Quote:
Originally Posted by ardeegee
Yes, I am pushing a definition of serial that fits what this thread is about, and not one so outrageously broad that anything that ever has any sort of sequel suddenly is called a "serial."
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But this argument uses a very narrow, very specific definition that does not actually encompass what "serials" are, nor does it even wholly contain the scope of the concern (i.e. "problem") in Mark's own words.
For example, Mark's original post here stated:
"Most serials I see range from 800 to 2,000 words. Charles Dickens, for example, serialized his stories by releasing chapters or chunks over time in a series, as he wrote them.
Would you rather purchase a complete book in one fell swoop, or do you prefer to read individual serialized installments?
At Smashwords, we're torn on this issue, and we feel compelled to clarify our policies. We generally try to let the author publish their ebook their way, yet on the other hand we don't want to see a 100,000 word novel divided into 100 ebooks of 1,000 words each."
Okay, fair enough. Seems reasonable, especially if authors are expecting to get paid for every 800-2,000 word chunk. I doubt THAT particular business model is going anywhere.
But on
Teleread.org, he stated:
"The topic is on my mind today because when I woke up this morning and looked at the Smashwords home page, it was dominated by five installments of a single ebook, each about 10,000 words.
The other day, I asked another author to stop posting his series of 2,000 word ebooks.
At Smashwords, we have a strict policy of only publishing complete, finished works."
Those are two VERY different things...both serials, both germane to the conversation since they both come from the same person, who runs the company in question.
Now, would I bother with 1,000 or 2,000 word chapters? Probably not. No way I'd pay for those. I'd think from a promotional standpoint, better to post on a blog, promote to build your name and then sell the finished book, a la Scott Sigler's approach.
But 10,000 word novellettes? I personally think that's a perfectly valid form.
More to my argument, what about traditional serials, in the way they have historically been presented in comics, radio and screen: on-going stories, with arcs (a few episodes, a few weeks, a season), but with no set ending.
For example, the text-only version of say, X-Men 200...i.e., on ongoing, serialized story, released one "chapter" at a time, but each chapter ranging from 10-30,000 words (which I'd imagine a prose version would run), no set conclusion, just an ongoing story...or a text equivalent of a soap opera...some soap operas have run for more than 50 years. Most definitely serials by any definition of the word...and yet, not so handy as a single contained work.