Should the series be a serial?

I have been considering turning the series into a serial as of late. This idea was actually put into my head by my publisher and the reasoning for this was presented to me thus:

1) I write about 10,000 words a day. After all the rewrites and edits, this translates to about a book per month. Though the publishing industry has hastened certain processes in the past few years, publishing books as quickly as I can write them is not one of its new powers. Publishing smaller works would speed the rate of distribution and get the books to readers faster.

2) The books in the series are long, so long that they need to be split into volumes if I want to get anything like a decent turnaround time from critics and reviewers. Commander and Den Asaan is three volumes and is over 300,000 words. I splitt the books into volumes where there is a natural peak and resolution in the story. Splitting them down into serial format would create more suspense and allow for those who don't have time to read much during the day to catch up quickly. Comics do this, and now even some manga-based novels are beginning to do the same. Maybe they have the right idea.


There are over 30 books in the series, each of them following various arcs involving what is now a 200-character cast. 5 books in the series have already been published, but I could get them out faster (says my publisher) if I broke them into arcs of about 25,000 words. There are logical breaks between chapters where this could easily happen, which is why I began considering the idea. Twisk and I have always said this series would make a decent Anime; making it a serial would only bring it closer to that profession.

I'm interested to hear what you gents and ladies have to say about this. Do you prefer books with a new book every few months, or would you prefer a serial with a new novella-sized publication every few weeks?

Comments

  1. Wow! First of all let me say 'wow' at how prolific you are! 10K a day! I'm seriously impressed!

    Now, to answer your question; I think most people like novel sized books - around the 80K mark. Considering the amount you write, I don't think you should be breaking them down much smaller. People like to be able to pick up the next in the series, but you don't want the common complaint you see in reviews of 'good but too short' if you break it down to novella size when you don't really need to.

    Just my two cents of course! Good luck making the decision!

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  2. 25k word serials seem like quite a lot. Are you thinking about publishing it online?

    Perhaps get a good backlog of novels to be slowly released, and once that's all in the pipe, perhaps move on to something else under a pseudonym or something like that.

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  3. Personally, I think I would rather read a new book every few months rather than a serial. Hey, but that's me, a madman, Mr. Vegas!
    Personally, I think the market isn't right for a serial unless you are talking a graphic novel.

    Thanks!

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  4. You're quite prolific, and the serial idea is a good one. Good luck. Novellas are good reads.

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  5. 10K a day! Holy moly! :) I would prefer a book-sized work, but I read in the genres of urban fantasy, paranormal romance, dystopian, etc. If you write epic fantasy, the market might like something different, I'm not sure. Do you plan to introduce graphics in your books (curious since you mentioned manga, etc.)?

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  6. I see the plus side to the shorter novellas and I love Twisk's art and your short story pieces so I would be totally into a graphic novel idea. However, my own personal taste is for a nice fat novel that I cannot breeze through in a day. I love the stories so I'd buy them either way to be honest.

    Thanks for asking!

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