Comments on: Story Serials and Series

By: David G Shrock

David G Shrock — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:28:17 +0000

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.

By: Ben White

Ben White — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:27:46 +0000

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.

By: John Wiswell

John Wiswell — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:43:43 +0000

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.

By: Donald Conrad

Donald Conrad — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:54:37 +0000

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.