What's a Serial and Why Would I Read
One?
by Susan Kaye Quinn, author of a new future-noir serial
called The Debt Collector
Covers for Debt Collector, Episodes 1, 2, and 3
A serial is a series of episodes - or short stories - that
are connected to tell a larger story.
Must Read TV
Serials are actually a lot like a TV series, which
themselves vary a lot in type. Series
like Law&Order and House
are more self-contained, with only a few character storylines
carrying over from episode to episode. Series like Lost or Heroes would
be difficult to watch out of order because the storylines carry more strongly,
sometimes with cliffhangers, sometimes not.
Some readers like the week-by-week suspense of Must
Watch TV; others would rather wait until the season is done and get
it from netflix so they can watch it back-to-back. Likewise, some readers enjoy
the suspense of reading a serial episode-by-episode as they're released. Others
would rather wait until the entire serial is complete and read it all at once. Either
is fine!
Is a
Serial a New Idea?
Ebook serials are a new thing, because ebooks are a new
thing - but serials have been around since Charles Dickens wrote and
released Great Expectations (self-published
through his own literary magazine!) in 6,000 word "installments"
every week for nine months. Readers today aren't accustomed to reading in
serial format because publishing serials was restricted to magazines, which
didn't have wide circulation. Now with ebooks, the cost of transmission is low
and the distribution is wide. Ebooks have revived the short story form! But for
readers raised on novels, who crave longer works and more in-depth stories,
serials are the next natural step.
Is a
Serial a Novel Cut Into Pieces?
No. A serial is not a chopped up novel, just like a
TV episode is not a chopped up movie. It's a different way of telling stories.
In a way, it's more demanding to write than novels - you need to immediately
draw the reader in, you have to reach some kind of reader-satisfaction-level by
the end of the episode (even if you have a cliff-hanger), and you have to
maintain that pace and storytelling arc over multiple episodes. But all that
hard work on the part of the author makes it (potentially) more enjoyable for
the reader.
Can
You Name Some Successful Serials?
Yes!
Hugh Howey's Wool
Platt &Wright's Yesterday's
Gone
These are all recent bestselling serials that drew audiences
in and helped revitalize the serial form.
Readers tell me that they're enjoying the short episodes -
they can read them quickly over lunch or in an evening and get a full
"story" worth of entertainment. The fast pacing means there's a lot
of story packed into a short number of words. Readers also say they enjoy the
anticipation of finding out "what will happen next" much like a TV
series where you get invested in the characters. Think about how a favorite TV
series will sometimes focus one episode on one character or another, diving
into their backstory. As a writer, I like that I can go in-depth a little more
in each "episode" than I could in a novel, giving a richness to the
story and characters that might be more difficult to do in a novel format.
All serials eventually come to an end, just like a
"season" of your favorite TV series. Whether you enjoy reading
serials as they release, or want to wait until the complete season is out so
you can read the episodes back-to-back, serials are a fast-paced, exciting way
to enjoy a story.
As a writer, I find serials are the hardest writing I've
ever loved.
Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling YA SF
Mindjack series. Her new Debt Collector serial is her more grown-up SF. Her
steampunk fantasy romance is temporarily on hold while she madly writes
episodes to keep Lirium (the titular Debt Collector) happy. Plus she needs to
leave time to play on Facebook.
Susan has a lot of degrees in engineering, which come in handy when dreaming up
dangerous mind powers, future dystopias, and slightly plausible steampunk
inventions. Mostly she sits around in her pajamas in awe that she gets make
stuff up full-time. You can find her at www.susankayequinn.com
What's your life worth on the open
market? A debt collector can tell you precisely.
Delirium (Debt Collector 1) is now available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble,
Kobo, iTunes,
Smashwords.
See the Debt
Collector website to check all the latest episode releases and goings
on in the Debt Collector world.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDelete