Story Serials and Series

Posted on March 4, 2010 by David G Shrock

Three months ago, I found myself in a brief conversation with Ben White (@midnightstories) on his blog post, “19 years young and other tidbits.” On White’s post, we find this strong argument:

What is the impetus to serialize a story? After all, we don’t have the tangible, real-world constraints that necessitated the serialization of many early 20th-century stories in the first place. Do readers really digest serials bit by bit as they’re fed, or do they wait until the end to feast? My gut feeling is that the easy access to instant gratification in all forms of entertainment makes serialization (at least in terms of the storytelling itself) about as antiquated as watching live TV with commercials.

I argued that there is an audience for serials and series. Readers enjoy following continuing tales with familiar characters or familiar worlds.

We no longer need to wait for a specific time on a weekly schedule to watch our favorite TV episodes. Hulu and Netflix stream our favorite shows on our own schedules. Readers can instantly purchase an entire novel for their Kindle, Nook, or iPad and read at their own pace in comfort.

Why should writers expect readers to wait for periodic chapters “fed” to them?

Some claim the web will revitalize serials (and short stories, and poetry) either by reaching readers with short attention spans or new reading habits emerging thanks to the web as stated in “Sorry, English major, the engineers have triumphed.” As the article points out, not all experts agree. Even though reading has been in decline since the invention of radio, the decreasing percentage of readers read an increasing amount of the long form. Of course, the problem with predicting future habits and consumer desires is that there is always something looming on the horizon that nobody has given much thought yet, and it bites our predictions in the ass. Readers have long attention spans and find time to read. Another hurdle I’ve discussed before in “Short Fiction Decline” and “Short Fiction Needs a Platform,” the short story market is shrinking even with the web! Can short serials reach a new audience?

Serial Experiments

Stephen King’s “N.” appeared both as a mixed media serial and as a traditional short story. Both versions tell the same story, but differ in the narrative compensating for the visual aspect of the serial. Some readers enjoyed the multimedia serial while traditionalists enjoyed the short story.

Was “N” a success? Plenty of readers tuned in to the episodes, but even more read it in the book. This is Stephen King, after all.

JC Hutchins serialized his novel into podcasts to great success launching his career. However, many other novel podcasts have gone nowhere.

Fiction on Blogs

Reading for a long period is uncomfortable at a computer. Fiction is unpopular on blogs. Most blog readers would rather read how-to, news, or opinion. Visitors here would rather read my crazy ranting on poetry or picking on a clueless high ranking professor. While waiting in line, readers scan news and opinion on their phones. Fiction readers want to get comfortable, curl up, enjoy the experience from a traditional book or eReader. Web readers tend to scan for information.

Want to reach thousands of readers? Take stories off the web into eReaders, or turn them into something new. The web is where you build your platform and share the really cool stuff.

Experiment: Dunston Monster

Normally, I would never expect readers to read something I would not read myself. I have an occasion read serials, so I decided to give serialization a try as an experiment. You may read my results. In summary, it turned out as I expected: traffic gradually lowered until the final episode when traffic spiked, and even then none of the episodes reached as much traffic as my best posts. “The Only Color,” a tiny flash, beat Dunston Monster in number of comments and traffic. I will never write a traditional serial again.

Serial and Series Strategies

A week is too long between 5-minute flash fiction episodes. Daily makes more sense for traditional flash, story fresh in the reader’s mind enjoyed a bite at a time over lunch or after dinner. Note that “N.” episodes arrived three times a week. A weekly flash series works best based on theme or character without a continuing story. For a thematic series, check out Friday Fables by Barry J. Northern. What about traditional serials? We find ourselves back at White’s point. Why not release the story at once? Let the reader do what the reader loves: read.

The audience for the traditional serial is small, and it’s no easy task competing against complete short stories and novels snatched instantly on eReaders.

The Penny Dreadful aims to resurrect serials including flash, mixed media, and comics. A hosted blog links story episodes and providing various authors with a common place to build a platform. In order to grow beyond the confines of a small audience, it will need to grow as well and break barriers. Visit them at tpdonline.wordpress.com and show them your support.

My advice: think different.

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What others are saying

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  • Thanks for your input. I agree there is potential for episodic serials, and as White stated, trust is a big factor. Even with trust, the serial audience is still smaller. Many readers will wait to the end to read serial by their favorite author. My own mother refused to read Dunston Monster until I handed her the story in it's entirety. Episodic novels seem to work better than episodic shorts.

    Conrad and Wiswell point out the same pattern I noticed, and I believe this pattern extends throughout the short story world. Why not write a longer story (or novel) and let readers read? Giving away the first episode/chapter and charging for the rest makes sense. Or turning first chapter into flash and let reader download the rest of the short story if interested.
  • Nice post, David. There still may something to a more...episodic serial, which would really just be a series of stories with similar characters (i.e. Hardy Boys, etc).

    The other serial modality that I find interesting is MCM's, where he serializes something for free BUT you can pay to read it all now. It's a hybrid. And if the beginning is good, you might just go buy the whole thing. That said, the time lag only happens at the onset. After a few months, the story is released in full and becomes only donateware. Still, perhaps with limited print editions etc a savvy and talented author might compensate. I think perhaps have a library of content to drive people to want to give the serial a try is key. Obscurity and distraction are strong forces. The reader must already trust that he's not going to be wasting his time.
  • Barry Northern has paid more attention to his blog than I, but I've sadly noticed fewer comments for his Friday Fables over the months. The Anasazi Stories blog also seems to have gotten slimmer pickings over time. Both sites might update more often than once a week, but are primarily attractive for their serial features. It might be that they get higher traffic. I could be off. But it does look like your hypothesis is validated a bit.

    I've also had the sad experience with serials. I'll do a week on a theme or a story, with a post a day. Readership always goes slack within two days, no matter the theme, style or story - even if all the vectors would normally make a very popular single post that wasn't advertised as tethered to anyone else.

    I'm doing another serial next week, just because I came up with the content. These are more acutely intended to be funny than any of my serials in a while - the next bit of the experiment, as my humor has traditionally drawn the most.
  • I started a serial story on FlashTold, http://flashtold.wordpress.com as well. The Diamond Series, like the Dunston Monster, was meant to be a sort of experiment in traffic.
    My idea was to write story segments that could be read as stand-alone flash. I knew about attention span issues going into it. March fifth will mark the fourth in the series and my traffic count has gone down from the initial episode at the beginning of February.
    Getting people to invest a few precious minutes into a story that started without them seems to be asking too much. Or maybe the reader feels they have to start at the beginning so they don't even bother. I don't know.
    But, like you, I've discovered that flash serials are not my bag. It has been an interesting experiment and I would encourage bloggers to boldly go where they've not gone before. Thanks for the reinforcing article, David. I enjoyed it as much as the Dunston Monster.
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