Marie’s Comments (group member since Mar 06, 2015)

Marie’s comments from the Web Serial Fiction group.

Thanks! And likewise. :)

Oh, exciting! My current serial is called Focal Point (I also wrote Aconitum and Conviction, which are both complete). What's yours? :)

For me, around 2,000 - 2,500 words seems to work pretty well. Since I publish mine on a site with a chapter based voting system (jukepop.com), I would not want to go below 1,500 (it would feel to me, personally, as fishing for votes), but since most readers appear to be reading on the app on commutes and during lunch breaks and want to be able to read a chapter in one sitting, I don't go above 3,000 as a rule of thumb. :)

No problem! And good luck to you. :)

I don't know about frequency, but I think it's fine. As for length, my installments are usually 2000-2700 words, and I think I've spotted a few on there that are longer. :)

Thank you for making this thread, Larry! My serial has been a regular on your list for a while. :) It ends this weekend, though, so next week will be my last. - For a little while at least.

Interesting question and reading!
I agree with what's been made. If I spot a typo, I have no qualms going back to fix it (only qualms with it being there in the first place), and I wouldn't mind doing small changes (like a coffeehouse changing name if it's not pivotal to the plot). But I wouldn't retcon bit plot points, change the name of a main character, add or delete several chapters in the middle or something like that. - That would be reserved for future edits (for publication elsewhere).

Thanks for your thoughts, Kip! That was an interesting read. Admittedly, my current serial is novel being serialised, although I do allow for changes to be made along the way based on reader response. Your point about the importance of structure is really good.

Thanks for your input, Sophia! :)
I see we've had some of the same thoughts regarding serialisation. Before I began, I made certain to have a buffer for a couple of months. And I aim to make my updates of a length that can be read on a commute or the like.

Thanks for the input, Brian! It's definitely a good point. Since I started serialising in August last year, I've missed one update, but I made sure to announce that I was going to (I did it to be able to do a holiday special episode on my personal website), so I agree that it's important.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts! :)

Based on what you say (and my own experiences), I think the length of the updates can play a big part. With short updates, frequent updates keep the attention (and moves the story forward), with longer installments it can be hard to keep up (2 weeksly installments of 10K words would be hard to me to keep up with, at least).

Hi all!

I haven't posted here before, but I was wondering how readers (and writers) of serial novels/prose feel about update frequency.

-Do you prefer it when serials have a regular update schedule, or doesn't it matter?
-Do you prefer daily/weekly/biweekly/monthly (or something else) updates?
-Do you lose interest if a serial is updated too often/too rarely for your taste?
-What influences your preferences? (It could be things like chapter length, the genre of the serial, the hooks/cliffhangers.)

I run a serial novel and update once every week. My chapters are around 2,000 words long, so I feel it's enough to give a good chunk of story that can still be read in one sitting.
But I've come across popular serials that are updated once a month, others that are updated two or three times every week, and some that get handful of new chapters once in a while.

I hope to hear your points of view. :) Thanks!