Novel / novella published in a blog format?

[kentscribe]

Hey MS, hope you're all scribing well and this is not a repeat or wrong area.

I was thinking how cool it would be for an established, or even first-time writer to publish their written book in chapters as a sectioned part of their own website blog. Say one post a week / month. Could also be syndicated on a platform like Substack.

Obviously once finished option to download full book digital or purchase print edition.

I would think this would lend itself to scifi fantasy very well as you could also include nice page design or imagery to suit the story, even audio aspects etc. I assumed there would be lots of examples of famous authors or even less well known who had success with this but I can't seem to find many key examples?

I used to follow some webcomics that were released weekly before published in trade but I'm not really aware of any authors who have published novels or novellas in this way - in any genre I mean not just fantasy...

 

[Incanus]

I'm probably the last person who should respond to this.

But I think some new writers are doing well over at the Royal Road website. People post 1 or 2 chapters a week--there are some long-running stories there and lots of readers (apparently).

 

[Prince of Spires]

There are indeed plenty of serial platforms out there where people post chapters regularly. It's not an easy path, though it's not harder than any other form of self-publishing. The main things to keep in mind are that consistency is king. To keep people hooked you want to regularly upload chapters, an 1 or 2 a week is really on the low end. 3 is probably the minimum to gain some traction. And some stories lend themselves better to this format than others. Don't just cut up your existing tale and throw it on there in the hopes of finding readers. The structure of the tale is very different if you're going with a serial vs a regular novel.

With that out of the way, it can certainly be done. There's The Wandering Inn, which might count as the longest fantasy tale written (at something like 13 million words), which is a web serial. It's succesful, people enjoy it. So if that's the sort of thing you want to write, then go for it.

 

[Dylan]

Publishing a novel or novella in a blog format is a creative idea! It’s a great way to build an audience gradually, keep readers hooked with regular updates, and get instant feedback. Just make sure to plan the pacing cliffhangers and shorter chapters work well to keep people coming back. Plus, it’s a fun, modern twist on serialized storytelling.

 

[dollyt8]

Hey MS, hope you're all scribing well and this is not a repeat or wrong area.

I was thinking how cool it would be for an established, or even first-time writer to publish their written book in chapters as a sectioned part of their own website blog. Say one post a week / month. Could also be syndicated on a platform like Substack.

Obviously once finished option to download full book digital or purchase print edition.

I would think this would lend itself to scifi fantasy very well as you could also include nice page design or imagery to suit the story, even audio aspects etc. I assumed there would be lots of examples of famous authors or even less well known who had success with this but I can't seem to find many key examples?

I used to follow some webcomics that were released weekly before published in trade but I'm not really aware of any authors who have published novels or novellas in this way - in any genre I mean not just fantasy...

There are lots of novels published this way (see Tapas). I'm personally publishing my own fantasy novel this way as well with one chapter going live per week on a dedicated website, though I'm not an established author. If you want to see how I'm doing that, you can find it at loyaltyfallen.com.

 

[Chessie2]

Many authors do this. My one suggestion would be to remember to drive traffic to your site so your book can find an audience.

 

[pmmg]

Its that driving traffic to your site so your book can find an audience that is the hard part.

 

[Chessie2]

Oh, the hardest!

 

[pmmg]

Thing is, just finding that niche is like trying to filter the ocean through a thimble. Even among fantasy lovers, there is still a range of what they like and what they dont. If you are too common, you pool is very large and its hard to get noticed. If you story is too fringe, those few the will look at it with excitement are very between. Breaking out of the friends and family realm almost takes an act of God (or immense spending of energy and fortune). So...it would be nice if there was a tried and true formula. For me, its all been trial and error.

 

[Prince of Spires]

A common saying among content creators and the like is that it takes at least a year of dedicated effort to create some kind of following. That means frequent posting (preferably daily, but at least a few times a week), regular posting (always post on the same day and time, never miss a moment), interacting with anyone showing up. And so on. It's a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time.