Okay, I'm just going to come right out and ask.

[avevale_intelligencer]

Has anyone who is reading this right now also read any of the weekly episodes of OIK, Two Magicians and a Boat and A New Chapter that have appeared on http://www.avevale.org/?

If so, did you enjoy them?

Originally posted on http://avevale_intelligencer.dreamwidth.org. Comment here or there or both if you wish.

Comments

[coth.livejournal.com]

I haven't. I don't read fiction on-line very much at all, and when I do it is normally an impulse read of a short story by a favourite or recommended author. I like immersive reading of fiction, and actively dislike reading part-works. So if I ever read any of your work it will probably be by buying or borrowing the book (most likely on paper, though I do occasionally read a ebook).

I'm sorry if this is a disappointment for you, but I read your blog as your friend, not as an author's reader. And it is a very long time since I sorted out in my own mind that I have to read for my own purposes, and I won't read a book just because it is written by a friend,

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

No, no disappointment at all. I'm simply trying to establish if it's worth keeping the site open at all. So far, with four responses, three of them (for the best reasons in the world) negative, it's looking as though I could just email episodes to the people who actually want them and stop flailing around trying to attract people's attention and being disappointed when I don't succeed.

It was an experiment. At least now I'm getting some idea of how it's going. Thank you!

[legoline.livejournal.com]

I am sorry for butting in, but I would hate to see you closing down your website. Even if there might be few people reading your stories whenever a new episode comes out, I am very happy that there is a shiny-looking website where your novels are archived and easily accessible. As Lastalda has mentioned, maybe people are waiting for them to be finished before reading them, and it *is* quite hard to keep up with the speed at which you produce new episodes. :-)

(Also I don't mind your flailing at all as it reminds me that there is so much of your stuff that I can yet read!)

[lastalda.livejournal.com]

it's looking as though I could just email episodes to the people who actually want them and stop flailing around trying to attract people's attention and being disappointed when I don't succeed.

Out of curiosity: would emailing the episodes to people who actively sign up for this actually be significantly less work than just putting finished episodes onto the website? Because having them on a website does have quite some advantages. Most of all, late-comers to the party can join anytime and read up to the current point.

I understand that trying to attract people's attention without much of a response is disappointing, but that's how it is - websites usually only aquire so many visitors per time, and the vast majority of them silent. Word of mouth helps, but even that is usually very limited, most of all because there's already way too much "look at this Cool Thing Here!" noise on the internet.
For anyone not associated with you our your word-of-mouth-network, stumbling upon your work is pure chance so it will only happen scarcely and slowly. But it surely wouldn't get any likelier without the webpage, right?

So, if putting stuff onto the webpage isn't taking up lots and lots of time and effort that you would rather put into something else, I strongly recommend keeping the site!

Replacing the elaborate news-posts you've done recently with the short "new episode available" posts you did before might be worth a thought, if they're not attracting more readers. I'm guessing they are probably much more work than the short notes?
But the site itself, I definitely hope you keep. :-)

[legoline.livejournal.com]

Whole-heartedly seconded.