William King

If there were any legal ways to get to Europe, refugees would not be paying their life savings to criminals known as "passers" who herd them onto rubber dingies and other overloaded unseaworthy craft in the middle of the night, and launch them into the sea where they are often abandoned, the boats sink, there are no life jackets, and the bodies wash up on the pleasure beaches of the Greek islands. The "lucky ones" make it ashore! And yes Jeffrey, you are right, Jordan is being very foolish. If he gets caught, it's five years in a Turkish prison.

Chapter Thirteen - Plans. The morning brought blue skies and a promise of sunshine, this served to lift the heavy burden of yesterday. Perhaps Jordan would be able to come up with a plan to aid the boys; he knew he had to do something. Pierre was standing in the galley with a mug in his hand. "Coffee?" he watched as Jordan made his way through. "That is exactly what I need." He waited as Pierre poured him a cup of freshly brewed coffee. "So how do you like crewing for my uncle?"

Rompecabezas Chapter Fourteen is online.

Taking account of all the points made, the page view numbers are more or less meaningless. My suggestion would not work for anthologies. Numbers of followers does show people who have read, are reading a book. It only represents members, so not the whole picture. If you apply the 80:20 principle, you could extrapolate, and probably get a better idea of reader numbers. Likes and comments are really only an indication of "likes and comments," they can't be used to determine readership, except in the very broadest of terms. Should you wish to view the most popular novel, these are listed by page views, making the advance search listing highly inaccurate. However, when you look at the number one book, posted many years ago, and extrapolate from the number of followers, you are looking at a readership in the range of 1600 people. If I took my own story, using the same analysis, I'm looking at 50 people. These seem to be more accurate numbers than highly exaggerated page view numbers. My point being that the page views give a totally false impression of numbers of readers, I really can't see that they are useful as they stand, without some tweaking and tidying up. You could, for example calculate a time on page view, given the average reading time for one hundred words, excluding page clicks that don't stay on the page for the minimum time required to read the whole chapter. Such changes do involve work to put in place the calculations, and considering that you will bring more stats to authors in a year or so, this is perhaps not justified. It's simply that, to me, page views, provide no useful information and only mislead towards the conclusion that hundreds, or even thousands of people are reading books, when in all likelihood the numbers are very much smaller, tens and hundreds. The comments and replies here have been very interesting, I appreciate your explanations of the system counts. It does all help, and go a long way to aid in seeing a better picture of actual readership. I'm attempting to say here, that even without changes, this discussion gives me good feedback on my readership, and that of other authors. So thank you.

A suggestion: counting a click on the story page as a view is misleading. It would be better if the total views (page clicks) for chapters were totalled as the story page views. Given an intrinsic inaccuracy in page views, people clicking to find their place or whatever, to be as accurate as possible, progressing through chapter page views from chapter one until the latest chapter, the lowest chapter views should limit the following chapters. Example: Story views 220 views Chapter 1 = 100 views Chapter 2 = 50 views Chapter 3 = 30 views Chapter 4 = 20 views and limits following chapter Chapter 5 = 30 views actual number limited by previous chapter to 20 views Obviously no one is going to miss a chapter if they are reading a book, rather than randomly clicking. There is also an argument to be made for using chapter 2 as a limiter, presuming the always high numbers of the first chapter include those readers who drop the story. Although the author might want to know those numbers. I think the more the page views approach the reality the better idea one has about actual readership, although I appreciate that this my involve some work to implement. Thanks for the clarification.

@A.J. Could you explain why the number of chapter views doesn't equal story total story views? Does clicking on a story without opening a chapter count as a view? It seems a little odd.

I posted chapter 12 today, in exactly the same way as always, without any problem. It appeared on the list of Latest Story Updates immediately. When I posted chapter 11, awhile ago now, it did not appear on the list. INFO: Pasted chapter to GA, add new chapter Edited to centre section breaks Saved without publishing Checked for errors Published chapter This is what I always do, nothing different. Using a Samsung Tablet running Android. As I said, it is working normally now. I did receive a message from a reader telling me they found GA was not working for a time, "The site has been a bit buggy for me the last few days with access down a couple days ago as well." Hope this helps.

Chapter Twelve - Kos. The ferry from Bodrum left right on time at 9:30 the next morning, it was a short crossing. Just over an hour later, Jordan was walking along the road from the harbour in Kos. The sun peeked through rolling clouds that tumbled over a calm sea. He stopped on the deserted promenade, sitting down on one of the wooden benches beneath the tall palm trees. A bicycle approached; then glided almost silently behind him on the cycle path. Looking out to sea, he could easily m

Chapter Eleven - Hope. It was a long walk to the place recommended by the young guy in the cafe, but they found it. The Pansiyon Sibel did not have the stature of a hotel, but was a smart looking guesthouse, which turned out to be a great recommendation. Jordan and the three boys were given a large room on the first floor overlooking the garden. The spacious room even came with a little balcony. There were two single beds on one side of the room and a double on the opposite side. In betw

I added a new chapter to Refugee this morning, around four hours ago. Doesn't appear on the Latest Story Updates? Chapter Eleven

Part Two - The Land of Promise. "When I thought that I could go no further, I took one step, and then another." Anonymous. Chapter Ten - Antalya. It was early evening when Jordan pulled up at the hotel. Maybe hotel was too grand a name, but no one was complaining. They were just wondering how they'd pay Jordan back. A meal in a restaurant and now a night in a hotel. The boys followed Jordan inside and waited while he registered then got the key. They were thrilled

It seems that page views per chapter may not be working correctly? I noticed a low page view for one chapter of a recently posted story of my own, which I put down to people missing out the chapter or going to the last chapter, which had higher page views, to find their place in the story. Anyway, that is not what prompted me to pose the question. It did prompt me to take a look at other stories and notably Unwilling, number five in the best sellers, top books, list. Looking at the page views per chapter, which are in the thousands, around 2k to 3k, until chapter nine, which has 26k page views! That is very unlikely, I think. Therefore, leaving aside accuracy of page views, I suspect something is going wrong with the count?

A renascence which we might have left serenely interred with our teenage years, but exquisite twists of language are always a joy. The only vampires and zombies I knew, except for Dracula, died with Michael Jackson, that was a thriller!

Here you touch upon a very important point. There exists, let's use the label, the amateur writer (photographer), who wants to publish a good, well polished story, wants to develop and improve, and give their best. And there is the road to becoming a professional writer, that some authors are embarked upon, which carries with that ambition, perhaps more serious consraints. Then again, just to throw a spanner in the works, there is publicity, getting yourself known, which Comsie talked about in a previous blog. Even a totally unpolished book, and or author, can become extremely popular, perhaps a best seller, simply through promotion.

You make a very valid observation Comsie... even if you're a bit long-winded about it, haha. Christofer Jeschke echos these same thoughts in his blog on writing: Insight is insight, whether it’s brought through broken English or angelic prose. He writes: I’m a writer. I’m not perfect. My writing is flawed. But that’s okay. Because at least I write. There are many people who call themselves writers, but instead of writing they’re editing, perfecting, reading and re-reading. And I’m sure they’d laugh at me calling myself a writer. And I’ll let them. They’ll laugh, I’ll write. Works for me. There you go, he says exactly what you just said, and possibly what a lot of writers might forget - inspiration counts for a lot. Read the rest of what he says here: What I lack in perfection, I make up for in action...

Chapter Nine - A Sad Beginning. Roger Morrison spotted Jordan in the clinic and called him over. Finding a little corner as much out of the way as was possible in that busy place, so they could talk. "Well, your two months are up," Roger smiled. He was a likeable guy and very good at his job of running the Christian Aid Clinic. "Yeah, I guess I'll miss the place," Jordan replied, returning the smile. "Really? All this chaos and disorder." 'Yeah really,' Jordan thought to hi

Chapter Eight - Christian Aid. Early the next morning Firas was up before it was properly light. He shook Amar awake. "Amar, Amar," Firas spoke softly. "What is it?" Amar was still half asleep. Samir, disturbed by the commotion, opened his eyes. "I'm gonna take you two to the factory," Firas told him. "But I've got no clothes." Amar wasn't about to put his probably-still-wet jeans on. "I'm making some tea." Firas told him. He nodded towards a plastic bag by the

It gets better and better, I really enjoyed this chapter, but who is Tom? Guess we will have to wait to find out!

Rompecabezas Chapters Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen, are now online.

Rompecabezas Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten are live!

Herman Hesse is a favourite author of mine, a nobel prize winner for German literature in 1946, his books, including Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, explore spirituality and the search for self-knowledge. He was often in conflict with authority, possibly due to a very strict upbringing. At fifteen he ran away from a seminary, and attempted to commit suicide, he was interred in a mental institution by his parents. When released he expressed his contempt for authority by smoking and drinking with older friends. Hesse experienced a constant melancholy his entire life around his personal views on faith, and was referred to as ‘the brooding author.’

Chapter Seven - Into the Fire. The motor boomed into life and the truck lurched forward. Amar was nearly thrown off for the fourth time. He clung on for his life. Once they were well clear of the border crossing and soldiers, the truck ground to a halt at the side of the road. The cab door opened, and it was Ayberk's head peering underneath. Amar let go. He crawled out. Ayberk reached out a hand and pulled him up. Samir was standing next to Ayberk, his eyes wide as saucers,

Chapter Six - Out of the Frying Pan. Samir was lying in the sleeping bag facing Amar; he was listening to what the older boy was telling him. Amar spoke quietly next to Samir's ear. An ear so delightful he wanted to lick it and nibble the earlobe. He told Samir that Ayberk, the truck driver, would be taking them to a town in Turkey. Amar explained Samir would be in the cab, but he himself would have to hide on the truck. He never told Samir why he was being taken there, or how

“When the Man waked up he said, ‘What is Wild Dog doing here?’ And the Woman said, ‘His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.'” —Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book.