Last week I mentioned my intention to serialize the working draft of my next Pierce Mostyn novel, The Medusa Ritual, on my website. That plan is still in the works. I’m thinking of 18 weekly installments issued during February, March, April, and May. Then in June I’ll publish the revised novel in ebook form.
Why serialize a novel? Why not? As near as I can tell, the serialized novel has been around since at least the 1700s. It is generally agreed that the overwhelming success of the serialization of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens from March 1836 to October 1837 established the commercial viability of serialization as a publication format.
During the Victorian Era, in general, the highest paid authors were the ones favored for serialization. If your book wasn’t chosen for serialization that usually meant you were considered a mid-lister.
During the pulp era, magazines often serialized novels. In fact, many pulp era novels never saw print in book form and languish in often rare and deteriorating magazines. Today, however, there are publishers seeking to remedy that situation and you can find pulp era serialized novels now coming out as ebooks and print on demand paperbacks.
Recently, I bought an ebook of Robert James Bennet’s lost race novel Bowl of Baal, serialized in All Around Magazine from November 1916 to February 1917. This is the first book publication of the novel.
Rex Stout’s lost race and subterranean world novel, Under the Andes, was originally serialized in All Story Magazine in 1914. It didn’t see book form for over half a century.
In 1932, Weird Tales published the only Jules de Grandin novel Seabury Quinn wrote in 6 installments from February to July. The novel didn’t see book form until many decades later.
However, not just obscure novels were serialized. As mentioned above, Dickens made serialization financially lucrative for publishers and authors. All throughout the Victorian era and well into the 20th century very popular novels first appeared as serials — many which are considered classics today.
In addition to Dickens’s novels, below are a few other classics that were serialized initially:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
And the list can go on and on.
So if serialization was so popular, what happened? I think a major answer lies in the demise of the print media. First radio, then TV, followed by the internet have damaged interest in print. Magazines and newspapers have suffered the most, and those were the vehicles that serialized novel length fiction all throughout the 19th and the first half of the 20th century.
A second reason lies in what serialization tended to do to a novel. Things that were not considered good writing:
- Excessive length
- Too much repetition
- Plot lines that didn’t go anywhere
- Excessive melodrama leading to cliffhangers
One reason the novels were revised for issuance in book form. However, publishers (and even readers) think novels have to be a certain length, and so to achieve that length some of that “bad” stuff was kept to pad out the novel.
So is there a future for the serialized novel? I think there is. Writers seeking ways to drum up interest in their work and to secure for themselves an audience, are exploring whether or not serialization will help to that end.
After all, most TV series are nothing more than serialized “novels”. So if we can watch our “novels” in installments on TV, why can’t we do so again in our reading material? No reason, really.
So I’m going to experiment with the serial novel. And I hope you’ll participate in this adventure by telling me what works for you and what doesn’t. Because, I am after all writing the book for your entertainment. I want you to enjoy it. And you can help me to achieve that end.
Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!
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I read with interest, since I’m going to try to serialise a story of mine on my blog too.
I actually think today is a good day to try serialisation, not only because of blogs (and most of us have one), but also because there are many platforms on which we can publish (like WattPad, for example).
I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of serialisatione, and to be honest, I wanted to try one such thing for decades (no kidding!). Only, years ago I didn’t have the tools to even try.
Now I have my own blog and a small following, so let’s try!
I do have my story completed as Jack suggested (I’m revising it at the moment). I’m planning to publish one episode a week, which will engage one entire year of pubblication. On the longish side, but hey, one cannot dictat where the story wants to go.
There’s an interesting aspect I’m looking into: the structure of the single episodes and the way they end. I do have to consider that a reader won’t read the following episode earlier that a week later, and I think I need to end on a stronger note, so to make them want to read even after all those days, as well as consider how long it will take to move the story, since a section that would take half an house to be read in a book, may take a month to be read on a serial.
So, it’s an intersting experiment in itself. Let’s see how it goes.
And I’m very curious to see how it will go for you too 😉
Yes, the installment’s ending is very important — hence the cliffhanger!
And you’re right: today is a great day for serialization. There are platforms such as Wattpad and Chanillo. There are our blogs. We can even publish installments on the Zon or Smashwords and sell each one for 99 cents.
It’s a great day to be a writer! 🙂
Good luck to you!
Good day, my old friend, and I hope it finds you well! Inviting me to comment on something, as you know, is asking for it, so here it is.
I could have written this post, as I’m well-aware of the fine old tradition of serialization, and I applaud your intent. I have tried this, had a less than satisfactory outcome, and can offer a few suggestions based on my experiences.
First, have the novel completed before you begin. I didn’t, and found that one does, as you mention, go off on tangents that ultimately lead nowhere and serve only to reduce your readers’ regard for your literary skill. Also, if you announce a schedule, then can’t keep to it for whatever reason, that paints you as unreliable, and readers will leave for more productive pastures.
Second, realistically assess what you will consider successful readership. The old serials primarily appeared, as you say, in magazines. It’s enjoyable to curl up with a nice story in a magazine; a bit more difficult to curl up with a computer! Many readers these days are accustomed to the small screen, and they will be onboard with it, but a magazine during the “golden age” reached many thousands, perhaps millions, of readers. You don’t post the number of followers you have here, which is fine, but here’s the probability: Between 10 and 25 percent of those who regularly read your blog will want to read the novel you post on it. If that’s worth the investment to you, by all means, jump right in, but go in knowing what to expect. My own readers’ response was deafening silence, and I would never repeat it.
But best of luck to you. I know you as a prolific and energetic author, as compared to my casual hobbyist approach, and that may translate to success where I didn’t find it. As always, I wish you well, and once you get into it, you can count on me promoting it wherever I appear in print.
Hey Jack! Greetings! Thanks for your advice — I appreciate it!
My days of being an idealist are mostly in the dim, dark past. 🙂 Life tends to turn one into a realist and pragmatist. Your second point is very much on the money. The number of visitors I get is small. So at least initially there probably won’t be a lot of response. But then that is part of my reason for trying serialization: to see if I can increase the audience size.
As for your first point, the novel is completed. So hopefully I’ll be able to maintain the schedule. Automation also helps here. 🙂
Thanks for your advice! I appreciate it! As well as your support!