How authors can stand out by writing a good first paragraph
It is obvious that having more readers is, with rare exceptions, the goal of writers. Anyone who posts a text on Casa dos Contos wants to be read, voted on, commented on, reread, shared. Also, after so much work to put ideas on paper, the least expected. However, there can be self-sabotage after putting so much effort into producing this work.
Yesterday an author of the site complained that the site would not let him publish because the beginning was the same as the text of other stories he had previously sent. And he said the site needed to improve the notice. He doesn't deny that there are many points where the site needs an improvement, but this is one that helps authors a lot. For clarity, he wanted to repeat the title of the story in the body of the text, something, in my view, completely unnecessary. Animes Hentai
Most people who complain about this don't realize that the first paragraph is essential to attract the reader's attention in short story listings. In addition to the title, we show the first 250 characters of the text. And that's a golden opportunity, because it's the second thing readers will see when they skim through the listing. The first, of course, is the title. If you repeat, or put some text that doesn't hold attention, it could be a chance to make the person curious enough to click.
If I can give one piece of advice to you who write a short story, it's that you need to value it by choosing an attractive title and first paragraph. You've done the hardest, now you need to spend five minutes thinking about how to leverage your work to get better results. It's marketing, and your chance to stand out among the other talented authors on this site.
