Last year, my good friend Karly Kirkpatrick came up with this revolutionary idea: we should write serials, like a TV show, then release them every couple of weeks.
I respected Karly's opinion, but I thought it would be a TON of work for little payment. A serial is short (7,500 - 15,000 words), so it's not worth pricing above 99 cents. For self-pubs, a 99 cent sale on Amazon garners just a 35 cent profit.
I filed the idea away in the back of my head. I hadn't written short stories in years, even though in the late 90's I'd sold quite a few (under my real name - lol, yes, I have more names than I can keep track of too) to magazines. Short stories weren't my favorite medium. Karly had an interesting idea, but not one I was ready to pursue.
One year later, I'm doing just that. Working on a set of five novelettes. Each has its own storyline, but they are part of a bigger story that spans all five books. Starting October 23rd, I'm going to release my mini-series.
The debut is 10/23, then every two weeks through 12/18 I'll release another story.
It's been quite an adventure. I never announce release dates until I'm done editing. With this series, I have deadlines imposed on me that I must keep. It's good motivation to write, if nothing else.
And yes, I'm doing this under another pen name - Isobel Lucas. Why? The books have more language and sexual content than my readers are used to. The last thing I need are 12-year-olds picking up these books. The mom in me can't stand the thought.
Okay, so back to serials. A couple of weeks ago, Amazon announced they're starting up a serials imprint. More and more authors are taking this path. It should be interesting to see if the reading public enjoys the concept. ePublishing is a really fluid place - the rules change all the time. I'm just having fun experimenting with the medium.
Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber
5 comments:
Good Luck. Looks like fun!
Yet another thing that proves you should ALWAYS listen to me. hehehehehe
This sounds really cool. I remember when horror writers like Stephen King and John Saul were doing serials and I ate them up! I'm looking forward to another serial to devour.
I think you're right. The electronic delivery means we're not limited to physical book-length manuscripts once or twice a year. So we can have all different length manuscripts coming out at different frequencies.
This is such a cool idea! Man, I wish I had more hours in the day -- I mean days in the weekend -- to try more writing ideas!
Post a Comment