Thoughts on when and how to publish · 4:30pm Oct 2nd, 2014
Well, I've been getting a lot of interesting advice on publishing my story. Some think it should be published soon, with a few chapters and then releasing new chapters regularly until my buffer is gone. Some suggest waiting until the entire story is written, to allow the freedom to make changes to old chapters at any stage, and also ensure that it's totally polished before publishing. Others say no, it's best to publish as you write. Some say it's important to publish at certain times of the day and of the week. Some emphasize the importance of having the story connected to as many groups as possible, having excellent cover art and descriptions. I was also advised to write some one-shot stories before publishing, to build up a reputation and following of sorts.
All of these are very interesting points to consider, so I thought it might be good to make a blog post and invite anyone who has anything to say about it to contribute their thoughts here. The main thing to consider is that my story is huge and ongoing. I do not know how long it will take to write it, but I'd give myself several months up to a year at most to finish it. I certainly would love to publish soon, and start getting public feedback if that's a wise course of action. There is something to be said for waiting until more is written though. I'm still writing chapter 5, and my word count is not quite 23k so far. I'm torn on exactly what to do, so I'm going to leave it here for commentary while I keep writing and hopefully we can all come to a consensus as to what the wisest course of action is.
Publish when the chapter is done or when the whole story is done?
Both approaches have pros and cons.
With publishing chapters of the incomplete story you get:
+ Feedback, that will help you write the rest of the chapters.
+ Reputation (views, followers).
- Impatient readers that will keep bugging you about when your next chapter will come out.
- Angry readers that will get confused by your story because you changed the chapter they already read.
It also depends on the writing style that you have. With my novel, for instance, I started with chapter 13, then added some chapters before that, then wrote chapter 34, then added some pieces here and there.
To do things like I described above you need a good outline that should look something like this.
24.media.tumblr.com/88c6fe8e9c16e89599af2e4feeec0e39/tumblr_mq89z6pNKE1rke8ufo1_500.jpg
In my kind of writing style, the chapters won't be finished until the whole novel is finished. I have like 30 unpublished chapters, but the thought of releasing them doesn't even cross my mind. They aren't ready yet. I'll be confident enough when the whole novel is done and ready. When that happens, I'll release them weekly (readers like regular releases).
The question you have to ask yourself is: Will you change these chapters? Are they still work in progress? If the answer is yes, you might want to polish them before publishing. The downvotes on your publish chapters you'll receive because of your mistakes will stay long after you've fixed them.
On a side note, I think you should post this as a thread in the The Writer's Group. You’ll get a lot of feedback there.
Well, people probably know my opinion about it:
Write the whole thing, and don't publish a word of it until it's all done and polished.
And yes, it matters what day of the week (and what time of day) you publish. That can significantly change your chances of feature-boxing.
2501571
Excellent idea.
Although that seems to not be the appropriate group for such a question.
2502422 I have to agree with 2501571 in this case.
Publishing an incomplete story gives the readers the opportunity to give you feedback, whereas if you write the whole thing THEN publish it like 2501846 said, it doesn't give you much room for improvement. The way I look at it from that perspective, you're liable to gain more of a following through increased interaction rather than writing the whole thing which is essentially like saying "Fuck you I do what I want" to the people that might actually have some great ideas.
Take the instance of the Anti-Material/Anti-Machine rifle I said you could include. If I was going into the completed story completely blind, at some point I could suggest "Why not that gun? It will punch more holes into *insert enemy here* than Chrysalis has in her legs. It allows more fan interaction and makes the readers feel they're more appreciated in what they have to say towards the story. If you write the whole thing, then you're axing that interaction.
2502456
Well, that's a compelling reason. But is it enough to counter the benefits of writing it all ahead of time? When it comes to dealing with fans, there would seem to be a delicate balance if what you say is true. There is the "fan participation as you write" aspect. And on the flip side, there is the "Fans expect you to write faster than possible and get upset if you don't" aspect.
2502550
If you plan to write it all ahead of time you could get the the point where something comes up in real life which would prevent you from writing anymore. Then you've got hundreds of thousands of words unpublished, and for what reason? It'll just sit around collecting virtual dust, and all your efforts and those that helped would be for nothing basically.
That said, if you publish as you write, then all your works are still out for people to read, and not collecting dust. It's better to get your works out where people can see them rather than keep it unpublished until finished. As for the people that want more to read, there's two kinds of people.
The dick: "When you gonna write more you should be doing that in your free time."
The patient person: "It's OK if you're busy with RL problems, just write when you can."
There are more benefits to publishing than from refraining doing so. The most important thing is for the readers. One story I found, Researcher Twilight, its author had brain cancer and there wasn't any updates for a year. He finally got around to writing again, and updates went as planned before the cancer started imparing his ability to write. It doesn't matter how few and far between updates are, you will still have the fanbase.
The MOST point it this: The story is out for people so people can read it! Having encouragement from people to write more of a great story between chapters will give you the motivation to do so, and it builds more anticipation with readers.
I don't have much to input besides what Bad Dragon said.
All I can say is don't make the same mistake that I did. I submitted all that I had before realizing that it would take a lot longer to write out all the little things I would have to make up as I go before the planned conclusion.
Make a plan for yourself and be ready to adjust it as necessary.
2502667
Those are good thoughts. It's a very difficult decision. First, to answer specific concerns, I know that if anything IRL came up to prevent me from completing the story, I'd definitely publish what I had rather than letting it collect dust. After all, it might even buy time to allow me to finish the story.
Having reader feedback can also help with encouragement, that much is very certain. It's not the only source of that though, as I can have a private readership during writing and release publicly when it's done.
I think my biggest concern with publishing as I write is the problem of immutability. I've already come across a couple very minor details which I've corrected in chapters 1 or 2 due to changes in the story's direction in chapters 4 and 5. Retroactively changing these before it's published is very smooth and nobody cares. But if those were published already, I wouldn't be able to make the edits without upsetting people. I'm also still finding minor wording corrections that need to be made, even 3 chapters ago.
There's also the issue of how polished a chapter should be before publishing. If I publish as soon as it's done being proofread, then that really limits my ability to make modifications to the part of the story which is rather current. And I can see how the older a chapter gets, the more likely it will not need any further edits. As a small example, we have the colt in chapter 2 which was saved by Nyx. What is his backstory? I've been puzzling over this for a while, and I think I have it nailed down now. But when I get around to writing that into the story, will I need to retcon the colt's details in chapter 2 itself? If I published, would that create complications?
I do see the benefits to publishing sooner though, especially when it comes to reader feedback. I'm minorly concerned about going slower than people like, but as you mentioned, respectable people are patient.
Still undecided. It's a lot to think about.
hey everyone I am one of the prereader/ editors on recon's epic.
yes, epic.
That is the thing , recon's strength in my view is his AMBITION the sheer scope of this thing is immense.
His story closely resembles two very famous stories , but mentioning those reveals too much. let's just say if you have read The Immortal Game you have a very good idea of the tone , scope and potential length of what recon has embarked on.
Because of this i have urged recon not to make his first posting just the first chapter. I want some meat to be obvious to the reader.
Here, so edited so as not to reveal story elements, is my advice to him. all input welcome.
I also have recommended recon that he have 8-9 chapters completed and fully reviewed by proofreaders before he publishes the story, so he has a five week " buffer" in which he can post reliably every week and get people hooked.
getting 8-9 chapters completed before publishing probably pushes the first publish of this story out to a couple of months from now, but I think the story and the reception the story gets will be all the stronger due to all of this added structure.
Any thoughts/ opinions?
An idea is to publish it, but have a few chapters as buffer you've already written ahead of time so
1.) You can publish them should something come up
2.) You have a chance to retroactively change your most recent chapter based on the future
Not all authors are happy with their published work (J.K. Rowling) but they have to live with it. I doubt Kkat is perfectly happy, and she compensates with her headcanon blogs. So my advice? Publish, and don't be afraid to go on hiatus and rewrite some things then continue.
Publishing allows you to get the opinion of readers, and yes while there will be bigots who think they own your time, you can ignore them because at least it means they like it.
2502807
Well, I've told you what I think is best. You do what you feel is best for your story.
Well I guess the only new thing that I can add is motivation. When you start out on a new story sometimes it all comes together so perfectly in your head and you can type it out nonstop day after day. But sometimes it becomes harder to just sit down and write the thing, you're not as excited about it as you were before. But if you were to release a chapter when you're at this point and watch as the comments, favorites and follows come flowing in it can really help boost your excitement towards putting more into it :D I do this sometimes, I stockpile chapters and wait until I reach a rough point in the writing process to release a new chapter! I think it works for me :D
2502838
I am leaning toward this solution, because it is a good compromise between the two extremes.
First, it allows me some more time to solidify the general story arc and make sure that my supporting characters don't need any retcon work. It gives me the benefits that come with publishing a completed story without waiting for the entire story to be finished.
Second, it gives all the benefits of the "publish as you go" route, because I will be getting reader feedback while I'm still writing, and people can feel like they are a part of the unfolding story, which addresses 2502456 concerns.
There was also a particularly helpful comment here, by Fervidor (not sure if external links work but 3672600 ). In particular the idea that because I'm a brand new writer, despite the fact that this seems to be coming along very smoothly with a lot of quality, the fact is, I am still susceptible to major mistakes. Having feedback as I go could help.
So for now I think maybe I will have my four prereaders, and at least 3 "general opinion" people in addition who watch the story unfold for the next four chapters or so, and then I think I should start feeding them out at that point.
I have all of these exact concerns and they are a pretty big part of why I am more on the " postpone" side of the publishing debate. In fact if you take my advice and publish after you finished chapter 9 or so, I recommend we all do another revision of chapters 1-4 just before publishing. with the hindsight of many more chapters in our belt i will bet you willl find things you will want to change to better fit later events, or maybe pieces of foreshadowing etc. you will want to add.
It all falls to the wayside next to what you actually want as an author, because every point made is dependent on that, and that alone. Publishing by chapter does give your audience to give feedback on-the-fly, but that has to be taken with one simple fact that I'm sure wYvern has already mentioned:
Fans don't know shit.
It's hardly a popular opinion, I imagine, but there you go. For my money, the single biggest reason for posting by chapter is get encouragement and feed the ego. Thus, I would simply ask you this: do you need your ego stroked to finish writing your story?
Now, I say that with no ill-will towards those that need the constant encouragement. The bottom line is that every author is best served by being completely honest with themselves about why they are writing: we aren't exactly true geniuses starving for our craft – we're writing bloody fanfiction. If you want to write the most polished story you can, then don't publish. By the time you have finished an epic sprawl of a story, you'll have learned so much that you'll want to polish the balls off the first few chapters so that the style and quality match from one end to the other. This is a good thing; it shows that you have learned shit.
If there is some chance that the epic nature of the task at hand might actually disrupt your enjoyment of the project, and thus your commitment and willingness to learn (they do go hand in hand), then publish as soon as that threat starts looming. This is all supposed to be fun and games in the end, isn't it?
It's not like you can't change your mind halfway through, either publishing what you have prematurely or rewriting what you have already published. People like me, who never read unfinished works, are few and far between, so we're not a significant reason to hold back. Similarly, finishing the whole story up front doesn't mean that you can't publish by chapter when the time comes to abuse the hotbox as much as you can.
The only thing fans tend to know en masse is whether they like it or not. It is madness to publish in the hope they they can help you actually improve a story. Madness, I tell you.
-M
2531078
This. This is -the- most sound logic and helpful, realistic, compelling thing I've heard yet on the case for waiting.
I do feel like my story needs to be out there. To be read and enjoyed. And feedback is awesome of course, but I currently have motivation to keep going without the wide audience. I think to scratch that itch of feedback at this time, it's probably good enough to have a core circle of people who can watch the story develop. Unfortunately most of the people who have expressed interest so far have also said that they are too busy to get involved at this time.
It's very true though what you're saying. Even though I'm only in the middle of writing chapter 6 currently, I still just went all the way back to chapters one and two to make updates! If I had published already, then that would have been messy. It is hard though, to imagine actually waiting many more months before publishing. This story is big. Probably going to be about 250-300k words. I've got 35k written so far, so there's a heck of a long way to go. If I can get a core following though, it'll help a lot. I can just pretend that the general fimfiction audience doesn't exist and hold out as long as I can.
2531078 I like this comment very much.
Very well said.
If it is going to be a story of epic lengths, wait until you get into the adventure (such as right after the first leg), go back and touch up the first chapters, and then release it on a set schedule. (Such as one chapter every 2 weeks or sooner) That will hopefully take care of most inconsistencies and give you a window of opportunity to keep ahead, as well as make corrections as you go along. Also It will let you go through some of the feed back.
Do not post the first chapter where nothing happens yet and wait too long to get it rolling. People will swarm and downvote it to oblivion. (I know that from experience)
Its okay to start off at a moderately slow speed, IF you have the next few chapters there as well where stuff gets interesting.
2546385
Yeah, chapters 1 and 2 go together and make a complete story all by themselves. Chapter 3 sets up for the massive story arc that follows. Chapters 4 and 5 have a good amount of action in them but also a whole lot of character dialog and introducing new OCs. Chapter 5 ends with a massive and delicious cliffhanger. Chapter 6 swaps scenes away from the action to give some exposition and detail into a lot of the technology that is being developed in Canterlot for the war. The exposition takes the form of Luna getting project updates, and it involves a whole lot of pretty good dialog interactions. After about 4000 words, Chapter 6 begins to resolve the cliffhanger but just before resolving it, flips back to one more tech tour at Canterlot for a moment, then finally we flip back again and get to see what happened to our protagonist.
I'd really hate to publish too early, that' for sure. If possible ideally I'd write the whole story first and then just release a chapter per week. I'm just not sure how long it will take to finish everything. Could be a while. This could end up 250k words.
2546756 When you do publish it, I wouldn't wait too long between releasing one and two. But then I would take some time in between so I could keep ahead and avoid as many delays life throws at us all as possible.
2547063 Yeah, Chapters 1 and 2 definitely must be published together. #1 on its own is too short and there's no action or dialog. It's just someone waking up from a nightmare, contemplating things and going back to sleep. Chapter 2 is where the world opens up and the story really begins.
After that, I'd really like to release weekly. In order to do this though, I'd probably need most of the story written ahead of time. I'm drafting #6 currently, and the story is about 6 1/2 weeks old. I've put an unusually large focus on the project though, which is probably not sustainable in the long term. I imagine even if I find work though, that I could do 1 chapter per 3-4 weeks.
I'm in the same boat. I have a story I've been working on for a while, about 30k words in, but I still feel like it's not ripe for publishing just yet. I was thinking that I would wait a few more months and try to get more of it down before submitting the first chapter, but that's just a personal choice.