Septic_Red I dont know youe novel and i wont check unless i stumble upon it.
But for me my usage is as follows:
- search for my favourite tags
- sort on updated
- look for an appealing cover
- read title.
If i like the title, and its descriptive enough together with the picture to give me a little insight into what sort of story it is beyond the single tag I used, then I click on the story.
My eye next goes to the summary.
If the summary is poorly formatted, particularly if it is written in capslock, I often dont even bother reading the story.
If the summary is in a non english language, I am gone.
Honestly, i dont even expand the summary most of the times so use the first like wisely, and treat every following line of a slightly leaser level of import. I believe news papers do this format too so that might help example wise.
If neither of these major triggers occur, begin to read the story.
If I open the story and it is not well formated, not in english, holds smileys or just reeks of bad grammar... I am gone.
The first chapter needs to be engaging as well, as whilst i generally follow the rule to give everything a 3 chapter long benefit of the doubt.
A lot of authors waste these chapters with notes, small chapter sizes and the like.
I recommend a 1500 to 2500 words sized chapter, atleast for your first post. Most people should be sold on your story within the first 1000 words, if you dont succeed in that, then your not approaching the introduction into your story the right way to make people remain interested.
I hope my usage patterns help you figure out what might help your story to succeed. In general tough, its the Picture, Title and Summary, before the first chapter that kill off most of your potential fanbase.
So I recommended looking at what the most popular novels have done, particularly in your genre for those parts, and to try and apply the lessons you gain from comparting with them in figuring out what works for here on wn to gain an audience.