If the first 1000 odd words hook me, I'll go on as long as the author likes. If it hasn't caught me after about a page, the second thousand words had better be a cut above. If you have a 5000 word story and it's still 'meh' at 2000 words, I'm bailing.
I chose 2-4k words mainly because my concentration is rubbish, I'd rarely start to read anything over 6k unless it by was one of the handful of writers I really like. I do read a lot of flash and micros just because they are such a small investment of time and the really good ones are very rewarding.
I have only written under 10 stories so far. The 2-4k seem to be the most popular. The longer ones definitely get fewer readers.
One with a start and a finish and good stuff in the middle.
Great poll and question. Agree the 2-4K is the sweet spot. As a writer I typically fall into that range, not by design but probably because I run out of ideas or motivation. As a reader, same sweet spot but if the quality is there the word count is less important. In all the cases I can think of over 4000 words it was a series broken into smaller chunks of 2-4K. Like others above i want to know about the characters, what they are thinking and feeling, who they are. I love browncoffee's work, I loved how she would get inside the heads of her characters. (One example, many great writers here do this.)
Coincidentally, have 32000 words of a new story (non-erotica, may go on sister site) so this is rather timely. There are some good natural breaks that will keep a Chapter to 2-4K but in other spots I'm wondering what edits I might need to either create a break in the right spot or link the end of a chapter to the next chapter. Also toying with the idea that each Chapter would stand on its own as a "read'. (difficult because the story builds on the previous and the reader would miss some of the context.) I'm expecting the story will reach 40,000 words and I'm already editing heavily. Its crossed my mind to only post the ending Chapter because i think its the strongest and I'm pretty sure if I post 8-10 Chapters by Ch 10 all the readers will have dropped off and NOBODY will read the ending.
Personally, I like novelas, full on soap operas, so 10k word* type chapters.
Or if I want a laugh, then I hit up micros.
I like stories that I can visualize myself being in it.As for length not too long that I get bored and move onto something else and not too short that its just a flash and its over.I like it to build up and then climax to the orgasmic end.
Unfortunately, in many instances, it is governed by the time I have available.
I'm not sure that I have a favorite or preferred length when reading. That said, I do hold off reading something labeled as first chapter if there are standalone stories with an equally grabbing title or summary.
