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I haven't put anything on Nifty for a while either. I've got The Circle 3 being edited, Jeremy's Swimming Lessons being passed around for finals, been working on and nearly finished Confession of a Chicken Rancher, and what other time writing etc. I do is several shorts for First Time Tales and two unrelated shorts.
And I had a hard drive crash, taking almost a week worth of work on those projects and other things on it. Just got that computer back into running shape, and still installing programs. Using it right now, LOL.
Then there's work, etc. I wanted to have Chicken Rancher ready for Halloween, but now not until next year. Wanted C3 done by now, too. Thought Jeremy's Swimming Lessons was done, at least for the most part. That's what I'd like to send in here next, I just have no good idea when it will be ready. I still have to catch up those lost days on all those and other projects. The hard drive won't even spin up, so it's all gone.
The last few months have been eaten up with those projects. Haven't done anything worth putting up here since C2.
raysstories.com
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Quote:Smokr wrote on Mon, 08 December 2014 07:11I haven't put anything on Nifty for a while either. I've got The Circle 3 being edited, Jeremy's Swimming Lessons being passed around for finals, been working on and nearly finished Confession of a Chicken Rancher, and what other time writing etc. I do is several shorts for First Time Tales and two unrelated shorts.
And I had a hard drive crash, taking almost a week worth of work on those projects and other things on it. Just got that computer back into running shape, and still installing programs. Using it right now, LOL.
Then there's work, etc. I wanted to have Chicken Rancher ready for Halloween, but now not until next year. Wanted C3 done by now, too. Thought Jeremy's Swimming Lessons was done, at least for the most part. That's what I'd like to send in here next, I just have no good idea when it will be ready. I still have to catch up those lost days on all those and other projects. The hard drive won't even spin up, so it's all gone.
The last few months have been eaten up with those projects. Haven't done anything worth putting up here since C2.
--
I'll happily start to build the next Halloween set at any time you or anyone wants to send me a suitable tale in. Just make sure I know it is for that (or any other) special occasion.
I do like JSL, and the first time tales, assuming your correspondents are happy, and they are within the niche of the site, those are great to have as well. I want to avoid the adult/youth category unless there is an overriding reason to publish here, naturally. We have a couple of those classes of a/y tale already. Short stories I can fit in to the schedule, so send any that work well enough. There's still a wait while they find their place in the queue, but that just increases the new readership pool for every author.
Sad about your hard disk. Stable doors and bolted horses, but I've run an automatic backup for over 10 years now. And I've had to use it a couple of times
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I gave the queue a real hard stare. We have more coming in than going out. That's just not useful, so I published a bonus set today. At present there are just under 16 weeks of queue. That's too long. I'm going to push it down to a dozen weeks over the next few weeks. There's a difference between a drought, a refreshing shower of rain, and a downpour. I'm aiming for refreshing rain showers! I'll continue to publish five item sets, though. We'll just add some bonus ones to the schedule!
We have some interesting new authors and stories. Well, that's always true. And the Christmas set is coming along well. That is planned for Christmas Eve. And in that one is a brand new author to us here, with a short serial. It looks like a very interesting Christmas tale form the three chapters I've seen so far.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I have decided to release a set today (already done) and tomorrow. I don't usually release anything on weekends, but the queue is healthy enough. With today's release we have 43 full sets in the queue. The next submission fills the 44th set up, and the long tail takes us out to the 52nd set, though those need to be filled
I know I'm getting some more from DJ in the next week or two, quite a lot! and I know there is some more heading my way from Andrew Foote. and there will be others. Or I hope very much that there will be. And that is not counting the Christmas set that I will publish on Christmas Eve.
Now Megaman has tamed this queue for me I can cope with quite a number. Are you a closeted author? Why not send me a sample. And do you know anyone whose stories would fit in well here? Please ask them to get in touch. Are there any unfinished series on the site? Please prod the authors to send the result to me! If you get no reply, let me know and I'll put a note on their page to apologise that we haven't heard from them for a while
[Updated on: Mon, 15 December 2014 17:51]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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We're getting there. Today's status is 41 sets to publish. I'm aiming for 36, ideally a little below that. Of course, folk keep refilling the queue (a good thing!). The long tail now extends to set 67! Obviously they need to be filled, but natural story arrival will handle that
After Wednesday, tomorrow, we are able to drop back to three publishing days each week of five items each. I know many of you will be happy about that. It's been a lot to consider reading and having other things to do in your day! There's a fine borderline between swamping readers and not exasperating authors. I'm trying hard to keep the right side of that line for each.
What I plan to do after Wednesday is to walk along much more gently, and offer occasional bonus days. Or I may work out another plan, like posting every other day. That adds one 'kind of inconspicuous' extra half set a week, kind of! But trust me. I am listening to readers and to authors. I want to do my best for all of you.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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"Quote:"timmy wrote on Tue, 16 December 2014 04:47
I am listening to readers and to authors. I want to do my best for all of you.
--You always do!
[Updated on: Fri, 19 December 2014 07:10]
raysstories.com
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I have not yet published today's set, mainly because it is still yesterday here!
The current queue status is looking much better for authors and readers alike. We have 36 full sets of five items. Those are followed by sets 37-40 with four items (and one serial is on its way to top those up to five), followed by sets 41-66 with either a single or two items in each. Obviously those all move up one place when I publish the set I'm going to publish after I've slept!
We also have the Christmas set, scheduled for the evening of Christmas Eve as an extra set.
Now, I have two serials heading my way that I have planned slots for, and both are long ones, of the order of 50 chapters apiece. We've had some chapters of one of them already, and the author is working hard to proofread and correct the remainder. The other is new to us. I have some other material coming soon, too. But that doesn't mean I don't want to hear form new authors, or to hear from old authors with new material
Who is up for starting a St Valentines Day set? Writing takes a while, so start now! We'll add it in as a special extra set, just like all seasonal specials.
[Updated on: Tue, 23 December 2014 00:23]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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And now, just after I published the set today I had a refill!
We now have 39 complete sets (the next regular set goes out the day after tomorrow. Yes, on Christmas Day!).
We have sets 40, 41 and 42 just awaiting the planned chapters to fill them. Today they have four items in each.
Then the long tail extends to set 66. This means that, at this moment, the next spot for a new submission to start is set 43. And that is not as far away as it seems. Remember, we publish at a set every other day at present, so that is only 86 days away. It's a smigden over 12 weeks, which leaves plenty of time for authors to plan stories.
It's a little complex because I try not to run two tales by the same author simultaneously. Paradoxically that is happening at present, but that is an anomaly, unlikely to be repeated. I also try to complete a serial in sequential sets. This does mean a little juggling of spinning plates when I'm waiting for a batch of material to arrive! But, if it fails to materialise in time that is the author's responsibility and they take the next available slot for their material after I re-juggle the queue
I do want that 12 week lead time to become shorter. That means I may issue a surprise set every so often if I see it creeping up. I'm aiming for a lead time of under nine weeks, but I don't want to bombard folk with more than they can read in comfort. It's dropped now from over 15 weeks, which was more than far too long
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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We've been running at an enhanced rate for a while, and things are now pretty much balanced. The queue is decreasing at a controlled rate.
Today, ready for publishing on Monday, we have 37 full sets of five items. If I reverted to publishing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday that would be a 12 week queue, the absolute maximum acceptable. So I will keep running every other day for a while, just to chip away at it a little more. I want to get down to a point where I have spaces for new stories within the nine weeks of queue I'm aiming for, and I want to think whether nine weeks is too long
Our current status is that 38, 39 and 40 have one space in them, but this is pre-allocated to a lengthy tale. Sets 41 and 42 have two spaces, one of which will be absorbed by the lengthy tale, and one of which is spare for the present. And the long tail extends to set 70, in each of which there is space for quite a lot. 18 of those sets are pre-allocated to a different lengthy serial, and the first lengthy serial also needs to arrive to take some of them, but that leaves two slots in each set for new material.
Confused? I was once, but I can see the route map today. It's no more seat of the pants stuff! This is real flying! Things change at least weekly as new material arrives, and there are some lovely surprises starting very soon that have been in the queue for far too long now.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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The story queue is becoming more healthy in so many ways. The time for a new submission to be published is still too long, and I am working on that.
Status after publishing the Happy New Year Bonus:
There are 34 sets with five items in. If I carry on at the rate of a set every other day that is 68 days before there is a vacant space
Sets 35 thru 39 have one vacant space. Currently this is allocated to DJ, who has promised me the complete chapter set for The Cup Bearer.
Sets 40 thru 45 have two vacancies. The Cup Bearer will take one of those if it arrives in time, and maybe a few more into the future
Sets 46 onwards have two lengthy serials in them vying for your attention, though some will also have the remaining chapters of Back Door Slider, a new tale by a new author here that started running today.
This is why we need to get the completed sets out to you at the rate of one every other day. At present we are in a sort of dynamic equilibrium because excellent new tales are arriving as we publish the existing ones. And we also have continuing tales to fit in where I can. The excellent Where Do I Fit In starts in set 9 and we have no idea how many chapters there are. I need to do juggling of spinning plates as that arrives!
See how complex it is to run a queue?
It's healthy. It's imperfect. It delivers good stories. I'm doing my best to make it work better.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Tomorrow we publish another set. After it goes out the status will be:
32 sets of 5 tales ready to roll
Sets 33 thru 38 have four items
Sets 39 thru 48 have three items
Sets 49 thru 65 have two items
Sets 66 thru 69 have one item
So, as you can see, we are in a healthy state, though the publishing delay is not dropping in the way I hoped. And some of the vacant slots are already planned for big serials.
There will be some new authors as the queue moves forwards. We also have some old favourites that are drawing to a close.
Coming up we have:
Three New authors to the site, though we ought to add Joe L to that list because we only just started his first story here on 1 January!
Nine New stories (serials) (ten if we add Back Door Slider to the list) plus Three shorts
It's quite a feast!
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Things change fast here!
There are now 36 sets of five items apiece, and that will increase as soon as DJ sends me the balance of The Cup Bearer - 82 chapters! In reality I ought to declare the next three sets to be full, so I will. That makes 39. Actually it is different from that because I am also squeezing in Finding Tim at suitable points as Charlie finishes the chapters. I'm working out how to do that for long running serials that come chapter by chapter. But, assuming no such things arrive, and assuming DJ has sent me all 82 chapters, the following situation now obtains:
Sets 40-62 will now have 4 items in them
sets 63-65 will have three items
Sets 66- 69 will have two items
Sets 70 onwards until The Cup Bearer ends, currently have one item in
This all assumes the arrival of The Cup Bearer, of course!
Now, that means that set 40 is the first space for a new tale, and that is 80 days away, of just under eleven and a half weeks. Still too long, and nowhere near my target of sub nine weeks, so there will be bonus sets.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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The queue remains too long, so I have decided to raise the number of items published per set from five to six. My current plan is to publish every other day but to make Weekends a bonus with a set on Saturday and Sunday.
So, let me give you a revised queue status:
Set 1 will go out on Thursday 8 January as normal, and will contain 6 stories. The extra item is a new short story by Nicholas Hall
Set 2 goes out on Saturday and starts Where do I Fit In. That;s been brought forward by a few sets, as have the other new items lower down
Set 3 is a Sunday Bonus
Set 4 is the regular set and goes out on Monday
Set 5 goes out on Wednesday
Set 6 goes out on Friday and has a new short story in it by Ricky
Set 7 is a Saturday Bonus and has a second new Ricky short, AND The Moor starts, AND Time Enough for Love
Set 8 is a Sunday Regular
Set 9 is a regular Tuesday and The Apple Orchard starts
We carry on in this fashion. New items appear in the following sets, but things in the far future are liable to alter.
Set 15 has a short from Andrew Todd
Set 16 starts Summers End
Set 17 gets back to The Cup Bearer, where chapter 11 arrives. There are 82 in total!
Set 25 starts Recovered, and Unlikely Friendship
Set 28 starts Everything Will Turn Our All Right and also Starting Over
Set 30 is the last,currently, with 6 items in it Somewhere around here I need to fit in Finding Tim 209, and I'm already needing to juggle a few of these for chapters 22 and beyond of The Cup Bearer. Remember, I said that things in the future were liable to alter. We are now in the realms of the future
So, at around set 34 is the first place available as it stands today for a new submission to start. And that is far better than it was an hour ago. The running rate is better than a set every other day. At present it is 5 sets per week, give or take. And that is just under 7 weeks from submission to hitting the streets. I plan on improving on that, too.
Two authors have given me the spur to do this. One is Chris James, an author whose work I adore and who was quite fed up with the queue length, and the other is Andrew Foote, whose perfectly reasonable question "I thought my story was meant to start a couple of days ago?" was the second weight I needed in the scale pan to prompt me to handle it. Others have commented in the past, too. Those comments have all sunk in. I just have to do this well, and gradually.
I could not have done this without the tool Megaman has provided me. It lets me move entire serials up and down the queue with ease. It has allowed me to keep the publishing order to be exactly the order of submission, too. I still have to fit in continuing chapters of things, of course I do, and that means a bit of juggling, which is why future stuff can jiggle about a bit, and I will also try to squeeze short stories in amongst the serials when I can and when it is fair to do so. Poems will always be extras, but we get very few of those.
My thought process has been simple. I wanted to ease the queue down while not overwhelming readers. I had complaints that one set per day was too many. I think those complaints were correct. People like the bonus set concept as long as I do not overdo it. So that left me with moving from five items to six. Sometimes, with long chapters, this will be a lot. At other times with short chapters, this will be a little. It's the luck of the draw.
When I feel the queue is fair to authors I will pull back a smigden. I intend to try hard to give you something good to read, and to do it regularly. I intend to make "my" authors feel better about the delay between submission and publication.
And, finally, this should never become a job of work. This is a hobby.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Hi Tim,
Sounds like a lot of work. Thanks for doing it. The only thing I disagree with is the statement of overwhelming the readers and here's why. Not everything posted is going to be read by every reader. Taste in stories, styles and whatnot. To steal a Quote from the Jim Hensen movie The Dark Crystal, "Writing? Well it's words that stay." Your change log is available to go back and review what you may have missed. So nothing is lost. And many readers don't read until the story is completed.
Another problem with doling it out like a vitamin is that if the author is posting to multiple sites you may loose the voracious to sites with faster queues. Personally I think ya ought to dump them to the public as you have them ready to go. That would reduce the amount of work, provide substance in line with other sites timelines and probably win more visitors over to your site.
I guess perhaps I don't understand what you mean by overwhelming the reader. Personally the thought that we, your readers are too ignorant to handle our reading habits a little demeaning at the very least, controlling at best. Forgive me if I've offended you. I'm just seeking to understand why the queue has become such an issue. I suspect it had something to do with a time when the site was new and you had to give the reader a reason to come back so you spread out the delivery. But you are well established now so that isn't even a possibility. A GREATER help would be alphabetizing the authors on the storyshelf.
This is just my opinion.
Cheers.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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"Ricky wrote on Tue, 06 January 2015 19:21"Hi Tim,
Sounds like a lot of work. Thanks for doing it. The only thing I disagree with is the statement of overwhelming the readers and here's why. Not everything posted is going to be read by every reader. Taste in stories, styles and whatnot. To steal a Quote from the Jim Hensen movie The Dark Crystal, "Writing? Well it's words that stay." Your change log is available to go back and review what you may have missed. So nothing is lost. And many readers don't read until the story is completed.
Another problem with doling it out like a vitamin is that if the author is posting to multiple sites you may loose the voracious to sites with faster queues. Personally I think ya ought to dump them to the public as you have them ready to go. That would reduce the amount of work, provide substance in line with other sites timelines and probably win more visitors over to your site.
I guess perhaps I don't understand what you mean by overwhelming the reader. Personally the thought that we, your readers are too ignorant to handle our reading habits a little demeaning at the very least, controlling at best. Forgive me if I've offended you. I'm just seeking to understand why the queue has become such an issue. I suspect it had something to do with a time when the site was new and you had to give the reader a reason to come back so you spread out the delivery. But you are well established now so that isn't even a possibility. A GREATER help would be alphabetizing the authors on the storyshelf.
This is just my opinion.
Cheers.
--
The feedback I have had is that "X seems to be a great tale, but I shall not be reading it now, because it was issued with to much other stuff." Not all our readership is fast at reading. I suffer from being able to read like lightning, so I can only take the feedback I'm given. And I appreciate yours, too. I did a poll a good while ago that asked about the speed folk would like stories issued, and the outcome was pretty clear. At that time it was 15 units per week, give or take. We then gradually lessened that to a level where the queue built up. Now we are back to running well, but with a backlog to clear. I will probably revisit this topic often. I want the queue to be short. Authors want the queue to be short. Right now it isn't.
When I look at the site statistics, issuing (eg) a 20 chapter novella all at once causes a huge drop off in readership after about chapter 4. If I issue it chapter by chapter there is a tapering off, but it takes far longer and loyal readership follows the entire tale. I've watched this happen so often that it appears to be a universal truth about readership.
I don't mind about the voracious sites. There are so many good sites and so many good stories that it genuinely does not matter. Our readerships overlap, and some authors overlap, too, and that is lovely. One thing many authors seem to appreciate is that they get an extra audience because of the time differences in posting at various sites. I do also sometimes find an old tale and ask the author if we may host it.
I'm not overly worried about site visitors. A couple of years ago we pulled in over 2,000 per day. We dropped to 1,000 per day in October. We're back up to 1,400 per day now. We get those whom we get, and it seems that regular publishing generates more visitors than (say) weekly larger tranches. We have just under 1,000 people on our email notification list, and a good few follow us on Twitter, too
The list of authors? I have tried. But, whichever way I do it, it is wrong. I think I may set up a survey! A question I have for you, though, is "How would you do it?" Let's start a thread on that!
The workload is identical whether I issue my entire queue now or do it 6 (or whatever number) items at a time. I have to convert them (99% automatic), check them (manual), add to the queue (manual), publish (automatic), announce (automatic), check each published item (manual), and correct any necessary errors (very manual). The thing is, the site has made such name as it has from being magazine-like, and for good quality material
[Updated on: Tue, 06 January 2015 21:04]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Have a look here. The results are what I base the current (enhanced) running rate on.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Authors should be Alphabetical. How else is there?
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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"Ricky wrote on Thu, 08 January 2015 11:09"Authors should be Alphabetical. How else is there?
--
They are, ordered by surname (or similar) if it is one, and single name if not, rather like a library shelf. Or have I missed one or two?
[Updated on: Thu, 08 January 2015 12:00]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Please see this new thread on the topic. Replies about author sort order should go there. I am running a survey to see what most people think.
[Updated on: Thu, 08 January 2015 15:43]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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There will be a set on Saturday and a bonus set on Sunday, then the regular set on Monday, followed by every other day, with bonus sets at the weekend.
We've started the "6 per set" scheme, and I think our audience likes it
We have 32 sets of 6 items, albeit with some placeholders for chapters tales that are promised to arrive
We have spaces from set 33 onwards. While this doesn't seem like progress, we have received upwards of 15 items since the last queue status announcement. Obviously many of them go past the end of the full sets. This queue is going down. I could make it go down quicker by issuing more, but there were huge objections to that before Christmas. I'll keep that under constant review.
So, after I issue Monday's set, the queue will have its first vacant slot in set 30. And now oyu see the effect of the work.
We are issuing 9 sets in every 2 week period. So you do the maths on the length of the queue now, in weeks. This is so much better, but not yet good enough
Ok, let's use round figures:
If we had 36 sets before a new story could appear that would be eight weeks. We have 33, so we're already way below eight weeks. When I started wrestling with this the queue was almost 16 weeks. It's down to half what it was, all since 30 November, and with a load of new items arriving all the time.
So the site is now far more author friendly and without upsetting the key thing authors need: the audience.
Well, it was always going to be a tough transition period. We could not have survived without Megaman in the intervening period, and I could not do it now without his queuing software.
[Updated on: Fri, 09 January 2015 16:43]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Life, of course, never goes quite as predicted. We have some new stories added to the queue, one from an old friend, one from a brand new author. And the second piece of good news is that each of these new items starts much sooner than before.
Our old friend starts in set 30, and the new author in set 31. And we still have a place in set 31 (and beyond) for one more new item! Pretty soon after that we have space for two new items per set.
Ok, that still means we have to wait a while, authors have to wait a while, but we're running at nine sets every two weeks, so that's just a smidgen over 6 weeks for new material to appear instead of almost 16 weeks. This is starting to become acceptable. There's more to do to get it right, but the general trend is the right one.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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By the way, when I started this radical shortening of the queue there were 255 story elements in the store. Now, with a far shorter queue, we have 261.
More items to read, and a shorter time between submission by the author and the readership getting to grips with them have to be great pieces of news.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Yesterday a new short story by Ricky, and tomorrow another. Very different tales. Ricky will tell you quite rightly it has been far too long between submission and publication, as will the other authors I'm about to mention.
Saturday The Moor by Solsticeman starts. So does Time Enough for Love, by AZ Story Guy. Each different, each special. Solsticeman is developing characters form another tale, AZSG says he has but one tale in him. I hope you will tell each of them how much you like the tales. Hmm, don;t feel left out, Ricky. They need to tell you, too!
Sunday ~gasp~ has no new tales, just existing ones!
Monday there is no set, but Tuesday has Jobe's The Apple Orchard.
What I love is the huge variety of styles, themes, plots, paces that we see. And it could not happen without the folk who write here.
Queue health is good, too. We have some new tales arrived for the starting slots, and the first vacant space remains at set 31, it's healthy, but still needs to come down, at least to the low twenties, probably the teens (we like teens). That will be achieved by continuing at the current rate for the medium term future. We now have 255 items in the queue.
[Updated on: Thu, 15 January 2015 20:12]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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And, just as I posted this, sets 31 and 32 have filled up! So set 33 is now the first available set for new material.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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After tomorrow's regular set goes out the first space for new work is in set 30. The tail of the queue is healthy for new story spaces as follows (after tomorrow)
Set 30-36: 1 space
Set 37-39: 2 spaces
Set 40 onwards: a little complex because I am awaiting the arrival of promised material, but reasonably free for new material. And that is just over eight weeks lag, down from almost 16.
We are now down to 244 items in the queue. This is not counting the promised items (and that figure has never counted the promised items). Still too long a queue, but the requests I've had show that running any faster will alienate the audience. So I'm between a rock and a slightly less hard place.
[Updated on: Sat, 17 January 2015 14:53]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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A glimpse of what is coming:
Tuesday, in set 1, a new serial by Jobe
Set 8 a new tale by a new author here. At the same time we pick up The Cup Bearer, by DJ, and run to conclusion
Set 17 has a new serial by Hunter Woods
Set 20 a new serial, so far unfinished, by a new author for us
Set 23 a new serial by Cy-kun
Set 27 a new serial by author
Set 47 or thereabouts, because we await the end of Back Door Slider, and the ending is different from its previously published ending, a new serial by Joe L
I have promises of more from several authors, too, but the chickens are not yet hatched
Finding Tim is drawing towards a close, but Charlie is still gong strong. We're running new chapters at approximately three week intervals to keep pace with his output. I predict several more chapters to this magnum opus
New items arrived over the weekend, so we are back to 244 items in the queue
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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As the queue is brought under control I am starting to see the chance, probably after set 28, to pull back to five stories per set, and maybe to three sets per week, bringing us back to the old "15 units per week" state. I shall not make up my mind until we get closer to it, much closer.
If I do that it moves the first set for new work from set 29 to set 36. At present that would be a negative step. So I think I'll let things settle down first
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I have just been able to tell an author that I would love his piece on the site and that it will start in approximately six weeks, something that has been impossible for a long time.
In return he is letting me know if he wants to start then, or wants me to delay until he has finished the serial before I start.
With the 16 week delay back in November he would probably have written his next story and be into the one after that before we started.
Ok, so his story has taken that slot and subsequent sets, so the next set for new work is set 36. Remembering that we run at 9 sets every two weeks, that is eight weeks away. This is unless he asks me to de;ay, of course, then it all changes again.
We have 240 items locked and loaded in the queue now. Tomorrow six more will go out and the sets will all move up by one.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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| Are these updates useful?[ 1 vote ] |
| 1. |
Yes |
 1 / 100% |
| 2. |
No |
0 / 0% |
Things are now under good control. We have a similar inflow to outflow; oddly that is not lengthening the queue significantly, because the current inflow is the later chapters of lengthy serials which are in sets that extend well into the future and are by no means full.
As matter stand right now, on Saturday, we have 32 full sets. This includes some promised chapters. I may have to do some juggling from about set 25 onwards, but so be it. This puts the queue length at 7 weeks or thereabouts, so it has gone up a smidgen, but there's nothing that worries me unduly.
We have 234 items in the queue (ignoring, as usual, any items that have been promised).
There will be the usual weekend bonus set on Sunday (other weekend it is Saturday), and then the normal next set on Monday.
The Cup Bearer is due to resume from Saturday next (barring alarums and excursions). It will resume at chapter 11. Alongside it will be a new story from a new author here.
I hope you find these updates useful. I'm just as happy not to let you know as to let you know.
[Updated on: Sat, 24 January 2015 16:24]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Look like that is a solid vote for "don't bother telling us anything" then
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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bisexualguy
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Toe is in the water |
Location: United States
Registered: November 2012
Messages: 30
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Timmy, I personally like the updates on the Story Que Status from time to time. I also appreciate that you have increased the number of stories daily to 6, and hope that might continue for quite a while. Perhaps you might update us about once per week?
Any chance that another story might be arriving from London Lampy or Failte200 or Ricky in the next few weeks or months?
Thanks.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Quote:bisexualguy wrote on Tue, 27 January 2015 19:44Timmy, I personally like the updates on the Story Que Status from time to time. I also appreciate that you have increased the number of stories daily to 6, and hope that might continue for quite a while. Perhaps you might update us about once per week?
Any chance that another story might be arriving from London Lampy or Failte200 or Ricky in the next few weeks or months?
Thanks.
--
I know Ricky comes here, so will, I hope, take the hint and answer for himself. LL and F200 I would also love more from. Some time ago F200 suggested I had everything from him that fits our niche. Ask them both. Each is a nice guy 
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I think moving to weekly updates makes a lot of sense.
I do have an update for you anyway because I've been moving things about, though
Set 1, scheduled for Friday, has the start of a new story with a brand new author. It also has the final part of The Moor, book 2 of The Axis Trilogy
Set 2 is the resumption of The Cup Bearer, starting at chapter 11
Set 10 is currently for Finding Tim, next chapter, though that may change. Charlie has gone quiet, which is unusual
Assuming FT happens in set 10, then:
Set 11 starts a new Hunter Woods tale
Set 14 is a new Cy-kun tale
Set 16 has a new chapter of The Eggman's Life Goes On
Set 17 has a new story by another new author
Set 24 has a new story by another new author
Set 27 is currently for Finding Tim, next chapter, though that may change.
Set 29 starts I'll See You Down There, the final piece of The Axis Trilogy
And we are now in new story territory. Yes, we can bring a new submission to you in set 29, too
Set 37 is the tentative schedule for a new story by a new author, but I'm not sure quite when it starts because the start date depends on his own workload. I'm holding it back because of huge gaps between chapters to take the pressure of him. If I bring it forward it will move the data for new submissions back, but that's a decent tradeoff
Set 41 is the start of a new Joe L story
It looks as if I will keep up the schedule of six items per set and nine sets every two weeks for the medium term future
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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kiwi
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Likes it here |
Location: New Zealand
Registered: August 2009
Messages: 317
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Timmy, I can't pretend to understand all of your facts & figures, but it is apparent by now that you've tamed what was becoming a monster, so thank you & well done. Six weeks is still quite a long time for a new author to wait to see his story in print, but it's a lot better than it was.
Good,too, to hear of an upcoming plethora of new writer's stories beginning.
Thanks.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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"kiwi wrote on Wed, 28 January 2015 19:49"Timmy, I can't pretend to understand all of your facts & figures, but it is apparent by now that you've tamed what was becoming a monster, so thank you & well done. Six weeks is still quite a long time for a new author to wait to see his story in print, but it's a lot better than it was.
Good,too, to hear of an upcoming plethora of new writer's stories beginning.
Thanks.
--
I'm not at all satisfied with six weeks either. My problem is that I am walking a tightrope between sending out enough to keep authors happy, and not sending out so many that readers get upset. And I never thought readers would get upset by having "too many" tales to read, but that is the feedback I got in no uncertain terms.
Even so I reduced it from almost 16 to 12, then to nine, and now to between six and seven, but managed to offend a good few readers on the way.
What I will not do is to discourage new authors from submitting. What I can not do with ease is to increase the throughput as I publish stories. So I am rather stuck. Oddly, it's not a good place to be stuck. What I want to do is to reduce the queue length to around three weeks, but I have 248 items in the queue right now! For the next few weeks I think "Steady as She Goes" and I'll see what the trend is. At present it feels like a dynamic equilibrium
I can solve that to an extent with random extra bonus sets. I'm uncomfortable about raising the six stories per set to seven lest I upset readers. The most important thing to give an author is a pool of readers. It's far better to provide a good pool of readers than to release stories quickly to please authors, because the end result of that is the creation of an ever smaller pool of readers. I know with precision that an author needs a new story out today. And I know our readers have things to do in their lives like working, commuting, sleeping, eating. All of these things take precedence over reading.
Our email list has dropped from 987 in November to 938 now. Part, but not all, of that was symptom of my overenthusiastic releasing of stories. I know because they said so, and voted with their unsubscribe buttons too.
So, my priority is to release stories in the strict order that they are received, and to try to ensure we maintain our pool of readers.
The graph shows that we are doing ok:
However, we used to get 2,000-2,200 sessions per day. We can only get back up there as time elapses. Today I'm pleased with 1,500. For comparison look at the same period 2011-2013:
So there is a way to go. And only time can alter that, I think.
[Updated on: Wed, 28 January 2015 21:13]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Indeed, Kiwi, you got me to thinking about how to reduce the queue still further, so I took the decision to run a bonus set today, bringing everything forward. Assuming nothing arrives over the weekend, though I rather hope material will, we will have set 26 (on Monday) as the first set for newly arrived material. That will put us under six weeks of queue for the first time for a long time.
It's a small thing, but it makes a difference. And, so long as I don't make a habit of it, our readership will enjoy the bonus when it happens occasionally. Well, except the guy who just unsubscribed, that is. He seems to have had too much of a good thing.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I was prompted to do some major queue juggling by the arrival of a 12 part serial yesterday, plus a short story. This pushed us back to almost a 10 week queue. Healthy and unhealthy.
So I decided to run seven items per set for a while, bringing new material forward. There are a couple of anomalies, but that is inevitable.
What it means is that for the next 24 sets we will have seven items. Then we revert to six for a while, and to five later.
The overall effect is that the first set for new items is, at the latest, set 27, which is six weeks away. And we are up to 253 items in the queue overall, though some of them go right into the long tail since they are loooooong serials
Another item is not yet scheduled to give the author time to catch up with his real life!
On top of that DJ has not yet sent the final few chapters of the 80+ chapter The Cup Bearer, and Joe L is rewriting the final chapters of Back Door Slider, and has not yet sent them in (coz they are not finished!)
So, what is NEW:
Set 1 - Recovered, an Unlikely Friendship, by Hunter Woods
Set 8 - Everything Will Turn Out All Right, by Cy-kun
Set 11 - Brave Lake Manor, by AB
Set 13 - I'll See You Down There, by Solsticeman
All these have been brought forward, and 'dragged' other items with them. What I've been able to do is to shorten the queue by 24 items at a stroke. At six items per set that would be four complete sets, and there has been a ripple effect behind them, rather too complex to explain, even if I understood it!
I'm not looking further ahead than that, but there is a lot of new stuff after then too
[Updated on: Sat, 31 January 2015 12:04]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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A four chapter new story came in and the first set for new stories is now in set 25. We're under six weeks for the first solid time for ages. Even better than that, set 25 has two spaces for new material in it (at seven per set) or one at six per set. The grand total of sories is now 245, but do remember that one is unallocated because it is delayed, and that on is 59 chapters another 82 (and we don't have all of those yet!) and that one starts after the 59 chapter one ends.
That was a complicated way of saying that the long tail extends to set 54 right now, though it will reach set 68 when DJ sends me the rest of The Cup Bearer. I have up to chapter 68 right now.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Hahahaha, ok, this is the weekly report!
We have two stories waiting in the wings for completion, so they are held outside the queue at the request of each author. Each has been overtaken by real life, not such a bad thing to be overtaken by.
We're waiting for DJ to send the final chapters of The Cup Bearer, a tale anticipated to be 80-82 chapters, but we have everything up to chapter 68, so it's important, not urgent.
We're planning(!) on receiving chapter 209 of Finding Tim from Charlie. Chapter 208 we have, and that is coming out in set 3. If 209 arrives in time it is scheduled for set 22. Charlie has requested this interval so he can write without deadline.
Set 23 and beyond is the space for new submissions, and there is great news here. At present 23 and beyond have only four items bolted into place. That means that there is sufficient space for more than one new tale in each. Or it means we can slow down again, moving towards 15 items per week instead of our accelerated rate today. Unless I get a sudden deluge, even allowing for the two tales I have that are unscheduled, our queue is currently five weeks plus one set!
And that is with 231 items in hand, of which eight cannot be scheduled yet.
Do remember that I'm not holding the scheduled ones back! Everything goes out in strict order of receipt unless the author has requested I hold on, and we have several very long serials running right now, so a load of these are in the long tail of partially filled sets. I always fill a set, with one exception: I try never to run more than one tale at a time by the same author. Why? Well, some folk may not enjoy that author, and may thus be disappointed. So I make as sure as I can that there is something for everyone.
I'm aiming for three weeks.
I remember worrying that 12 weeks was going to be hard to achieved when our queue was 16 weeks long, and thinking that even 12 weeks was far too long.
Three weeks gives me ample time to prepare new items, and some scheduling flexibility
[Updated on: Thu, 05 February 2015 10:06]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Simple update:
First set for new work is set 19. That is just over four weeks even if I publish no bonus sets
New story by Cy-kun today,
The Cup Bearer now extends to 89 chapters. I have all but the final nine.
This shorter queue is much healthier, and I've been promised a new tale, a rather lovely saga, to go into it.
There are 215 items in the queue, Again, remember we have some long serials running. The long ones do not affect the queue length yet. There is a point when they will, of course, because they are the spine the queue is built around at present, and each takes up one place. At present their effect diminishes at set 25, and is almost absent at set 32. We have at least one story in sets as far into the future as set 60, with The Cup Bearer scheduled to end in set 69
Looks like there'll be something to read for a while, then!
This is a good time to ask you to consider authors you see who might like wider exposure and to suggest they consider us. The queue is short enough not to be an obstacle any more, though still not as short as I want it.
[Updated on: Wed, 11 February 2015 09:04]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Re: Update 23 December 2014 
