Castle's serialized ?pulp novel had me thinking about what kind of serialized work I would read, and how good it would have to be for me to pay for it. I think I'd pay $0.10 or $0.25 for a good, solid scene. Genre doesn't particularly matter? The key is that the writing needs to be good, be engaging, and leave me wanting more. Microserialized LOST.
It's an interesting question. This type of fiction used to be published in magazines, meaning there was something more than a snippet from a single work to draw a reader's attention. I know that Castle isn't the only guy working to revive the format, but does it work as stand alone? Speaking for myself, I'd probably be much more likely to subscribe to a bundle of stories, say five or six different authors in each volume, each time getting 10% of the novel, but five or six novels, not just one. For that I'd probably pay three to four dollars per issue, figuring that if just one or two of the serialized works were well done, it would be a worthwhile investment to find the gems.
That would be interesting, and might be a way to introduce new authors. Like watching several TV shows at once. With the amount of social feedback these days, I think the format could work really well. Think of what Sherlock Holmes could have been like if ACD had been on Twitter.
I'm better at Short stories, never tried a serial as dramatic tension is already my weakness. I'm gonna be mulling it now though
Why not both? Volume 1 -- 3 short stories + 2 serial novels; Volume 2, 2 serial novel continuations, 2 short stories, 1 essay; etc.
Certainly something worth trying, given that creative writing was the original purpose of Wordforge, and we've had writing contests in the past. Marketing it outside WF, though (which I think is @mburtonk's suggestion), would be a little more complicated. Yeah, okay, self-publish on ebook platforms (create a Wordforge brand/publishing company?); that's actually the easy part. The hard part is deciding what's included and what's not.
also a thought to consider, thematic connection. You might really have something if the ongoing novels (novellas?) bridged across 2-4 thematic sets. Just off the top of my head Loneliness Journey Confrontation Redemption Make your shorts all exist in the same "world" but be unconnected except that they all share a world with the novelas which ARE connected from one volume to the next If there were 10-12 shorts in all, averaging abut 5k words per, and the two novellas each totalled 20k on average, you'd have a total of 90-100k words which would be well worth the accumulated spending (say 2.99/5.99/8.99/11.99 for an example - total cost comparable to a fat hardback. It could be glorious if the content was worthy
