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Thoughts on Web Serializations
Sunday, January 18th, 2009 09:56 amI'm going to preface this by stating the obvious: Web serialization is not easy; it's not only not for every author, it's not for every story. I believe that web serialization is best done (as in "most profitably," for a number of values of profit) by established writers working in a universe that already has a reader following. It can work for established writers working in a new universe, though it may be more difficult, initially, to drum up reader interest. Web serialization is not, in my not-so-humble-opinion, a good way for a brand-new author to find their audience, nor is it necessarily a replacement for so-called traditional publishing.
Steve and I got into the web serialization gig through necessity. We had created a universe that had a following, the existing novels of which were entangled in a messy publisher meltdown. That same publisher meltdown had entangled many dollar$ owed us in royalty payments. It was December, in Maine, and we were, in a word, broke, with a habit of living indoors and cats to feed. Clearly, something had to be done, and quickly.
We were aware that other authors were experimenting with web serialization -- Lawrence Watt-Evans was serializing an Ethshar novel to meet fan demand; Diane Duane was doing something sort of like it with The Big Meow, Don Sakers was trying yet another variation on the theme. And then of course, there were the web comics.
We decided, Steve and I, that doing something was infinitely better than doing nothing, and that writing for money is honorable work. What we needed to do was come up with a story.
The mainstream Liaden novels were, as above, entangled, so writing the sequel to I Dare was ...iffy. However, there was a character, whom the authors had known about for, well, years. A side character, really, who appears in the very last pages of I Dare and whose story was completely unencumbered.
Now, we're messy writers. When we start writing a book, we have a vague, general idea of where the story may go and where we would like it to end up. We may have a few scenes in mind. Definitely, we have characters in mind. But, for us, the writing is the thing; the joy is in the discovery of the story as it unfolds. (Proof of our messiness -- in case it's needed -- is the fact that the one book-of-Theo we had intended to write spontaneously became two.) Generally, I would think, web serialization should be undertaken by neat writers, who produce and follow an outline. However, as I said, necessity existed.
Steve and I put our heads together, came up with a rough idea, wrote five chapters, agreed that we could do this thing, and announced our intention to the world.
As all of you who have been playing along at home know, the serialization was profitable, for values of profit ranging from feeding the authors' cats; to building a community of interested readers; to producing not one, but two credible drafts; to finding a publisher to willing to adopt the finished novels and distribute them widely.
Win-win-win.
Having now completed two years of web serialization, we did learn some things about the process.
The first thing we learned is: Given the right story, it's fun to do a web serialization.
The second thing we learned is: It's stressful to do a web serialization. Especially during the first year, when there was a lot going on in our professional and personal lives -- not all of it happy; not all of it horrible, but all of it having to be dealt with right now.
Even lacking the outside stresses, it does take a great deal of commitment to write and post that weekly chapter. (Web comics folks who post three times a week, or -- my ghod! -- every single day, my hat's off to you guys. You are made of awesome.) We had started with good intentions, and chapters written ahead, but quickly fell into the pattern of needing to write Monday's chapter on the weekend immediately prior, which meant late nights and, sometimes, opportunity for much-needed relaxation turned aside.
One huge thing that we didn't realize going in was how much ancillary record-keeping, correspondence, and database work would be involved. Because we're writers first and geeks a very distant second, we've fallen behind all the latest and greatest, and had no time to learn. That meant all the html-ing of the chapters, all the data entry, all the tallying of contributions, and posting of how many chapters were funded now -- was done by hand, by us, adding hours to the weekly commitment of writing the chapter.
Frankly, if there is one single thing that would hold me back from ever again doing a web serialization, it's the "side work." It just about killed me, and contributed to the difficulty of meeting the deadlines for the other contracted-for novels that we were writing concurrently with the web drafts.
Though it's wonderful that Baen agreed to publish both books, we learned that there is much more reader excitement generated by having a graph showing how many chapters are funded, versus how many books have found homes.
Also, we learned that having a graph showing how many chapters were funded works against us, in that there are some folks who become...annoyed... that the authors have received "extra money" for their work, and felt that readers were being ripped off. Answering cranky emails accusing me of dishonorable behavior really isn't one of my favorite things to do.
I don't really know how to resolve those things. Perhaps that tidy, outline-oriented author mentioned above wouldn't have this problem.
Earlier, I mentioned that it's important to have the "right story" in order to do a successful web serialization. Theo's stories were, in my opinion, dern near perfect for serialization: They mostly stuck with one viewpoint character to whom interesting things happened. The single-POV storyline is more forgiving of a slightly episodic narrative. Other stories, such as the upcoming Mouse and Dragon, which will almost certainly involve tricky timing and multiple POV switches, are not the sort of story you want to first-draft under the eyes of hundreds.
This has gotten 'way long, and I'm out of insights.
Questions/comments, anyone?
Steve and I got into the web serialization gig through necessity. We had created a universe that had a following, the existing novels of which were entangled in a messy publisher meltdown. That same publisher meltdown had entangled many dollar$ owed us in royalty payments. It was December, in Maine, and we were, in a word, broke, with a habit of living indoors and cats to feed. Clearly, something had to be done, and quickly.
We were aware that other authors were experimenting with web serialization -- Lawrence Watt-Evans was serializing an Ethshar novel to meet fan demand; Diane Duane was doing something sort of like it with The Big Meow, Don Sakers was trying yet another variation on the theme. And then of course, there were the web comics.
We decided, Steve and I, that doing something was infinitely better than doing nothing, and that writing for money is honorable work. What we needed to do was come up with a story.
The mainstream Liaden novels were, as above, entangled, so writing the sequel to I Dare was ...iffy. However, there was a character, whom the authors had known about for, well, years. A side character, really, who appears in the very last pages of I Dare and whose story was completely unencumbered.
Now, we're messy writers. When we start writing a book, we have a vague, general idea of where the story may go and where we would like it to end up. We may have a few scenes in mind. Definitely, we have characters in mind. But, for us, the writing is the thing; the joy is in the discovery of the story as it unfolds. (Proof of our messiness -- in case it's needed -- is the fact that the one book-of-Theo we had intended to write spontaneously became two.) Generally, I would think, web serialization should be undertaken by neat writers, who produce and follow an outline. However, as I said, necessity existed.
Steve and I put our heads together, came up with a rough idea, wrote five chapters, agreed that we could do this thing, and announced our intention to the world.
As all of you who have been playing along at home know, the serialization was profitable, for values of profit ranging from feeding the authors' cats; to building a community of interested readers; to producing not one, but two credible drafts; to finding a publisher to willing to adopt the finished novels and distribute them widely.
Win-win-win.
Having now completed two years of web serialization, we did learn some things about the process.
The first thing we learned is: Given the right story, it's fun to do a web serialization.
The second thing we learned is: It's stressful to do a web serialization. Especially during the first year, when there was a lot going on in our professional and personal lives -- not all of it happy; not all of it horrible, but all of it having to be dealt with right now.
Even lacking the outside stresses, it does take a great deal of commitment to write and post that weekly chapter. (Web comics folks who post three times a week, or -- my ghod! -- every single day, my hat's off to you guys. You are made of awesome.) We had started with good intentions, and chapters written ahead, but quickly fell into the pattern of needing to write Monday's chapter on the weekend immediately prior, which meant late nights and, sometimes, opportunity for much-needed relaxation turned aside.
One huge thing that we didn't realize going in was how much ancillary record-keeping, correspondence, and database work would be involved. Because we're writers first and geeks a very distant second, we've fallen behind all the latest and greatest, and had no time to learn. That meant all the html-ing of the chapters, all the data entry, all the tallying of contributions, and posting of how many chapters were funded now -- was done by hand, by us, adding hours to the weekly commitment of writing the chapter.
Frankly, if there is one single thing that would hold me back from ever again doing a web serialization, it's the "side work." It just about killed me, and contributed to the difficulty of meeting the deadlines for the other contracted-for novels that we were writing concurrently with the web drafts.
Though it's wonderful that Baen agreed to publish both books, we learned that there is much more reader excitement generated by having a graph showing how many chapters are funded, versus how many books have found homes.
Also, we learned that having a graph showing how many chapters were funded works against us, in that there are some folks who become...annoyed... that the authors have received "extra money" for their work, and felt that readers were being ripped off. Answering cranky emails accusing me of dishonorable behavior really isn't one of my favorite things to do.
I don't really know how to resolve those things. Perhaps that tidy, outline-oriented author mentioned above wouldn't have this problem.
Earlier, I mentioned that it's important to have the "right story" in order to do a successful web serialization. Theo's stories were, in my opinion, dern near perfect for serialization: They mostly stuck with one viewpoint character to whom interesting things happened. The single-POV storyline is more forgiving of a slightly episodic narrative. Other stories, such as the upcoming Mouse and Dragon, which will almost certainly involve tricky timing and multiple POV switches, are not the sort of story you want to first-draft under the eyes of hundreds.
This has gotten 'way long, and I'm out of insights.
Questions/comments, anyone?
