wherein Liz asks about people's preferred story/chapter lengths

[edenfalling]

I finished editing "Out of Season" tonight. The final version is about 27,000 words, give or take some punctuation. (*eyes story in disbelief*)

My question is whether I should post it on AO3 and ff.net as a one-shot or split it into pseudo-chapters. It was conceived and written as a one-shot, so I think it flows better that way, but 27,000 words is awfully long and a lot of people prefer things split up for reading ease. (I guess this is the same general principle as splitting long chunks of narrative into paragraphs?) If I split it, the pseudo-chapters would be the same ones I used in the LJ beta draft of the story, which makes them about 10,500 words, 10,000 words, and 6,500 words long, respectively.

I personally don't mind ridiculously long one-shots, but I have had a few reader complaints about that in the past so I figured I'd ask for opinions. Thoughts, anyone?

Comments

[branchandroot]

I'd say post it as a one-shot. If that's how it's written, I wouldn't break it up; chapter splits impose a serious pause on the reading flow.

[theodosia21]

I prefer to read stories on one page when possible, but it doesn't make much difference to me if you post it in chapters. The AO3 will let me view it on one page anyway. ^_^

[marici.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'll take good writing in any shape the author wants, right down to pink on black with a blink tag (though, if anyone actually did that, I'd save it as a text file and read that). That said, I think chapters should be for logical narrative transitions. If the story is one-piece in structure, publish it as one chapter. I read a lot on my tiny phone, and I just search the text for works from the last sentence I read if I lose my place.

[grikmeer.livejournal.com]

Why not post it as a one-shot and in chapter format with a disclaimer at the beginning, with links to the other option depending on reader preference?

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I would definitely break it up. I know feedback often drops over 10,000 words and it's hard for people to get a chunk of time to read something that long. 10, 10 and 6 is a perfect split. The story is finished, so even if narratively there aren't clean breaks (and I think there are), the reader can just jump to the next chapter easily. AO3 gives the option for full downloads and it's not that hard to do a cut and paste from ff.net if that's the reader's preference, but even there, if a reader is reading an iPhone or other mobile reader, I think she would prefer it in chunks.

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to say post it as a one shot, if that's how you wrote it. I mean, I've always gotten the impression that most people will leave the tab up if reading on a tablet or computer.....

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

Split it. 5,000 words or less is a good rule of thumb if you want a good response. Announce a schedule (every day, every other day, every week) and stick to it.

It's all about PR, unfortunately.