Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
If you're looking for a shorter (aka 'get to the good part before I've read a whole novel') web serial work, some options:
That's part of it. A lot of the big web serials are huge, update faster than all but the most productive conventional writers, and leave the author space to test ideas that you'd have trouble publishing or having recognized anywhere.
It's also just a broader option. The approach has a lot more space than even Kindle Unlimited-focused sales, and vastly more than conventional publishing. Worm's starter 'novel'-worth, or Edge Cases might have been able to get a conventional publisher, but if so only for the same reason that A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet would, and probably only after loading up thirty or forty heavy-handed hints for the main twist; something like Blue Core (cw: don't recommend) or Contention just wouldn't happen.
That said, there's also something interesting specific ritual of the long-form story with a scheduled release and regular in-progress discussion that's become far more available to this genre at the same time that its conventional media competitors dropped it. Reading With This Ring every morning or Ar'Kendrythist every weekend lets you think about what's coming up or what the deeper meaning of a plot point is in a way that fixed stories don't really do anymore, between normalized binge-watching for television or an emphasis on closed novels in written media. I don't think I'd have examined Jinyu's arc in FLCL Progressive without someone else asking and having a week to think on it, for example.
It's also just a lot more monetizable. That's a mixed blessing, of course. Some authors definitely get brain-cored by the internet or be driven nuts by the pressure and immediate stochastic feedback, but some people do thrive in that environment. For readers, you can end up a whale just trying to follow three or four series, be stuck knowing there's a hundred-plus chapters of a story that'll get in normal publication sometime, or find that a series you loved got dropped close to a major climax.
More options
Context Copy link