St. Martin's to Publish E-Serial

Ava Glass · Jan 2, 2012

Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency recently sold a six-episode e-serial by Allison Rushby called The Honourables to St. Martin's Press.

pitched as DOWNTON ABBEY for the New Adult market where triplets, estranged since birth, are suddenly brought together and forced to compete for their inheritance

S. Jae-Jones, an editorial assistant at St. Martin's, describes e-serials as:

a series of digital-only discrete dramatic novella-length “episodes” that advance an overall “season” narrative arc through 4-6 installments, published in at regular intervals at a low price.

We are conceptualizing e-serials as a loose bridge between a full length novel and a TV show. An e-serial episode is analogous to a one hour drama, one installment of a season of dramas.

Anyone know of other publishers, especially Big 6, doing this? Can we query this sort of thing yet? Right now, I'm doubtful. Rushby is an established author and the whole thing is pretty experimental at this stage.

I think I would personally self-publish an e-serial because I wouldn't want my series to be unceremoniously cancelled when a publisher doesn't like my sales numbers. You know, like in television.

ETA: I think I would go with a publisher if I had a pre-set number of episodes and my contract guaranteed they would all be published. I just wouldn't want to hastily wrap up my story or watch it simply stop.

san_remo_ave · Jan 2, 2012

eHarlequin has been publishing e-serials for a while, usually 3 at a time. They're called 'online reads' and they issue a new chapter daily or weekly. To my knowledge they're written by request of their existing authors.

Angela James · Jan 3, 2012

One of my project goals for 2012 is to contract an e-serial for Carina Press. I've always wanted to do one, and when we met and did our 2012 business goals and priorities last month, this was one of mine!

Torgo · Jan 3, 2012

superluminal said:
Anyone know of any other publishers, especially Big 6, doing e-serials? Can we query this sort of thing yet? Right now, I'm doubtful. Rushby is an established author and the whole thing is pretty experimental at this stage.

Random House Children's Books have done three in the last couple of years: Mortal Kiss and a sequel with Stardoll, and Root with the Guardian.

Fiction Express is a serial-only indie publisher.

Lest we forget, Wimpy Kid was originally a serial.

I'm sure there are more out there. It's an interesting publishing model.

yttar · Jan 3, 2012

Angela James said:
One of my project goals for 2012 is to contract an e-serial for Carina Press. I've always wanted to do one, and when we met and did our 2012 business goals and priorities last month, this was one of mine!

I have a story I've always wanted to do as an e-serial. So I was wondering what length were you looking at for each installment? And what length were you looking at for the overall story?

Yttar

Torgo · Jan 3, 2012

yttar said:
I have a story I've always wanted to do as an e-serial. So I was wondering what length were you looking at for each installment? And what length were you looking at for the overall story?

Yttar

Just to butt in, my rule of thumb would be about 1,500 words for a daily instalment, or 5-6K for a weekly instalment. The former gives you about 3-5 minutes' reading.

The trick for this sort of delivery method is to fit in with people's natural internet browsing rhythms, I think. Get someone coming back five days a week for a chapter they can read in a coffee break.

Angela James · Jan 3, 2012

yttar said:
I have a story I've always wanted to do as an e-serial. So I was wondering what length were you looking at for each installment? And what length were you looking at for the overall story?

Yttar

I haven't cemented my plans yet, so anything I say here shouldn't be quoted or taken as firm, but I'm unlikely to do more frequent than an installment every other week, and probably more like monthly, in which case, I'd be looking for around at least 10-15k per installment, with upwards to 25k or so, per installment. I don't have a set length for overall story. Really, right now, since I'm still in the planning stages, everything is pretty flexible, but in reality, our word counts are flexible anyway.

Ava Glass · Jan 3, 2012

I wonder about the cost of all the thumbnail (aka cover) art.

I also don't think stock photos of people would work, unless one finds a series using the same model(s), or has a lot of different characters in the same story.

Same picture used over again, but with different text?

Ava Glass · Jan 3, 2012

Torgo said:
Random House Children's Books have done three in the last couple of years: Mortal Kiss and a sequel with Stardoll, and Root with the Guardian.

Fiction Express is a serial-only indie publisher.

Torgo said:
Just to butt in, my rule of thumb would be about 1,500 words for a daily instalment, or 5-6K for a weekly instalment. The former gives you about 3-5 minutes' reading.

It seems to me like you're describing the kind of serial where readers are dribbled chapters as opposed to the novella/novelette version of a TV show, which is what St. Martin's is doing.

Scribhneoir · Jan 3, 2012

Angela James said:
I'm unlikely to do more frequent than an installment every other week, and probably more like monthly

Serial novels are an interesting idea, but as a reader, if the installments weren't more frequent than that, I'd lose interest.

Torgo · Jan 3, 2012

superluminal said:
It seems to me like you're describing the kind of serial where readers just get dribbled chapters as opposed to the novella/novelette version of a TV show, which is what St. Martin's is doing.

This is true. I also think what St M's is doing may need some fine-tuning; I'm not convinced by 6 novelettes unless the gap between each instalment is, say, a week. If we're using the TV analogy.

Ava Glass · Jan 3, 2012

Torgo said:
This is true. I also think what St M's is doing may need some fine-tuning; I'm not convinced by 6 novelettes unless the gap between each instalment is, say, a week. If we're using the TV analogy.

I personally don't see what would be wrong with a 1-2 month gap between episodes and longer between seasons if the word count is sufficient and enough plot threads are contained within each episode.

The description of The Honourables mentions Downton Abbey. That show has plotlines that are just for the episode. It also has threads spanning 2-3 episodes. Other storylines span the season. Some straddle seasons. Then there's the series arc.

If I had a month between installments, I'd do away with the 2-3 episode plotlines and focus on episode-contained A, B, and maybe C plots with season and series arcs. Leave the reader with a sense of closure, but worrying about what's to come.

Angela James · Jan 3, 2012

Scribhneoir said:
Serial novels are an interesting idea, but as a reader, if the installments weren't more frequent than that, I'd lose interest.

One thing I've learned after a decade in publishing: no matter what I do, I'll never do it exactly right for every reader

St. Martin's to Publish E-Serial

Ava Glass

san_remo_ave

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Angela James

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yttar

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Torgo

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Angela James

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Ava Glass

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Scribhneoir

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Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

Ava Glass

Angela James

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