Forgive me, for I have sinned and may sin again

[ASparrow]

I have two complete drafts of novels under painstaking revision at the moment, and today I wrote the first page of a brand new novel. Doh!

On another front, I am thinking of releasing the sequel to my novel 'Xenolith' one chapter at a time as I get each of them polished. I could probably crank out several chapters per week. Is this unwise?

If I did this it would be as a free download on Smashwords or Wattpad. I would opt out of the premium catalog and readers could upload the document as it grows at will. Wattpad offers the advantage of better management of separate chapters.

I'm not concerned about effects on future sales. Writing is my obsession not my profession. I'm more concerned about the enjoyment of readers and won't do this if it's perceived as a bad thing.

[dreams]

Oh, yea! More stories!

OK, my 2 cents... I'm of the older generation and prefer to read a completed story. I just never could keep my excitement up when I had to wait.

I've started some blogged stories and then it started to be longer and longer between checking the site for the story. Sad to say, I don't think I've ever completely finished the stories, even when I really liked them. For some reason, I found my interest in a story starts to wain with waiting. This is probably just something related to my reading habits.

I have a few younger friends that don't read novels, but will read short stories and blogs. They prefer something that doesn't take a lot of time.

[Michael J Hunt]

Hello, Sparrow. You'll be in excellent company if you do that. I think Many Victorian writers (Dickens, Doyle) produced serialised versions first. For me, though, I find that I'm forever 'adjusting' my earlier chapters to accommodate the unfolding story. I suppose if you're a 'planner' then serialising is a great idea, but if you write 'free' (free of any idea where the book is taking you) it could become too restricting. Horses for courses, I suppose. Good luck, whatever way you do it.

[columbus]

Too many times I have started reading serialised work only to be disappointed when they were never completed. So I will never now read anything not fully finished.

My 2c worth others may disagree.

[CFarrell]

I think it is a good idea to serialise on Wattpad but probably not on Smashwords. Maybe you could do a chapter by chapter thing on Wattpad and then when it is completed set it up on Smashwords. If anything, Wattpad will encourage you to keep going.

[nomesque]

I put up my unpolished work straightaway, usually, on Nomesque Fiction. Some people enjoy reading a serialised form and don't care about the roughness of it all. I guess it feels more immediate? My current work is an exception, though. I got half the storyline up, then went back and added almost the same number of chapters throughout the existing text. So yes, unplanned serials can sometimes founder horribly! I haven't used Wattpad, but I'd say anything with an RSS feed that people can subscribe to would work - that way they know when a new instalment is out.

[Kemp]

I do know that the Smashword requirements at least used to be full stories/novels. Whether or not they would notice individual chapters among the jillion entries... It also may have changed since I last looked.

[altworld]

I've been thinking about doing this myself. I was toying with the idea of releasing the second part of The Tether series in chapter formats for a low ball price on Smashwords, or for free for people who buy the first book.



A brand new dark urban fantasy novel - The Tether None Good by Nick Davis

[ASparrow]

How rude of me to start a thread and not come back for a week. I missed lots of great input in the meantime.

I understand the issue of serials and continuity. One problem is that the reader can't read at their own pace, they're at the mercy of upload frequency.

As for finishing, that won't be a problem in this case. Both books I'm serializing on Wattpad have gone through several drafts already. I'm only posting what should be something close to a final draft. And no early chapters are going to change significantly.

To tell the truth, the main reason for doing this is that it's a great incentive. I feel more driven to revise a chapter when it's going to be posted publically than when it's just going to be stashed on my hard drive. I also take extra care with the revisions.

That said, I totally understand how many would prefer to wait for the final, completed product.

[ASparrow]

Originally Posted by CFarrell

I think it is a good idea to serialise on Wattpad but probably not on Smashwords. Maybe you could do a chapter by chapter thing on Wattpad and then when it is completed set it up on Smashwords. If anything, Wattpad will encourage you to keep going.

That's my plan, right there.