Chapter by Chapter

Many many authors are putting their backlists on the Kindle and doing very well. Check out Joe Konraths blog and the guest blogs on his site. Also, take a look on the Kindleboards Writer's cafe forum. I would say about a third of the regular posters there are previously published by commercial houses. Click on a cover and go to the book page and you can usually tell who the publisher is when you 'hover' over the edition links. You can also check how well they are selling if you look at the 'Paid Kindle Sales Rank'. Anything less then 10000 is ok and less then 1000 is excellent.

You might also like to look at Stephen King's self-publishing experiment, where he released one of his books chapter by chapter. If I remember rightly, he abandoned the project before it was halfway through.

Old Hack said:

You might also like to look at Stephen King's self-publishing experiment, where he released one of his books chapter by chapter. If I remember rightly, he abandoned the project before it was halfway through.

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In fairness, that was quite some time ago, before the current explosion in self-e-publishing. I hope some folks start reporting whether it's working now, as it will be interesting to see if that technique can work today where it didn't before.

Old Hack said:

You might also like to look at Stephen King's self-publishing experiment, where he released one of his books chapter by chapter. If I remember rightly, he abandoned the project before it was halfway through.

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The Green Mile was first published in six low-priced paperback volumes. The first, subtitled The Two Dead Girls was published on March 28, 1996, with new volumes following monthly until the final volume, Coffey on the Mile, was released on August 29, 1996. The novel was republished as a single paperback volume on May 5, 1997. On October 3, 2000, the book was published in its first hardcover edition.

The novel won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1996.

I think it's an excellent idea to publish a serial, but make sure readers know it's a serial.

There are numerous self-published writers who post five short stories, one at a time, then publish them together as collected stories.

Terie said:

In fairness, that was quite some time ago, before the current explosion in self-e-publishing. I hope some folks start reporting whether it's working now, as it will be interesting to see if that technique can work today where it didn't before.

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I know it was some time ago, Terie: but it's still something to consider.

AmsterdamAssassin said:

The Green Mile was first published in six low-priced paperback volumes. The first, subtitled The Two Dead Girls was published on March 28, 1996, with new volumes following monthly until the final volume, Coffey on the Mile, was released on August 29, 1996. The novel was republished as a single paperback volume on May 5, 1997. On October 3, 2000, the book was published in its first hardcover edition.

The novel won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1996.

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I thought that the series King self-published was called The Plant, not The Green Mile. But I'm not very well-informed about King's works so you might well be right.

Old Hack said:

I thought that the series King self-published was called The Plant, not The Green Mile. But I'm not very well-informed about King's works so you might well be right.

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This is correct. The Plant was self-published. The Green Mile was commercially published using a version of the old serial format.


Re: the OP. I've heard of some trade authors releasing their out of print backlist to Kindle, but I can't remember any names at the moment. I don't think they've done it chapter by chapter, though. I can't imagine folks paying by the chapter, because the smallest amount Kindle allows is $.99, so the typical novel will end up costing them anywhere from $20 on up, depending on the number of chapters.