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Saturday, May 18, 2013

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:
 
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
http://www.jukepopserials.com/home/read/857

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

8 comments:

  1. Gah! Too many thoughts want to spill out here! First, wow-sounds like a cool concept. That's actually something that's been in my head since you first published Ghost of a Chance here. I think it's a great way to get people familiar with your work so they'll WANT to buy print.

    Second, I'll head over and vote right after this.

    Third, you're such a tease! I now have to go get the third VS :) And Victor's real dad is !!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!

    Oh, fourth! I love love love the part about monsters waiting to become us. Profound. Deeply profound. (that spelling doesn't look right...)

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  2. Words Crafter:
    I'm so happy that I struck several chords with my post and with the end of UNDER A VOODOO MOON. Yes, Victor's real father's identity is a shocker, isn't it?

    Thanks for voting. Alice blows you a kiss.

    The final victory for monsters is when they transform us into them by the unintended consequences of our battling them. :-(

    I'll cross my fingers that you are right and people reading LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE UNDEAD will come to want to read my other Victor books. :-) Roland

    Have a healing Sunday.

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  3. A lot of authors will find out in the near future if serials will be successful. I think certain genres will do better than others. Good Luck with yours, Roland.

    Sorry, I'm not on Facebook and you're required to sign in to vote.

    Question: weren't the earlier serials more popular with men? I read that somewhere. I could see women liking the romance titles. You could read one while waiting for appts.

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  4. Don't know if serials will end up being the next big thing, but it definitely sounds like a neat idea! I wouldn't be opposed at all to trying out a story in this format...

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  5. Hmmm...Don't really know what to think. But I do know that the peeps ho have read Secondhand Shoes are bugging me via email for the next book.

    Hope you are well.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

    On my way to vote. Shared and tweeted.

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  6. D.G.:
    I think you can also join JukePop Serials to vote. I usually just use my Facebook -- seems like Facebook is trying to seep into evereyone's life, doesn't it?

    I try to make each female in LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE UNDEAD fully realized. Each one has a tragic love somewhere in their life.

    Princess Shert Nebti is imperial and callous (as befitting the Pharaoh she once had been), though wanting love and hating that need at one and the same time. Azizza (from RITES OF PASSAGE and THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS) is exiled from the man she loves with all her bruised heart.

    And Madera, the gypsy all fear in the Carnival of the Damned ... well, clever readers of my past Victor books will be able to deduce her true identity and realize just what kind of love haunts her.

    Yes, the earlier serials were liked more by the men but some liked Harriet Beecher Stowe's UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

    Heather:
    It is definitely something to think about! :-)

    Shelly:
    Thanks for voting, tweeting, and sharing. I'm in the middle of my 12 day straight work period -- that's when the headaches and fatigue sets in. Ouch. May your husband be feeling better soon!

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  7. I've seen it work well for a couple authors. (Although they weren't using Amazon's program.)

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  8. Alex:
    Well, I'm hoping it works for this author. :-)

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