Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Writing A Serial

The advent of ebooks and indie publishing has allowed the revival of a form with a storied history, but not many tales in the recent past: the serial. This may conjure visions of old-fashioned cliff-hangers and pulp novels... and you wouldn't be far wrong. But Great Expectations by Charles Dickens was written as a serial, releasing two chapters a week for nine months! Dickens self-published the serial version of Great Expectations in his own literary magazine, All the Year Round, in an attempt to keep the publication afloat. Once it was complete, the works were republished in three volumes/novels. Dickens, being the accomplished writer he was, managed to create self-contained "novellas" (each about 6k words) that progressed like a novel, no small feat (he also outlined). Today, there's a myriad of serials being written and published, with indie authors experimenting like crazy with form, length, and time-between-publication. The stories are anywhere from 6k to 40k. Some are prewritten, some are written-as-you-go. Some are true novellas (individual stories), some are chapters from a serialized novel. The ease of indie publishing, plus the inexpensive distribution of ebooks, has allowed for all kinds of experimentation. I'm experimenting with serialization myself, quite by accident. A story grabbed hold of me and demanded to be written, so I forced it to be a novella, because I didn't have time to write a novel. :) Turns out the story isn't letting go, but it's also the kind that lends itself to episodic storytelling, so I'm going to turn it into a series of novellas. Because I'm an indie author, and I can. :)

The real question is: do readers read these serialized stories? I think the answer is Yes and No. Just because you write a serial is no guarantee you will have readers, just as is true for any indie story. Plus you're hampered with the fact that most reviewers won't review short form works, and many promotion sites won't promote unless you meet a minimum workcount. But if you write something readers are clamoring to read? The answer is a resounding YES.
Examples: NYTimes Bestselling author Hugh Howey's meteoric career started with a 12k novella called Wool. But an even more recent (and astoundingly successful) example is fellow Indelible RaShelle Workman's Blood and Snow serial. Starting in June 2012, RaShelle has been pumping out her serial novellas every 2-4 weeks. She's currently up to volume 11, with all the individual novellas priced at 99cents and collections priced at $2.99. The novellas themselves are around 60 pages/12k. But do they sell? Oh yes. RaShelle's sold over 130,000 copies of her 99cent novellas to date. I don't expect that kind of success with my upcoming novella serial The Debt Collector, partly because it's not in the wildly popular paranormal romance genre. But, then again, Hugh Howey wrote a post-apoc SF novella that took him to the stars, so one never knows what will resonate with the reading public. But I love that indie publishing gives authors a chance to experiment and see what happens. Have you written a serial or have any plans to?

~Susan Kaye Quinn
 Susan Kaye Quinn is former rocket scientist and engineer, but now she writes novels because she loves writing even more than shiny tech gadgets. Susan is the author of the bestselling Mindjack Series, which includes three novels, three novellas, and a trailer. She's currently writing a steampunk fantasy romance, just for kicks. When that's out of her system, she has ambitious plans to embark on a series about the Singularity (the time when computers become more intelligent than humans) that should appeal to fans of the Mindjack novels. Unless she gets sidetracked by this new future-noir novella or spends too much time on Facebook. Could go either way.

18 comments:

  1. And don't forget about Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle started out with a weekly series, I believe. I think serials are becoming popular again. I'm seeing them more and more. What I like is that you can read basically a short book which is a story with a beginning, middle and ending, but then can continue on to the next book which picks up from the last one. I'm currently writing my first novella, with 3 planned in the series.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't know that about Sherlock, although I knew they were a series of (shorter) stories. Good luck with your novella!

      Delete
  2. I really enjoyed this post, I myself am writing a serial and beginning a new serial project...and I do believe that this form of writing is finding its place once again...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm one my way with my Love, Tink serial. Too early to tell yet how it'll do, but I'll for sure let you know!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! I'm excited to see how that one will fare - it sounds awesome!

      Delete
  4. I love serials (especially RaShelle's!) and am so glad you wrote about them. More people need to know about them so they'll write more of them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope more people will read them! LOL And also write them. It's a writerly playground out there!

      Delete
  5. I'm intrigued by this, and also grew up with my mom talking about how Sherlock Holmes was a serial writer. Jules Verne is another one. I love that we're getting a glimpse of that style/format of writing in the present day. As for me trying it out myself? Not sure on that one yet. I have to look up the rules so I know which ones are okay to break first. :)

    Excellent article!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I'm thinking the rules are all being forged as we speak, so don't let that slow you down. I played around with the novella form last year with some spinoff stories from my series, but I had a hard time wrapping my head around how to write a proper serial. Then this latest story idea hit me and I realized that some stories are a natural fit for that form, while others are a better fit for novel. The key is knowing what kind of story you have!

      Good luck!

      Delete
  6. Hey Susan, I'm doing some experimenting with serial writing myself, so this will be interesting to see how it works out. If nothing else, it will be great getting to share the stories :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cool! Is your serial going to be related to your novel or something new? Either way, sounds cool! :)

      Delete
  7. This is interesting. I suspect if the serial is good enough, people will want to read more. Maybe blogs are somewhat like this... make them keep coming back for more. Something to think about for sure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blogs are on the wane, but I think people are used to some kinds of serialization (i.e. TV shows), so there's some precedent for wanting to "come back for more" - the key, I think, is having each bite of story be a satisfying one. We'll see... I may change my mind after I get my serial out in the world!

      Delete
  8. Way to go. Congrats Rashelle and Susan.

    ......dhole

    ReplyDelete
  9. I agree that the serial has a place in current times as much as it did during the time of Dickens. With attention spans becoming shorter and our love of television episodes, I think a well written story can certainly build an audience.
    Serials also shorten the time for an author to get product out to their readers. I have readers waiting for new stuff, and although I've been able to release a new full length book every three months or less, this allows for quicker stories to get out to the fans, which will hopefully keep their attention.

    Don't sell yourself short Susan...the Debt Collector series is great so far! I loved 'Wool' and think yours could get just as popular. Exposure...that is the white stag to chase, but you are doing it well it seems to me.

    Terry

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm curious how your take on the singularity will turn out, as my WIP touches on that tangentially.

    ReplyDelete