My latest column at Writer Unboxed tackles serial fiction—and how it’s changing writing, reading, and publishing. Here’s a little snippet:
Both serials and fan fiction have been around a long time (since Dickens, remember?). If these forms are being reinvented and rediscovered because mobile- and tablet-based reading is growing, this may mean the strategic author has to start thinking about their readership as divided between two distinct groups: the very large group that expects the content for free, and the smaller group that’s willing to pay.
This is a very in-depth report that includes interviews with the people who work at Wattpad and Amazon, and also features several authors who have been successful with serials. Click here to read the piece at Writer Unboxed.
[…] My latest column at Writer Unboxed tackles serial fiction—and how it’s changing writing, reading, and publishing. Here’s a little snippet: Both serials and fan fiction have been around a long time (since Dickens, remember? […]
Funny you should bring that up. I just started a serial fiction experiement which I wanted the readers to decide the storyline and self publish it ever 3-4 weeks with the results. Didn’t do well. I still think it’s a viable plan though.
Jane–Kindle doesn’t offer the serialization anymore (you have to be “someone”). Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000828741
Yes, I noticed recently that they removed the ability for writers to query/submit to Kindle Serials. I’m not sure why. But it was always a gated program regardless.
Hi Jane! 🙂 Denver Cereal is still going. It will be six years this June. We had more than 200k individuals reading last year. As you know, I don’t see the people who read for free and people who buy books as mutually exclusive.
I’m going to start a new serial set in Boston this year. That should be fun! 🙂 Thanks for not forgetting serial fiction.
[…] Serial Fiction: How It’s Changing Publishing by @JaneFriedman – SO many interesting things happening in publishing today. I’m particularly intrigued by the serial trend. […]
I’ve just discovered this old post, and was hoping that you might consider revisiting this topic. As an unpublished author with a 130K novel that was untended to be the first in a series, I’m considering self-publishing… but am intrigued by the idea of breaking this one up into serial format and continuing the story while building a readership. Any updated information that you could share would be appreciated! (For the record, my novel deals with complex relationships between characters over a multiverse setting, so serializing could work quite well….!) Thank you for always offering your readers such valuable info!… Read more »
Hi Jennifer!
Right now, the main avenues for producing a serial (for an indie author) are Wattpad and Tapas (http://tapas.io). Wattpad is a much bigger platform, with more readers and big media partnerships, but Tapas has more immediate options for getting paid for your work. For better or worse, the biggest platform for e-reading (Amazon Kindle) doesn’t offer any option for publishing serials (in true serial fashion, at least).
Thank you for the quick reply! Both of these sites seem geared toward a younger demographic than my novel targets—its speculative fiction with a 38 year old single mother protagonist—but I’ll continue researching. Thanks again, and Happy New Year!