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I've noted how many authors get discouraged about how readership drops off after the first chapter is posted. I did some research and discovered some interesting facts about the way the system does and doesn't count page views.
First of all we know a number of people open the first chapter and decided the story isn't their cup of tea and stop reading. Then there are others who read each chapter and open it up individually and while there is often continued dropoff it isn't as severe as from the first chapter to the second.
The fact of the matter is there is a third group of readers who use the 'printer friendly version' to aggregate the chapters so they either download them or read them in one single read. Multiple chapter stories may have title pages or the first chapter serves as the title page. In either case when the reader hits the 'printer friendly version' on either of them the number of views increases ONLY for the title page or first chapter. I've tested this multiple times to confirm this and discussed it with Erin. It would take a hack to change the way the page views are counted when the 'printer friendly version' is used to read a story.
This means that a portion of those numbers on the title page/first chapter could also be a page view for every chapter linked to it but their individual numbers won't increase. So authors don't get so discouraged for many readers might be doing this and while you think they stopped reading after the first chapter they are in reality reading them all.
Comments
When it's available
I do the Printer Friendly link and when gives me all chapters that's great. I developed the habit of downloading stories into my word processor back in my dial-up days to save time on line and free up my phone line.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, so there is something to this observation.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Another Option
I like long stories with many chapters. But sometimes I forget what happened in the first chapters or have forgotten about the story due to long posting cycle and need to refresh the memory in order to enjoy the new chapter. Long story short... I end up reading the first few chapters many times, there by skewing the chapter read counts.
At any rate, ALL you authors out there keep up the good work and I will continue to enjoy it.
Don't understand
I'm sorry, it's only with your blog that I've realised there is a printer friendly version and I'm trying to work out how this implements only the title page. Surely you have to open each chapter in HTML before you can opt for the printer friendly version? Doesn't that increase the count for that page?
No...
In most cases, all chapters are attached to the title page or first chapter, whichever is the parent entry in the list of titles, so when a reader brings that entry up, s/he can read the entire story to date.
It only brings up the story chapters (including the teasers), not the comments. So there is that disadvantage.
In my case as a reader, I generally read chapters as they come up, but if I have several (or an entire story) to catch up on, or if I'm re-reading a story, I often use the printer-friendly setting. Probably my most frequent use of printer-friendly is when an unfamiliar character or event turns up in a story chapter that I'm reading conventionally, and I want or need to find out the backstory. I bring up the entire story in preinter-friendly and do an Edit/Find on the name or event. So I don't have to guess what chapter had the answer.
Eric
Printer friendly version
I've always wondered what that button was for but never dared to click it :)
Guilty as Charged
I confess I'm guilty too.
Printer-copy-paste in word-select all-enlarge to 14 point
Now these old eyes aren't having to squint to read the story.
Gotta love computers when they behave and make life easier
Have fun with life, it's too short to take seriously
always
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Print to hard copy paper
I like to read my stories whole and print them to paper to read later , then I have PM authors a personal Kudos and thank you for writing and posting the story . I am sad some stories stop after a few chapters and they are very good. This also allows me to go back and reread so of my favorite stories
HUGS
reading habits
I don't know about your particular circumstance, but i've noticed that i personally will read a chapter and then when the next chapter comes out like 2 weeks latter ill then read that... but 2 weeks after that i've forgotten that i was even following the story.
There's a few author's who, when i see thier name, i jump onto the link. So thier able to get away with long post times.
Another thing, is that i'll see a story and click the link. Then ill look at the tags... 9x out of 10 im hitting the back button.. but this counts as a read. I do it sometimes even on further chapters because i've forgotten if i was interested in the story or not.
Sadly the majority of the storys on this site i want nothing to do with, as i love the sci-fi or fantasy genre's and detest "real-world" stories which make up the bulk of this sites storys. We used to have a lot of good things going on here, the Ret-con, Whately, Dark Realms... but the stories have in my opinion stagnaited into just nothing but Whately and the occational gem every 6 months or so. The authors who write my current favorites are so bogged down with other stories that im lucky to get a continuation on my favorites twice a year. err yeah, i try not to complain about it so ill be shutting my mouth now. I appologise for getting off topic.
Interesting
While I wasn't discouraged by it, I did find myself feeling rather curious why it always seemed like my first book in a series had far more views to it than the remainder. Thank you for sharing this little tidbit of information so new authors who might be nervous about posting won't think their work is simply being ignored and stop writing. I might also humbly offer the suggestion that if you enjoy a particular story and wish to see more from the author, don't be shy about leaving a comment on the story. It could be anything from a long, detailed entry into how much you enjoy the piece and why, or it could simply be a little "love note" telling the author you are enjoying their work and are eager to read more. I realize there is the option of give a "kudos", but when an author is looking over their home page displaying their work to see how well it's being received, the only information he or she is immediately privy to is the number of reads and any new comments that have been left. Perhaps that is something the site administrators could consider, having a kudos count alongside the reads and comments shortcut when the story list is displayed. Regardless, leaving a comment for the author letting them know their work is being enjoyed can have the benefit of letting them know that the work is being enjoyed and can even inspire the author to continue with their work, possibly exploring doing something they were previously hesitant to do before.