not exactly 100% sure how that works, but if it's anything like the Wattpad featured works... I believe I personally have no chance :))

[Teowi]

Yea, same here.