The Serial Novel
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Many novels used to be in serial form...A chapter or two would be released in a magazine each month, until the novel concluded.
Why did serial novels die?
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why did serial novels die?
It has not. Serial novel is still very popular in many other parts of the world. In China, for example, lots of serial novels still getting published on the Internet, many of them also getting made into videos (live action as well as animation) episodically released onto the Internet. Serial novel as an art form and a publishing practice is still alive and well.
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@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why did serial novels die?
It has not. Serial novel is still very popular in many other parts of the world. In China, for example, lots of serial novels still getting published on the Internet, many of them also getting made into videos (live action as well as animation) episodically released onto the Internet. Serial novel as an art form and a publishing practice is still alive and well.
@Axtremus said in The Serial Novel:
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why did serial novels die?
It has not. Serial novel is still very popular in many other parts of the world. In China, for example, lots of serial novels still getting published on the Internet, many of them also getting made into videos (live action as well as animation) episodically released onto the Internet. Serial novel as an art form and a publishing practice is still alive and well.
Why aren't internet serial novels popular here?
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
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@Axtremus said in The Serial Novel:
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why did serial novels die?
It has not. Serial novel is still very popular in many other parts of the world. In China, for example, lots of serial novels still getting published on the Internet, many of them also getting made into videos (live action as well as animation) episodically released onto the Internet. Serial novel as an art form and a publishing practice is still alive and well.
Why aren't internet serial novels popular here?
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why aren't internet serial novels popular here?
Maybe the people who used to read magazines rather than books no longer read magazines. The former book readers are most likely still reading books.
Also, are books maybe more affordable, particularly with libraries and digital options?
I also think that reading a novel that isn't serialized is more enjoyable - when I read Dickens and Sherlock Holmes, I found the constant cliff-hangers left over from the original serialization slightly aggravating.
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@Axtremus said in The Serial Novel:
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why did serial novels die?
It has not. Serial novel is still very popular in many other parts of the world. In China, for example, lots of serial novels still getting published on the Internet, many of them also getting made into videos (live action as well as animation) episodically released onto the Internet. Serial novel as an art form and a publishing practice is still alive and well.
Why aren't internet serial novels popular here?
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
@Axtremus said in The Serial Novel:
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why did serial novels die?
It has not. Serial novel is still very popular in many other parts of the world. In China, for example, lots of serial novels still getting published on the Internet, many of them also getting made into videos (live action as well as animation) episodically released onto the Internet. Serial novel as an art form and a publishing practice is still alive and well.
Why aren't internet serial novels popular here?
Attention spans are minuscule online. Long form content is rare.
I do like the idea of serialized novels… the economics probably don’t work anymore.
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@Axtremus said in The Serial Novel:
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why did serial novels die?
It has not. Serial novel is still very popular in many other parts of the world. In China, for example, lots of serial novels still getting published on the Internet, many of them also getting made into videos (live action as well as animation) episodically released onto the Internet. Serial novel as an art form and a publishing practice is still alive and well.
Why aren't internet serial novels popular here?
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
@Axtremus said in The Serial Novel:
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
Why did serial novels die?
It has not. Serial novel is still very popular in many other parts of the world. In China, for example, lots of serial novels still getting published on the Internet, many of them also getting made into videos (live action as well as animation) episodically released onto the Internet. Serial novel as an art form and a publishing practice is still alive and well.
Why aren't internet serial novels popular here?
The driver would be authors, not publishers.
If, say, Penguin or Amazon Kindle gave it a go, you wouldn't give a shit and no one would read it.
But if Stephen King were to write another serial—like a digital equivalent of Green Mile—his readers would eat it up and analysts the world over would write articles about the Great Serial Revival.
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What about if it was minimally ad supported and anybody could read it for free?
Would the ads make it financially viable for the author?
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What about if it was minimally ad supported and anybody could read it for free?
Would the ads make it financially viable for the author?
@Jolly said in The Serial Novel:
What about if it was minimally ad supported and anybody could read it for free?
Would the ads make it financially viable for the author?
I don't even think they need the ads. It's not about the monetization or the marketing, it's all about who's driving it. It has to be the authors.
I don't think most fiction readers read fiction because they believe in the merit of written narratives. I think they read fiction because they love (insert their favorite authors).
So, they'll follow their favorite authors no matter what they do. If they release an audio-only novel, readers who have never used Audible a day in their lives would download the app today.
Same thing with serial novels. If they write it, they will come.
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In some ways, we still have serial novels, it's just that each episode is the length of what used to be a novel.
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In some ways, we still have serial novels, it's just that each episode is the length of what used to be a novel.
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Serial Novel:
In some ways, we still have serial novels, it's just that each episode is the length of what used to be a novel.
Kinda, except for some of the fantasy stuff.
