#Changed/Not Changed - Serialized Publishing is Here Again
by Cindy Layton
In olden times, 2012 to be exact, Margaret Atwood released a series of four stories on Byliner. Each of the installments were interrelated but could also be considered stand alone. They were eventually combined to create the novel The Heart Goes Last.
Besides Atwood, a surprising number of authors have used this format including Upton Sinclair (The Jungle) and recently Andy Weir (The Martian.) Serialized writing actually hearkens back to Dickens’ time when he distributed portions of The Pickwick Papers in weekly segments.
In some ways, serialization emulates television, incorporating a combination of the cliffhanger and the weekly audience, translated into an e-reading or audio book experience.
It can open avenues for writers to connect with audiences. It caters to readers who may be hesitant to commit to a 300-page book but are willing to spend the 30 or 40 minutes to engage with a first chapter or a shorter work, i.e. a novella or series of short stories, and make that introduction from the author to the reader.
While the chapter-by-chapter release presents readers a less daunting claim on their already limited free time, as any binge watcher knows, one thing leads to another. Before you know it, you’ve gone through the first season of The Crown.
It also gives readers choices – read each segment as it’s released, or using the Netflix model, binge it all at once. The risk to authors is that the time gap between segments is too long or the hook for the reader is too weak, and the second episode never gets the follow-on audience.
So who should consider serializing their writing and why?
To answer those questions a writer should examine whether their writing fits into this model of distribution and what their goals are in publishing.
Releasing a story in segments seems ideal for certain types of writing. Because readers expect an installment over a pre-determined period of time, each release is suited for the creation of a cliffhanger moment at its end. You want the reader to come back, right? So, lots of drama, high tension, and action is just the thing. There must be a reason to return.
What’s the best time interval for release? Weekly? Daily? Netflix-dump? Although there are no definitive answers for that question it seems that monthly installments are too lengthy to adequately keep a reader’s engagement.
Another consideration is – How far along are you in the writing process?
Author M. L. Rhodes, in her article “Why I’m Walking Away from Serialized Fiction,” says the model becomes a high stakes ordeal if the writer begins distribution of chapters before the book is complete or at least nearly complete.
Margaret Atwood stated a similar stress regarding her foray into serialized publishing, commenting on the “psychological pressure” of serial writing, which “you can’t go back and change.”
If serialized writing models itself after the TV episodic formula, then the difference in production becomes clear. Writers for television oftentimes work by committee. They gather as a team, examine each character’s arc and mine it for story lines. Voila! A new episode is created.
In fiction, the writer is the solitary producer. There’s no group of talented creatives brainstorming a storyline. There’s just you and your writer’s-blocked brain on a deadline. Rhodes decided to quit that pressure. She describes herself as a “pantser,” a writer who writes free style, without an outline or planning tool to follow. If that’s your style as well, it may be difficult to make large changes to the story or characters after they’ve been posted in previous episodes. In the privacy of your home office it’s easier to decide to make wholesale changes or even set a project aside. It’s more difficult if you’ve promised chapters to readers.
Many of us have experienced the brick wall of a story that once seemed a sure thing.
If your book is complete or nearly complete maybe that risk isn’t so daunting. In fact, Publishers Weekly just featured Anand Giridharadas, who, this month, released in installments, the first two chapters of his previously published novel The True American: Murder and Mystery in Texas, via his Substack newsletter, free to his readers. (He cleared this with his publisher beforehand).
Speaking of publishing rights, M.L. Rhodes also reported that her serialized book, Dark Magick Rising, had been pirated from her website. She ultimately removed it entirely, to the disappointment of her readers.
The other question is monetary. How can writers make money from a serialized format? As in everything digital, it all comes down to your followers. How many do you have across your platforms? Are they willing to pay for a subscription? Or will a chapter-by-chapter introduction to your work translate into the reader buying another offering from your library?
Some of Atwood’s readers felt cheated when a fifth installment was added to the Positron/The Heart Goes Last series but was made available only in the (paid) novel version.
What’s not new is that money for authors is one of the last pieces of the puzzle to be solved and the platforms rely mostly on authors freely sharing their work as an entrée into their other (paid) offerings. There’s always been opportunities for writers to do that.
Some platforms pay high profile authors, using a contract for exclusive use or non-exclusive use content, and others generate advertising revenue. Some rely on crowdsourcing (i.e. Patreon).
Authors may decide the format is an opportunity to engage with readers and get feedback on the progression of their book. Andy Weir used this to great effect when he serialized his book The Martian, later published by Crown Publishing and adapted for film with Matt Damon as the lead actor. A serialized format can provide a wide audience of participants who can offer detailed advice and suggestions.
Aside from an author’s own web site, there are several platforms that provide serialized stories for readers and writers. Check out some of them in this post by Elaina G from Medium, or this interview of Yael Goldstein Love of Plympton Publishing from The Write Practice.
Narrative Magazine is seeking submissions for serialized novels.
In a previous post I highlighted Serial Box, now Realm, a platform that releases serialized writing in an audio format.
Like so many things digital, the concepts aren’t new, it’s the execution. Instead of standing on a street corner, hawking paper copies of the latest chapter, ala Dickens, we’re posting it to some cloud-based platform.
I’m always surprised at how much of life is presented as newly wrapped by technology but what’s in the box remains unchanged.
