Ideal Publishing Strategy (If You're Not on RS) with 6 Weeks of Data
Here are 6 weeks of data for my fiction here.
As you can see, there are diminishing returns across the board. I've traded 3 shoutouts, and I think they help, but overall, it appears to come down to publishing frequency if you're not on rising stars. Let me just say that if you can maintain 10% growth week-over-week, that's still considered "hypergrowth" in many other industries. Slow and steady would win the race.
In hindsight, here is what I would do (probably going to try for my next fiction, but would love to know your thoughts):
- Publish 20K words on the first day every hour to get the launch in
- Take out an ad
- Publish daily at the same time until you get on RS
- Work on shoutouts and reviews
- Back off to a normal schedule when satisfied, or you accept your fiction won't be the next HWFWM, DCC, or Primal Hunter
Of course, this implies you have a monster back catalog, which I think is the single most important factor outside of actually having a quality product. Full disclosure: I'm paying for developmental editing, so I know things like grammar are not holding me back. However, I do seem to have some hardcore readers who are fans based on their engagement. So, it seems to be all about discovery.
I think if you're serious about this, you A) work on your writing and B) embrace the suck and create ample backlog.
But I am a noob. Some of you have been doing this way longer. Let's compare data. Thoughts?