Hey Winston! Thanks for the questions, the podcast has been doing well. I recently got my first sponsorship through Spotify due to my podcast audience growing over 200+ back in May. Most of those listening I believe have caught up so now the listener base has dropped. I actually haven't written a script in some time now that my focus is Reborn in Power sessions, and I use cliff hangers mainly on story arcs until they come to a conclusion. I do believe that podcasts are a very unique ways to tell audio based fiction and there's still a niche market for it. The main audio fictions that are out there tend to be crime stories but there have even been a few you've introduced me to that have a similar feel to mine. I do want to get back into writing scripts again but I think that won’t be until The Doctor Series has officially concluded. Right now, I'm just enjoying the journey and have been rekindling my passion for the stories I'm telling!
Novelty, tone, feel, and, what I can only describe as, 'otherworldliness' I think are more important for genre fiction than the quality. But writing quality feeds back into how well those things come across. On SubStack I've read Scoot's 'Sandbox Earth', the start of his, on hiatus, 'Adventures of Tylus Worran', began Sujan's 'Project Fable', and am planning on starting M. Marpaung's 'Inquisitor's Promise' soon. All very different in style, genre, and tone, all bright gems of novelty. I could deep dive into the writing but there's little point because when reading, I have two broad categories - The Story and The Writing. In The Story is the plot, worldbuilding, characterisations, etc. While The Writing is all about the style, quality of said style, voice, etc. If The Story is top notch then The Writing becomes less important in the overall review. If, however, The Writing impedes the story then there's no novelty that can save it. The Writing impeding the story, however, may not be a quality issue but rather that I'm not jelling with it (which is how I am with many, many new release tradpub books in speculative fiction).
My number 1 measure of quality in writing is rhythm. When writing advice is saying to vary sentence length, word length, and such, this is what it is meaning. Rhythm is crucial for keeping the reader reading. If the fiction comes across like a text book or a Terms and Conditions then I'm out and many other readers will be too. It's boring and no amount of novelty will save a writer from this. Fiction requires musicality to the prose, highs lows, loud quiet, fast slow, discords cords, to flow at its best. Do it in whatever style you want, so long as it's rhythmic.
I've written a few serialised stories. A novel, a few novellas (mostly 10 chapters long), and have a new one coming this week (though the 1st chapter was a One Shot). I didn't have much of a readership before but gained traction with Notes and short stories over the last 2 months, so this is both an experiment and return to form for me. The idea is One Shots on Tuesday and serial chapters on Thursday. Hopefully readers come along for the ride.
Super interesting thread, I love reading, but serialization has never worked for me. I think part of that comes from the face that I prefer physical books. I guess you could serializing in a magazine but I really like having books because collecting them is part of my experience as a reader.
Because I prefer books, I don’t serialize my work. I wonder how much success people have found doing this. I’d be curious about numbers on this.
For anyone that’s serialized their work, how many copies have you sold? How many people actually read the book through? Very curious
I just started a story that ended up serializing itself. I thought it was going to be a one-shot short story, but apparently it had other ideas. I've never successfully serialized something before, and the response has been quiet, but it's been a good exercise in writing discipline so far!
Howdy Winston! Substack and serialization continue to be good to me so far. I haven’t had a chance to write any shorter serialization yet although the hare/rabbit idea I’ve been dabbling in recently feels like I could make it more lean and mean than the more extended efforts I’ve done previously. Thanks for asking and including me!
Serial fiction on Wattpad helped me finish my first novel and overcome "submitter's block." When Feeding Frenzy won a Watty award, it gave me the confidence to publish it.
I have a different perspective b/c I come from the fanfiction world, where serialized stories have been standard fare for a very long time. I love reading and writing serialized fiction, to the point that I've embraced it as my primary storytelling form for my original fiction. I'm currently releasing my latest novel serially and plan on doing that with all my work going forward. What I can say about my experiences is that it takes a while to "train" readers who are used to reading novels but that once they come around they generally love serialized fiction. I also think maybe resistance to it is a generational thing? Most young millennials and genZ have grown up with Wattpad and AO3, and know what they like.
My experience has been a lot of radio silence, the views are good for the size of my substack I think, but not much engagement, even on votes to shape the story. I suspect the fake video game formatting is too unconventional for most. I've found I prefer to be ahead of the curve with chapters, stay a few chapters ahead of what's being posted next.
I've found serialization very helpful for reading because it sets the pace for me. I don't feel pressured to rush or flip through the pages. Not seeing the amount of pages left to go on something being serialized is great for me.
Hmm, the main lesson learned from the first time around (that I seem to have forgotten when I planned on publishing Book 2 of my trilogy) was to have the book more or less FINISHED and ready to publish BEFORE committing to serializing it. I know a lot of writers write as they go, and this kind of high-wire act is exciting, but I don't have that luxury with the kind of story I've been researching and writing for the last 10 years. I need all of my details worked out beforehand.
The weekly revisions I did last time were just a last pre-flight check before takeoff (and I still missed things!--I have another revision to do before I self-pub!) I would definitely do the same again--having a deadline and some accountability, even just to myself--is important. But I realized I needed to put a lot more work into general editing before I could even get to that point with Book 2, which is where I'm at now.
Some things I've thought about for improving the "Serial" experience, though I don't have the answers necessarily:
-Posting on a different day? I posted Friday afternoons, and I'm not sure if weekends are better?
-Posting shorter chapters (I don't mind reading long chapters, esp. in a physical book, because I can set it down with a bookmark and come back to it. But picking up a blog post in the middle is trickier. After a long day of reading, I can find myself drifting even in stories I enjoy. I've considered breaking longer chapters at scene breaks (rather than rewriting them for Substack--I do still plan to publish in print someday....)
-Not images, necessarily, but more attention to aesthetics of the page for a pleasant reading experience
That's all I've got for now! It's been a fun experiment, and the coolest part has been the help I've had from readers who have commented, made constructive suggestions, and been supportive of the writing. It's even better than I could have hoped for. You're right--that is a big part of the inspiration for The Library. Every indie writer should have access to some of that!
Thanks for this thread Winston, it is very timely. I launched my serialized novel 5-weeks ago with a story I completed in 2018 and spent the past two years revising, following the advice of a good literary editor. Its early days, but I am seeing gradual growth and new readers engaging with my characters and narrative everyday. I made an early decision to turn off comments and likes as reading is deeply personal for many and I did not want my readers to be confronted by unwanted influences, good or bad. Anecdotal feedback suggests that my readers like the serialized format because it works well with their other reading demands, which are many and varied these days. Another piece of feedback that may help writer's considering serializing is that my readers were 'in' from the get go, thanks to the pace of the story, the strength of the characters and the very real stakes. This, of course, is storytelling 101, which can sometimes get lost in the excitement of innovation! Thanks again. I greatly valued this discussion and hope there will be more 😉
Thank you for asking, Winston. Truthfully--and I'm not just being cheeky here as I'm wont to do--I really have no idea what keeps readers engaged. I've been at this for a minute--ten years as a novelist in November--and I can't say I've really figured that out. People seem ever busier, even less interested each year than the one before. Is it my work or the larger culture? Both? Who's to say.
What I can say--and I'm cribbing from Bester's 'the book is boss,' here--is that it's easiest and best to write the way in which the work demands. That can sound airy-fairy or pretentious, but I mean it quite practically. If it feels better to write the work ahead of time, then do that for that work. If the next time out it seems like it needs to go out each time you finish, do that. Not every work will have different needs, but many will, and by going with it, you'll have a much easier time.
There's a caveat, as always. I'm not having a very easy time in life right now, and so the work is not particularly easy, either. This seems to be the way of things. Again, not always, but often when life is rough, writing is rough.
Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend, sweet Winston!
When I wrote fan fiction (from the age of 15-29!), it was a shared universe of over a dozen writers at any given time, writing stories set in the same continuity, with the same "versions" of the characters. That meant a level of planning and plotting that I don't think I should have been exposed to at such an early, literary age-- it probably broke my brain!-- but what it meant was, you had to write an "issue" of a "title" every month. And if you were writing multiple titles, that meant you had more deadlines, so it was a constant state of juggling priorities, and making sure everything fit in the structure of the world we had built.
I loved it. I loved releasing a new issue every month of Batman, Green Lantern, whatever. There was an audience waiting for it, and I think another thing that broke me was that almost... instant gratification of writer-to-reader contact. I wrote something. It posted on the website. People read it. Wednesday was release day, so it was destination viewing.
Pivoting into writing my own stories, I know that my style and approach is informed by these fan fiction experiences. Hell, I'm even adapting my own stories, set in my own universe, because I am still so proud of the work I did then. I self-published the first book in a new series back in November 2022, and I'm sitting on the second book right now. I'm considering serialising it via my substack (shameless plug: https://chwilkins.substack.com/), because I just want it out there. The thought of receiving live feedback gives me the serotonin buzz I think I need to keep engaged with writing. I used to finish writing something on Monday, and it would post on Wednesday. Instant feedback. Instant gratification. I miss that.
So, yes, I'm really interested in the idea of serialising my longform stories. I've retained all the lessons learned from my previous "life" as a fan fiction writer, so it's just about making that final decision: Do I throw something that has been beta-read but not edited into the world, with all the potential errors that involves, and see what happens? And then do I take everything I learn during that time for a Version 2.0 in time for a physical launch? It's a conundrum!
"Victor, are you still publishing short stories and writing in the Mega Universe? How many rounds of edits are the sweet spot for you before you’re comfortable posting a chapter or story online for others to read?"
Hey Winston. Yes sir, I still do release chapters still on my substack and have seen some readership growth. I try to at least edit seven times before I post, and run each chapter through some online grammar checkers. That at least gets the errors down to a minimum.
And I sure do still write in the Megacosm! I have a new story I plan on publishing soon called The Mark. It's about a woman and her Ex-Ranger husband being stalked by an obsessed retired Green Beret. I am trying a new format as this will be a novelette. I wanted to challenge myself to see how much story I can fit in a 20K word cap. I have the first three chapters out right now. Going to publish the rest as digital for 99 cents to get my feet wet with digital publishing.
However, all my main novels will still be print only.
Hey Winston! Thanks for the questions, the podcast has been doing well. I recently got my first sponsorship through Spotify due to my podcast audience growing over 200+ back in May. Most of those listening I believe have caught up so now the listener base has dropped. I actually haven't written a script in some time now that my focus is Reborn in Power sessions, and I use cliff hangers mainly on story arcs until they come to a conclusion. I do believe that podcasts are a very unique ways to tell audio based fiction and there's still a niche market for it. The main audio fictions that are out there tend to be crime stories but there have even been a few you've introduced me to that have a similar feel to mine. I do want to get back into writing scripts again but I think that won’t be until The Doctor Series has officially concluded. Right now, I'm just enjoying the journey and have been rekindling my passion for the stories I'm telling!
Novelty, tone, feel, and, what I can only describe as, 'otherworldliness' I think are more important for genre fiction than the quality. But writing quality feeds back into how well those things come across. On SubStack I've read Scoot's 'Sandbox Earth', the start of his, on hiatus, 'Adventures of Tylus Worran', began Sujan's 'Project Fable', and am planning on starting M. Marpaung's 'Inquisitor's Promise' soon. All very different in style, genre, and tone, all bright gems of novelty. I could deep dive into the writing but there's little point because when reading, I have two broad categories - The Story and The Writing. In The Story is the plot, worldbuilding, characterisations, etc. While The Writing is all about the style, quality of said style, voice, etc. If The Story is top notch then The Writing becomes less important in the overall review. If, however, The Writing impedes the story then there's no novelty that can save it. The Writing impeding the story, however, may not be a quality issue but rather that I'm not jelling with it (which is how I am with many, many new release tradpub books in speculative fiction).
My number 1 measure of quality in writing is rhythm. When writing advice is saying to vary sentence length, word length, and such, this is what it is meaning. Rhythm is crucial for keeping the reader reading. If the fiction comes across like a text book or a Terms and Conditions then I'm out and many other readers will be too. It's boring and no amount of novelty will save a writer from this. Fiction requires musicality to the prose, highs lows, loud quiet, fast slow, discords cords, to flow at its best. Do it in whatever style you want, so long as it's rhythmic.
I've written a few serialised stories. A novel, a few novellas (mostly 10 chapters long), and have a new one coming this week (though the 1st chapter was a One Shot). I didn't have much of a readership before but gained traction with Notes and short stories over the last 2 months, so this is both an experiment and return to form for me. The idea is One Shots on Tuesday and serial chapters on Thursday. Hopefully readers come along for the ride.
Super interesting thread, I love reading, but serialization has never worked for me. I think part of that comes from the face that I prefer physical books. I guess you could serializing in a magazine but I really like having books because collecting them is part of my experience as a reader.
Because I prefer books, I don’t serialize my work. I wonder how much success people have found doing this. I’d be curious about numbers on this.
For anyone that’s serialized their work, how many copies have you sold? How many people actually read the book through? Very curious
I just started a story that ended up serializing itself. I thought it was going to be a one-shot short story, but apparently it had other ideas. I've never successfully serialized something before, and the response has been quiet, but it's been a good exercise in writing discipline so far!
Howdy Winston! Substack and serialization continue to be good to me so far. I haven’t had a chance to write any shorter serialization yet although the hare/rabbit idea I’ve been dabbling in recently feels like I could make it more lean and mean than the more extended efforts I’ve done previously. Thanks for asking and including me!
Serial fiction on Wattpad helped me finish my first novel and overcome "submitter's block." When Feeding Frenzy won a Watty award, it gave me the confidence to publish it.
I have a different perspective b/c I come from the fanfiction world, where serialized stories have been standard fare for a very long time. I love reading and writing serialized fiction, to the point that I've embraced it as my primary storytelling form for my original fiction. I'm currently releasing my latest novel serially and plan on doing that with all my work going forward. What I can say about my experiences is that it takes a while to "train" readers who are used to reading novels but that once they come around they generally love serialized fiction. I also think maybe resistance to it is a generational thing? Most young millennials and genZ have grown up with Wattpad and AO3, and know what they like.
My experience has been a lot of radio silence, the views are good for the size of my substack I think, but not much engagement, even on votes to shape the story. I suspect the fake video game formatting is too unconventional for most. I've found I prefer to be ahead of the curve with chapters, stay a few chapters ahead of what's being posted next.
I've found serialization very helpful for reading because it sets the pace for me. I don't feel pressured to rush or flip through the pages. Not seeing the amount of pages left to go on something being serialized is great for me.
Hmm, the main lesson learned from the first time around (that I seem to have forgotten when I planned on publishing Book 2 of my trilogy) was to have the book more or less FINISHED and ready to publish BEFORE committing to serializing it. I know a lot of writers write as they go, and this kind of high-wire act is exciting, but I don't have that luxury with the kind of story I've been researching and writing for the last 10 years. I need all of my details worked out beforehand.
The weekly revisions I did last time were just a last pre-flight check before takeoff (and I still missed things!--I have another revision to do before I self-pub!) I would definitely do the same again--having a deadline and some accountability, even just to myself--is important. But I realized I needed to put a lot more work into general editing before I could even get to that point with Book 2, which is where I'm at now.
Some things I've thought about for improving the "Serial" experience, though I don't have the answers necessarily:
-Posting on a different day? I posted Friday afternoons, and I'm not sure if weekends are better?
-Posting shorter chapters (I don't mind reading long chapters, esp. in a physical book, because I can set it down with a bookmark and come back to it. But picking up a blog post in the middle is trickier. After a long day of reading, I can find myself drifting even in stories I enjoy. I've considered breaking longer chapters at scene breaks (rather than rewriting them for Substack--I do still plan to publish in print someday....)
-Not images, necessarily, but more attention to aesthetics of the page for a pleasant reading experience
That's all I've got for now! It's been a fun experiment, and the coolest part has been the help I've had from readers who have commented, made constructive suggestions, and been supportive of the writing. It's even better than I could have hoped for. You're right--that is a big part of the inspiration for The Library. Every indie writer should have access to some of that!
Thanks for this thread Winston, it is very timely. I launched my serialized novel 5-weeks ago with a story I completed in 2018 and spent the past two years revising, following the advice of a good literary editor. Its early days, but I am seeing gradual growth and new readers engaging with my characters and narrative everyday. I made an early decision to turn off comments and likes as reading is deeply personal for many and I did not want my readers to be confronted by unwanted influences, good or bad. Anecdotal feedback suggests that my readers like the serialized format because it works well with their other reading demands, which are many and varied these days. Another piece of feedback that may help writer's considering serializing is that my readers were 'in' from the get go, thanks to the pace of the story, the strength of the characters and the very real stakes. This, of course, is storytelling 101, which can sometimes get lost in the excitement of innovation! Thanks again. I greatly valued this discussion and hope there will be more 😉
Thank you for asking, Winston. Truthfully--and I'm not just being cheeky here as I'm wont to do--I really have no idea what keeps readers engaged. I've been at this for a minute--ten years as a novelist in November--and I can't say I've really figured that out. People seem ever busier, even less interested each year than the one before. Is it my work or the larger culture? Both? Who's to say.
What I can say--and I'm cribbing from Bester's 'the book is boss,' here--is that it's easiest and best to write the way in which the work demands. That can sound airy-fairy or pretentious, but I mean it quite practically. If it feels better to write the work ahead of time, then do that for that work. If the next time out it seems like it needs to go out each time you finish, do that. Not every work will have different needs, but many will, and by going with it, you'll have a much easier time.
There's a caveat, as always. I'm not having a very easy time in life right now, and so the work is not particularly easy, either. This seems to be the way of things. Again, not always, but often when life is rough, writing is rough.
Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend, sweet Winston!
When I wrote fan fiction (from the age of 15-29!), it was a shared universe of over a dozen writers at any given time, writing stories set in the same continuity, with the same "versions" of the characters. That meant a level of planning and plotting that I don't think I should have been exposed to at such an early, literary age-- it probably broke my brain!-- but what it meant was, you had to write an "issue" of a "title" every month. And if you were writing multiple titles, that meant you had more deadlines, so it was a constant state of juggling priorities, and making sure everything fit in the structure of the world we had built.
I loved it. I loved releasing a new issue every month of Batman, Green Lantern, whatever. There was an audience waiting for it, and I think another thing that broke me was that almost... instant gratification of writer-to-reader contact. I wrote something. It posted on the website. People read it. Wednesday was release day, so it was destination viewing.
Pivoting into writing my own stories, I know that my style and approach is informed by these fan fiction experiences. Hell, I'm even adapting my own stories, set in my own universe, because I am still so proud of the work I did then. I self-published the first book in a new series back in November 2022, and I'm sitting on the second book right now. I'm considering serialising it via my substack (shameless plug: https://chwilkins.substack.com/), because I just want it out there. The thought of receiving live feedback gives me the serotonin buzz I think I need to keep engaged with writing. I used to finish writing something on Monday, and it would post on Wednesday. Instant feedback. Instant gratification. I miss that.
So, yes, I'm really interested in the idea of serialising my longform stories. I've retained all the lessons learned from my previous "life" as a fan fiction writer, so it's just about making that final decision: Do I throw something that has been beta-read but not edited into the world, with all the potential errors that involves, and see what happens? And then do I take everything I learn during that time for a Version 2.0 in time for a physical launch? It's a conundrum!
"Victor, are you still publishing short stories and writing in the Mega Universe? How many rounds of edits are the sweet spot for you before you’re comfortable posting a chapter or story online for others to read?"
Hey Winston. Yes sir, I still do release chapters still on my substack and have seen some readership growth. I try to at least edit seven times before I post, and run each chapter through some online grammar checkers. That at least gets the errors down to a minimum.
And I sure do still write in the Megacosm! I have a new story I plan on publishing soon called The Mark. It's about a woman and her Ex-Ranger husband being stalked by an obsessed retired Green Beret. I am trying a new format as this will be a novelette. I wanted to challenge myself to see how much story I can fit in a 20K word cap. I have the first three chapters out right now. Going to publish the rest as digital for 99 cents to get my feet wet with digital publishing.
However, all my main novels will still be print only.
Do not have any experience of my own, other than with experimenting with short stories... but I liked reading this piece. Quite thought-provoking!