Serial novel writers out there?

apbschmitz · 12-29-2012, 10:41 PM

I'm just about finished with a novella that I intend to offer free on a blog site as a daily serial of 500-800 words. Anybody out there with experience at this? Have any tips?

kennyc · 12-30-2012, 06:10 AM

You might check out Kris Rusch's blog.

http://kriswrites.com/business-rusch...hing-articles/

Lazybones · 12-30-2012, 11:13 AM

I've found that serials operate according to a slightly different set of rules than regular novels. I wrote fantasy gaming stories at EnWorld (here's an example) for about eight years. The trick (at least for me) was to have a lot of cliffhangers and characters that readers could develop relationships with. In fantasy there are a lot of immediately-recognizable archetypes that make this easier to do. You don't necessarily have to have your characters in a life-or-death situation at every break point but it helps to have a reason for your readers to come back for the next installment. And your first post has to have something in it that snags the reader; I suppose it's not that different from the first few pages of a novel in that respect, but given the post length you cited in essence you are selling the entire story in a very compact introduction. I tried to make my posts about 1.5-2k words and that worked well for me, but then again my stories were much longer (the one I linked above ended up being 633k words).

Good luck! Serials can be a lot of fun.

VydorScope · 12-31-2012, 08:24 PM

You might want to check out a site like obooko.com that does this kind of thing for 100's of authors to see how they are doing it.

gmw · 01-01-2013, 05:50 AM

There is no need to send anyone off to look elsewhere! MR has its very own serial novel(la) happening right now (you must have noticed The murder mystery thread). What better example could we look for? Murder and mayhem in every installment.

Yves Gorat · 01-06-2013, 01:55 PM

I think bookiejar allows something similar ...

VydorScope · 01-06-2013, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yves Gorat

I think bookiejar allows something similar ...

Opps... I meant Bookiejar when I said obooko. Sorry!

apbschmitz · 01-07-2013, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Opps... I meant Bookiejar when I said obooko. Sorry!

Thanks for the clarification. I was a little puzzled when I looked at obooko.

12-29-2012, 10:41 PM	#1
apbschmitz Lord of Frogtown Posts: 149 Karma: 1154748 Join Date: May 2011 Location: St. Paul MN Device: Kindle	Serial novel writers out there? I'm just about finished with a novella that I intend to offer free on a blog site as a daily serial of 500-800 words. Anybody out there with experience at this? Have any tips?

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12-30-2012, 06:10 AM	#2
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,891 Karma: 119230421 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire	You might check out Kris Rusch's blog. http://kriswrites.com/business-rusch...hing-articles/

12-30-2012, 11:13 AM	#3
Lazybones Groupie Posts: 162 Karma: 1719250 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Sacramento Device: Kindle	I've found that serials operate according to a slightly different set of rules than regular novels. I wrote fantasy gaming stories at EnWorld (here's an example) for about eight years. The trick (at least for me) was to have a lot of cliffhangers and characters that readers could develop relationships with. In fantasy there are a lot of immediately-recognizable archetypes that make this easier to do. You don't necessarily have to have your characters in a life-or-death situation at every break point but it helps to have a reason for your readers to come back for the next installment. And your first post has to have something in it that snags the reader; I suppose it's not that different from the first few pages of a novel in that respect, but given the post length you cited in essence you are selling the entire story in a very compact introduction. I tried to make my posts about 1.5-2k words and that worked well for me, but then again my stories were much longer (the one I linked above ended up being 633k words). Good luck! Serials can be a lot of fun.

12-31-2012, 08:24 PM	#4
VydorScope Wizard Posts: 3,418 Karma: 35207650 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: iPad	You might want to check out a site like obooko.com that does this kind of thing for 100's of authors to see how they are doing it.

01-01-2013, 05:50 AM	#5
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	There is no need to send anyone off to look elsewhere! MR has its very own serial novel(la) happening right now (you must have noticed The murder mystery thread). What better example could we look for? Murder and mayhem in every installment.

01-06-2013, 01:55 PM	#6
Yves Gorat Member Posts: 17 Karma: 475352 Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Germany Device: Kindle	I think bookiejar allows something similar ...