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Online Serial Storytelling

Nightender

Minstrel
A few months back, I started up a website to release my NaNoWriMo novel from 2012 in short installments.

I haven't written the entire book as of yet, though I have a great deal of content on hand. My release strategy has been to put out only a little at a time, so it might take a week or two to get through an entire chapter, even posting three times a week.

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, partially because I got busy with real life issues and trying to submit another novel to agents.

What I'm wondering is how solid of a release strategy is this?
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
This is a publication method I think could work nicely; it works with web comics after all. If you've got other stuff available for readers to buy then I certainly think it could be viable.

However if you're working with your 2012 NaNo novel, and you've not even finished writing it I have to wonder how polished it is. If what you're putting out there is an unedited spell checked first draft, you're not showing your work at its best. And that is never Good marketing strategy.
 

TWErvin2

Auror
It depends on what the purposes of your strategy is, Nightender.

Also, if you hope to build readers/interest via releasing a serial novel, it's best to be consistent. It's understandable that life gets busy sometimes, but that should not stop a consistent release of content, say once a week, or every Monday and Thursday. The key to this would be to work ahead and have the content ready before it's needed (post date).
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
The question isn't whether this works as a strategy, but whether this works as a strategy for your writing. People won't tend to visit a website unless they can get some kind of satisfaction from viewing the material. Unless you designed the material to be released in tiny chunks, you probably aren't giving it to them.

The best webcomics go through a complete . . . . let's say message, or joke, in every installment. I don't know much about webcomics, but I do know there are those which don't go through a complete message with each issue. I imagine that those probably rely more on compelling artwork and have a huge percentage of readers that only stop by every few weeks instead of regularly.

Consider that: You might be releasing three times a week, but your viewers may not be compelled to check in for each one. The more they're not checking your updates, the more they learn to tune you out.

So my advice, if this is what you want to do, is to break your work up into chunks which make sense with the beat-and-flow of your story, which my guess means a chapter or maybe half a chapter at a time, and only release that chunk maybe once a week, on a fixed day, without exception.

Find something lighter to post twice a week and you've got a strong blog, assuming your stuff is any good.
 
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Nightender

Minstrel
I got the idea to do this from a Writer's Digest article about how a writer used a blog to write the content of her book. The idea specifically was that she was using it as a platform to build her work, which is what I've been trying to do.

I guess what I'm wondering is should I try to continue this project at the moment?
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
I'll echo Chilari's original reply. Seems to me, the more logical approach would be to finish the work... in it's entirety. Then revise...edit...beta read...etc.

After youve completed the work, you can release excerpts to draw interest to the work as a whole or just release in serial format to create a fanbase for the next work which you could release for sale.

I honestly don't see the point in releasing work that you haven't taken the time to revise and edit. Even if you're only writing for fun, do you really want readers to experience your stories in less than polished form?

So yeah...if it was me, I'd wait until it was finished...THEN decide if I want to release as a serial.
 
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BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
Nightender,

I've been thinking more and more about this concept as well. Check out www.leanpub.com. I learned about it this week from a blog post and haven't figured out all the ins and outs yet. My understanding of it is that you can post your work chapter by chapter and get people to pay for it.

I'm not sure how effective it is, but I have a book in progress that might be perfect for such a publishing option. I'm seriously considering it.

My thoughts are:

Helps build an audience. It should be easy to get a bunch of people I know to plop down a quarter for a chapter, hopefully. If I market it hard enough, I can get it onto the "bestseller" list on that site, which will draw in more readers.

I'll wait to start publishing until after releasing my novel. That way I can use the novel for credibility (From the Author of Power of the Mages) and this book to drive people to the novel.

I'm writing the book at a rate of one chapter every other week and bringing each chapter to my writing group. This gives me some editorial/beta reader input so that I'm not publishing complete crap.

I'm still not sold on the idea; I need to investigate it a lot more. I think the concept is worth exploring if you have something that lends itself to the process.
 

Nihal

Vala
I've read a lot of fanfics in the past, and I can say that releasing a story in chapters works. I can't say, although, how would it work for novels and with charging.
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
I read a blog post the other day, though I can't find it now (I looked where I thought I'd clicked thorugh from but couldn't find it), which recommends not to post longform stories online in blog posts. I think there was an anecdote in which an author posted her novel scene by scene twice a week and got a handful of hits each month. It was a failure; then she self-pubbed it on Amazon, did a bit of marketing, and ended up earning hundreds of dollars a month selling it instead. So even with a polished novel, it might not be the best idea to blog post it. It's just not the best method of getting the material to an audience. A series of shorts or novelettes released in a small number of parts might work, but a novel, not so much - so claimed the post, and I can see the logic in it.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
Did a bit of follow up research on leanpub. Not what I thought at all.

They charge customers for the entire book even though it's not finished yet. Then the author updates it. I just can't see that being a huge draw for people. They also have one category that incorporates all fiction.

Going back to the OP:

I think serial fiction can drive traffic. However, I'm not sure it's worth it. It takes a lot of freaking work to put out anything that's really good, especially at the rate you'd need to to generate an audience. If the work isn't good, it isn't going to draw an audience. If it is good, you'd probably be better off selling it.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I think serial fiction can drive traffic. However, I'm not sure it's worth it. It takes a lot of freaking work to put out anything that's really good, especially at the rate you'd need to to generate an audience. If the work isn't good, it isn't going to draw an audience. If it is good, you'd probably be better off selling it.

The quality requirement for a work offered in small installments online is lower. They're also more tolerant of a formula which makes it easier. There are plenty of people who manage to do very well in the medium - I would say the difficulty is on par with other forms of publishing, but it takes a different skill set.
 

Nightender

Minstrel
After hearing what all of you have been saying and weighing a few options of my own, I've decided to stop the serial posting entirely. If I do any serial release, it'll be as an ebook containing a few chapters at a time.

Essentially, I'm just cutting out the first stage of the release I had planned. Since I'm chasing down a few other opportunities, I think this will let me polish the story into what it needs to become.

Thank you all for your ideas and feedback.
 

Jeff Xilon

Minstrel
If you're interested in releasing your fiction in a serial format you might want to check out Free Audio Books in Serialized Form - Podiobooks.com and JukePop Serials - Starring the Best in Serial Fiction. Full disclosure: I myself am writing a serial that I'm putting up on JukePop.

podio is all about books released as audio serials. It's been around for awhile and had a few pretty good success stories as I understand it. I looked at it before myself but you would need to invest in some equipment and have a finished product before you started so you could keep up with a once a week release.

JukePop is quite young and still finding it's feet I think. Some stories seem to be doing quite well, but simple math tells me even the top serial only has 168 dedicated readers at best. JukePop is more about the philosophy of actually writing and publishing one "chapter" at a time and, hopefully, steering your course with the help of reader feedback. Whether or not each author is following such an ethos or recieving much feedback is something I can't speak to.

Still, they are a couple of platforms worth checking out if you want to see how quite a few other people are trying to serialize their work.
 

Nightender

Minstrel
I did intend this project, The Night Lands, to act as short stories that carried connections to build a larger story. In a lot of ways, that plan has worked with with way I've written it. The biggest problems are 1. that I do loose planning, then write in a pantser style, and 2. that I found three distinct mega-arcs of plot.

Those mega-arcs are essentially novels. That's why I have a trilogy in mind now, though that was true even when I first started posting excerpts.
 

Addison

Auror
I think it's a great idea. Even better if you post scenes that give the reader a taste of what else is in the book without giving it away. Like dangling the cookie in front of the toddler's mouth.
 

Nightender

Minstrel
I might try something like that in the future, Addison. I think the idea of dangling a cookie is a good one.
 

Addison

Auror
Thanks. I was gonna say "carrot in front of a horse's mouth" but that's been done so many times, so I did something new.
 

saellys

Inkling
The Stone Front will be published that way (with a full physical and eBook version for purchase), but not until my co-authors and I have finished writing it, run it through beta readers and a professional editor, and commissioned illustrations. When we have the finished product, we're going to queue it up so our busy real lives won't ever result in delayed updates.

I don't think putting unfinished, unedited work online is ever a good strategy.
 
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