Question for Readers - work on Feathered Hearts: Eros underway · 6:07pm Apr 21st, 2021
It had not been my intention to immediately start work on the M-rated side story to Feathered Hearts, following in the wingbeats of Demon Eyes Laharl's own M-rated side story Feathered Heart: Preening. But my prereaders, to say nothing of my very muse, all but demand it, and it does seem to be coming to me (no pun intended) fairly readily right now. There are just too many ideas for scenes I want to get down, and my production team has been full of thoughts and ideas for this as well. One of which was already used for a couple chapters ago; Fortrkat's suprise boner scene was Silentwoodfire's suggestion!
So work on the new story is underway. I'm justifying it by saying I'm still writing Feathered Hearts story chapters in (mostly) linear order, but the next few are going to be a separate story entirely, with the main story picking up again upon their conclusion. Titled Feathered Hearts: Eros, this will be where I keep any and all sexytimes that come out of the main story, with the first group of them being during and after the events of the past two chapters.
During? Yep. For the opening standalone chapter of this new story, I have an very interesting appetizer—you're going to see things from Fortrakt's point of view when he popped an uncontrollable and obvious boner, from Gilda's relentless teasing to his not-so-quick-or-easy dash to the safety of his room, followed by what happened within it.
Have to say, I had a previous vision of our favorite Birdie Boi's sexual mores I was going to use, but this new chapter completely that blew up, as Fortrakt basically told me during the course of writing it that what he was sexually and what he liked was completely different from what I thought just a few days ago. I'm not complaining, though, and you can bet I'll be making full use of it later on!
For those not interested in this—I'm certain more than a few of you are here for the war to come—I emphasize that reading the side story chapters will not be necessary to enjoy the main story, but it will add flavor and some additional worldbuilding/character development to it in addition to all the X-rated action. As prereader Silverblade5 likes to constantly tease me about, I seem to do some of my best worldbuilding in the course of writing clopfics! 
But so be it. The question before me now is, do I release a couple early chapters for it to whet appetites for more, or wait until I have a have an completed first M-rated story arc and a subsequent main story chapter that follows. The first way, you can see fresh content early, but the second, I'll have more content to offer and can then use the main story to point to it, boosting its initial launch by directing readers to the new chapter back to it.
So once again, I ask you, dear readers: would you like me to release the M-rated story with a couple opening chapters early, or wait until everything's ready (~6 chapters total) first?
I'd vote for a piecemeal release, at a chapter per day. You'll likely pick up more readers that way.
5503248
That's fine, but I'd need to have all the chapters available at the start in that instance, which will take longer.
This sounds like a win to all readers, whether they are here solely for the main story or everything. When an author (or DM) has behind the scenes reasons for things, even if the reader/player) never sees them, it adds to the verisimilitude of the story overall.
As for the release schedule, pretty much what Silverblade5 said. Anyone already checking out the stories will see it regardless. A release schedule of any kind vs a big single dump will get more eyeballs.
I echo what Silverblade5 and Posted said regarding the schedule.
Unpopular opinion but I'd post everything all at once otherwise, you're going to get a repeat of the Temptations and Transformations treatment from the front page (sequel tax + incomplete story tax ruined your overall visibility). I'd also like to point out, you're overextending yourself even further by taking on yet another project before even completing your old one.
I'd keep doing what you're doing and listen to your muse but bank all your added M-rated chapters and post it as an anthology once your T-rated story is complete.
5503248 5503347 5503475
I appreciate the feedback, and believe me, I agree the piecemeal approach is best when you've got multiple chapters available to start, as long as you also release at least a couple chapters up front to whet appetites and stir interest sufficiently.
But I don't think I was clear on what I was asking. I was asking whether you fine folks would like to see a couple chapters released early as they become available, or wait until the entire side story arc is ready (~6 chapters) before releasing.
5504107
Yeah, that was a very poor showing, though I disagree that I should post everything at once. I think what happened there is that I didn't release enough to start. I should have posted maybe three chapters up front instead of just the short opening chapter, and then released the other two I held in reserve daily. That's what I think could work here.
Believe me, the thought has occurred to me,
but I know better than to ignore what my muse wants at this point. At the very least, I can justify it in my head by noting I'm not shifting over to something else entirely; I'm actually continuing this story in linear order, though the next few chapters would be posted to the side story instead of the main one. We'll see how well that works.
I will take that under advisement, and we'll see how things are going in a week or two. Nevertheless, it'll be a while before anything's ready to publish regardless of the release method, though you and the rest of the prereading crew are going to see some side story content from me sooner rather than later.
5504133
It's your call.
5504133
Ah, I see. Wait on releasing anything until the full thing is written so that you can remain in control, regardless of how a potential schedule pans out then.