Serials - how long, how often, how much?

[thaddeus6th]

Hey, kids.

I've been working on a serial (tentatively entitled Wandering Phoenix and Roaming Tiger) for a little while now, knocking off chapters at weekends, and the first draft is close to completion (I'm not anticipating major changes either, so redrafting won't take long).

It's inspired by Outlaws of the Marsh, my favourite of the Chinese classics, and is a sort of Robin Hood meets Ancient China [NB not set in a specific period of anything]. Lots of action, plot twists and with a nice, fast pace.

However, this does raise a set of questions. It's a bit shorter than I'd anticipated but I don't want to bulk the nine (when finished) chapters out, just to pad and bloat them.

My plan is to release the first two chapters bundled together, for free. They set up the premise and introduce the main characters. That's easy.

But then I'm wondering about the other seven and, if they sell enough (the ending will be open so more can be written) later chapters. Chapters average something like two and a half to three and a half thousand words. I had planned to release a few for 99p and a few for free (to effectively decrease the average price), but the size means that I now think bundling them together in either two or three sections would make more sense.

As for release timings, I'd release the first (free) part and the second (paid) at the same time, with the third (and fourth, if there is one) maybe a week or fortnight later.

I'm wondering whether it'd be better (assuming four parts) to go like this:
Free-Paid, fortnight gap, Free-Paid
or
Free-Paid, fortnight gap, Paid, perhaps gap, Paid

What would be best, do you think? At the moment, I'm leaning towards the first option.

The first chapter (half the initial free section) will probably end up on the Critiques board at some point, for those curious. I'm also thinking of trying to use my expert* drawing prowess to sketch a few of the characters for promotional purposes.

Anyway, your thoughts, suggestions, questions and interpretive dances are all welcome.


*using an extremely broad, and possibly deceitful, definition of the word

 

[Juliana]

Free-Paid, fortnight gap, Free-Paid
or
Free-Paid, fortnight gap, Paid, perhaps gap, Paid

Tough one! The second looks like it makes more sense from a $ point of view, but you know the sales side a whole lot better than I do. Would you be able to split it into 5, and have Free-Paid, fortnight gap, Free-Paid-Paid? Just a thought...

Anyway, your thoughts, suggestions, questions and interpretive dances are all welcome.

I am doing the Dance of Imminent Internet Sales for you as we speak. It is an incredibly difficult series of movements. I hope you appreciate it.

 

[tinkerdan]

You lost me with 'serial' but that's just my personal preferences.
If you ever decide to make a novel out of it let me know.

As to the sequence I'd say Free and then paid from there at whatever pace you can manage. The quicker the better for those poor people who do like serialized books.

If you give the first one free and it's a well written tale that should be enough to get the ball rolling and there is no real advantage to priming the pump every so often at your own expense to regain lost momentum.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

I'm not sure how these things tend to be priced (I rarely venture from full-length novels) but my gut feeling is that you're right to bundle them together in packages of at least 2 chapters; I think 99p for a chapter of 2-3k would probably be too steep.

I know John Scalzi did something similar a couple of years back: he released a story in episodes (1 per week) and I think they were 99p each (though I'm not sure how long they were). I can't find the individual stories on Amazon anymore except for the first, The B-Team, although it's the German language version. The entirety seems to have been released as a novel now, The Human Division (£5.22 on kindle) so I guess they pulled the individual episodes. Could be worth checking out though - there's a bit on Wipiedia about it:The Human Division - Wikipedia

My suggestion would be to space out releases evenly, whether it's a week or 2 weeks apart, perhaps like this:
Free -> 1 or 2 week gap -> Paid -> 1 or 2 week gap -> Free -> 1 or 2 week gap -> Paid

Sounds interesting, Thad, and I love the title - very evocative!

I am doing the Dance of Imminent Internet Sales for you as we speak. It is an incredibly difficult series of movements. I hope you appreciate it.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Thanks for the responses so far, do keep them coming (and if you just agree with a prior post do feel free to say so to help me see which route is likelier to go down well).

Gonk, the only exception I'd want to make is the initial Free Part 1 and Paid Part 2. I'd like people who enjoy the free start to immediately be able to get the second part because:
1) delicious, juicy money
2) [even more importantly] it'll decrease the chances of them just forgetting about it
3) it'll increase the interest (hopefully) so that when the next part is out they'll have a stronger feeling of how splendiferous the story is and how much they want to read about the characters

Tinkderdan, yeah, I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but that's cool. And maybe the free bit I'll put up here will entice some people who otherwise wouldn't go for it.

Juliana, is that like the Safety Dance? Many thanks.

 

[ralphkern]

The common consensus among the big hitters at the moment is to hold off on releases until you have either the whole series done if trilogy length, or at least three books if longer and release at no more than monthly intervals.

Obviously that is a little different from the serial method - which does seem to be a model noone is particularly using at the moment (I presume as an old hand you're aware of the price / royalty thresholds). There are difficulties with price pointing it, and not to mention cover art costs go up massively.

The three chapters, I presume are going to be novella length? Maybe something in that, price pointing at free, $2.99, $2.99 then say an omniubus at $4.99.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Thanks, Ralph. For art, I'm going to probably do the cover myself in a stylised way (it'll be pretty straightforward and I'll use essentially the same cover for the lot). Because of the nature of a serial, it'll only be available as an e-book so it will be much less of a faff that doing a wrap-around cover.

What I might do, as a long term approach (assuming it goes long term), is to get a given narrative arc completed, then release the instalments weekly or fortnightly. I think that could work from both a writing and reading perspective. I could also vary the cover slightly for each arc.

I'm also thinking, as mentioned elsewhere, of doing sketches of the main characters and using those in the serial entries and/or as promotional material. Obviously I'd have to get those all done ahead of time but I'm not wedded to a release date, and I need some light redrafting anyway.

 

[Juliana]

I'm also thinking, as mentioned elsewhere, of doing sketches of the main characters and using those in the serial entries and/or as promotional material.

I did this for Heart Blade (at least, I paid someone to draw character art for me), as I'm sure you know, Thad. I've used the images on places like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram – images always seem to get more shares/likes and it's been nice to have something to show besides the cover. I also had postcards printed with the art which I've given away on release day, and to bloggers, and others. I did the whole art/postcard thing more for my own personal amusement, to be honest (I love looking at character art on the internet), but people who have received them have shared the cards on social media, so it all adds to the buzz. (I've already had people ask me which characters I'm doing for book 2!)

 

[thaddeus6th]

Cheers, Juliana, good to hear it might work (and congrats on your own success in that area).

Ha, after grumbling about it maybe not being long enough, the last chapter has decided it wants to be longer than I'd planned