SERIALS ... THE NEXT BIG THING?

{Image of Ry'leth Courtesy of Leonora Roy}

 

REMEMBER TO VOTE for BOTH CHAPTERS of the new Victor Standish adventure:

 

LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE UNDEAD:

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SYNOPSIS:

We want a simple life. It is not. The world is more than the eye sees. There is a world in the shadows that waits for the unwary.

The street orphan, Victor Standish, has been on his own since the age of seven. He has seen that the supernatural is not confined to the movie screen. It is all too real. 

Now, twelve, Victor finds that the Earth is being invaded from Beyond. A Carnival of the Damned grants him dangerous refuge. Now, Victor must ally himself with Evil to defend the world that has always preyed on him.

With horrors from beyond the stars before him and ancient evil at his back, Victor Standish has only his wits and his knowledge of parkour to find some way out of this nightmare.


Back to my title:

Are Serials the NEXT BIG THING IN PUBLISHING?

Amazon is betting so with its Kindle Serials.  Serials have a grand tradition dating back to Charles Dickens and Alexandre Dumas.

Hoping to make novels as habit-forming as appointment television, a handful of publishers and several new digital-publishing upstarts are experimenting with the same type of short, episodic fiction that weekly or monthly periodicals published in the 19th century.

St. Martin's Press has published five serial novels in the past year, ranging from historical fiction to erotic romance, and has three more in the works.

Penguin's digital romance imprint, InterMix, is testing serialized romance and erotica, and has released three titles so far, with several others on the way.

The science-fiction and fantasy publisher Tor recently published a science-fiction epic by John Scalzi in 13 weekly episodes.

Amazon, which is leading the way with the format, has released 30 serialized novels through its new Kindle Serials program and is adding a new series every week.

Readers pay $1.99 for an entire series, and new installments update automatically. Like a TV show, the episodes are designed to be devoured in a single sitting and end with a cliffhanger.

"The Charles Dickens model actually fits better now than ever because people want bite-sized content,"

says writer Sean Platt, who has co-authored six digital serial novels.

The serial model could be a boon for publishers and booksellers. Breaking up a longer work enables them to charge readers slightly more for it.

Authors and publishers can also use a gradual digital release to test new series and characters in a relatively low-risk way, and build buzz for upcoming print titles.

But digital serials could also be bad for business if they eat away at future print profits—still the biggest revenue source for most publishers.

Publishers and writers are now wrestling with the format, trying to figure out the best price, length, and intervals between installments.

What do you guys think? 

Oh, and drop by Juke Pop Serials
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and vote for both chapters of LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE UNDEAD

Its latest chapters:

 

OF OPEN GRAVES AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES

and

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING