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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38020
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38020
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

You mean you have your first chapters already online, and now you want to go back and edit them?

Your main problem would be that most readers wouldn't go back and re-read the edited material. So if you intend to rely on an edit for stuff you write in the future to make sense, you're in a bit of a problem. You can inform your readers that you've made this change. However, while some readers would be understanding, others would find this rather annoying. If you do this multiple times, some readers might become discouraged, finding that it takes too much effort to follow your novel, and consequently drop it. Which would be a pity.

I would treat your already-published material as a first draft. Keep writing. Keep notes to yourself regarding what works and what doesn't work. If you fear you won't be able to do the edits later (forget what you wanted to change / amass too much to change / etc.) you can do those changes in an offline file. Then, once you have a final (or at least semi-final) version of the complete story, you can upload that. Or, by that point, you might have enough of a following to get the thing printed - you never know.

The readers can forgive one big change. They are unlikely to follow multiple smaller changes.

Original score: 8