Think it's best to finish it as a whole first and then start with the next book before I actually release anything. That way I have a backlog of content to work from.
I’m planning on offering binge reads of my serial when it’s done (in a couple of weeks). I haven’t abandoned the numbers yet. Book one finishes on 24, book 2 finishes on 44. I restart the clock with every book/season. I’m also planning (as I move from book 1 into new projects) to make the master index a list of links to the books, and each book will have its own index. Which means editing all the book 1 links possibly so that it’s Previous Chapter | All Chapters | All Books | Next Chapter. With the side project(s), the Books index makes way more sense because some need to be read consecutively and some do not.
Thanks for the great article! I'm still on the fence on "converting" my novel to a serialized chapter by chapter episode release before actually printing the thing. Any thoughts on this? Should I instead write a thing just for serialized format, eventhough most my chapters and scenes feel quite contained with beats and flow? The book I'm writing is a series of novels but they are more of an anthology series than a connected story in the chronological sense.
I think either can work, and it will depend a lot on your style of writing and the specifics of the book.
It also depends what your ultimate aims are: is the newsletter a means to an end, the ‘end’ being selling the book? Will the serial be free to read, and then the book has to be purchased? Will the whole book be serialised, or only some of it? If someone starts reading the serial, likes it, and wants to immediately buy the book to read it in their preferred format, will that be an option?
Ultimately we’re all poking at this thing to see what happens. :) Let us know what you decide!
Agreed!! I also took the TV series approach, starting with “Previously on 6 Little Seeds” (it’s Persephone & Haides, c’mon.). That links to the initial index. Following is often some juicy tidbit from the previous chapter’s cliff hanger. Occasionally, if the situation is really complicated and the opening lines give zero context, I’ll do a quick recap, but mostly I treat it as the TV recap for old readers’ reminder and a juicy snapshot of my writing for newcomers. This was something I’d polled my oldest die-hards about quite awhile back and they like it quite a lot.
The end of the recap snippet always links back to the previous chapter if they want just a short running shot, as well as the Mature Content warning and the Cast of Characters. (Greek Pantheon, ya know.) 😵💫
At the end of the chapter, I put “Up Next” with the tag line, which becomes the Next Chapter link once it’s posted. For my bingers, ya know. And at the very bottom are the links to “Oh you want to start at the beginning now?” which links to the Start Here chapter that sits front & center on the publication. And then the index to the current season.
I also didn’t want the daunting Chapter 236 debacle either. 24 is daunting enough. 🤪 So I’ve separated them into seasons, and in the tagline, not the chapter name, I have L&W7–tagline. Short for Love & War, the second Season, which has its own similar but unique cover from Season 1, Kore & Klymemos, or Season 3, Order & Discord. So the seasons all have “Bleep & Blop” structure, with the same colors and pomegranate motif but a unique cover art that carries all the way down that season’s chapters on the publication main page.
I think that will be way more important when I have multiple worlds/series in their own Sections. That way you’ll always know if you’re getting some random post that has nothing to do with the series you’re currently reading.
Eh. It’s cumbersome. Because you’re right, it’s not designed like Wattpad for the serial reader experience so we have to Jerry rig so hard. A suggestion was once made for Substack to give us the ability to curate Playlists like Spotify. Now THAT would be grand! In the meanwhile we can make indexes that they can bookmark, and Previous & Next links for a bit easier navigation experience.
As for “chapter 14?! Run awaaaay!” I guess as a serial writer, I’m looking for readers like me. I SUCK at following a series every week. I’m a binger, through and through. For TV and books both, so I hope to find my fellow gorge-readers and make the breadcrumbs as easy to follow as possible.
Thanks for this lovely guide! It’s all a grand experiment. 🤜✨🤛
Absolutely! And yes, I don’t worry much about readers being put off by a long serial, specifically because they’re not the readers I’m after. There will always be readers who prefer to wait for the ebook or paperback.
All the heavy lifting is for the readers who do like serial, long-running stories.
Thank you, Simon, another extremely helpful post! I am only four ‘chapters’ into posting my serialised story, and know an index would make things easier for new readers XO.
Following your suggestion, I might switch to parts, seasons and episodes, though my intended structure is an arborescent one—I don’t want to impose a chronological structure, but like the idea of readers following their interest and branching off to different sections via hyperlinks. Example: I refer to a character, or a place, and they can navigate there. I’ll have to add that feature when I have more online though.
Your own structure of standalone pieces allows for that, too, so I’m again grateful that you’ve figured out how to do this!
Question about one-line episode summaries: can we choose what appears at the top of a (social media) preview, or does it have to be the summary? Previews seem to automatically select the first lines of a post.
You can select that, yes! In the post’s settings (the bit you see just before publishing/updating) you can scroll down to the social preview and adjust the image and copy.
Thank you for introducing me to the term ‘arborescent’! What an excellent word.
Thanks for this one, Simon! You’ve been such an important resource as we gear up to launch Stardust Press. Accessibility seems to be the most important element of newsletter serialization, and your approach is the gold standard.
It sure is a lot of work to serialise a book. Thank you for such an informative article, Simon. As a reader I find it extremely helpful. I thought the idea of an Index is fantastic! I read your longer version of how you had divided your book. The index you have added is fabulous! I do have some questions though.
Is it really necessary to divide the book in seasons and episodes to serialise it? Won’t the chapters be enough? I mention this because I’m reading a book of one of my favourite author here in Substack and he has the index too, and If the serialised version opens at a determined chapter say, chapter-9, and I haven’t yet read chapter-3, from the index provided it’s so easy to jump to chapter-3. And, Simon, the way he has distributed the book in a serialised format without the need to break into Seasons and episodes, instead maintaining the continuity with chapters works wonderfully.
Chapters instead of Seasons and episodes work perfectly for me.
Once again, thank you for such an excellent and informative article!
Think it's best to finish it as a whole first and then start with the next book before I actually release anything. That way I have a backlog of content to work from.
I’m planning on offering binge reads of my serial when it’s done (in a couple of weeks). I haven’t abandoned the numbers yet. Book one finishes on 24, book 2 finishes on 44. I restart the clock with every book/season. I’m also planning (as I move from book 1 into new projects) to make the master index a list of links to the books, and each book will have its own index. Which means editing all the book 1 links possibly so that it’s Previous Chapter | All Chapters | All Books | Next Chapter. With the side project(s), the Books index makes way more sense because some need to be read consecutively and some do not.
as a reader I totally agree that when I first find a serial, if it’s already on chapter 13 I will find my way back out
Thanks for the great article! I'm still on the fence on "converting" my novel to a serialized chapter by chapter episode release before actually printing the thing. Any thoughts on this? Should I instead write a thing just for serialized format, eventhough most my chapters and scenes feel quite contained with beats and flow? The book I'm writing is a series of novels but they are more of an anthology series than a connected story in the chronological sense.
I think either can work, and it will depend a lot on your style of writing and the specifics of the book.
It also depends what your ultimate aims are: is the newsletter a means to an end, the ‘end’ being selling the book? Will the serial be free to read, and then the book has to be purchased? Will the whole book be serialised, or only some of it? If someone starts reading the serial, likes it, and wants to immediately buy the book to read it in their preferred format, will that be an option?
Ultimately we’re all poking at this thing to see what happens. :) Let us know what you decide!
Thanks Simon, another very useful article. And well timed - for my Substack journey.
Agreed!! I also took the TV series approach, starting with “Previously on 6 Little Seeds” (it’s Persephone & Haides, c’mon.). That links to the initial index. Following is often some juicy tidbit from the previous chapter’s cliff hanger. Occasionally, if the situation is really complicated and the opening lines give zero context, I’ll do a quick recap, but mostly I treat it as the TV recap for old readers’ reminder and a juicy snapshot of my writing for newcomers. This was something I’d polled my oldest die-hards about quite awhile back and they like it quite a lot.
The end of the recap snippet always links back to the previous chapter if they want just a short running shot, as well as the Mature Content warning and the Cast of Characters. (Greek Pantheon, ya know.) 😵💫
At the end of the chapter, I put “Up Next” with the tag line, which becomes the Next Chapter link once it’s posted. For my bingers, ya know. And at the very bottom are the links to “Oh you want to start at the beginning now?” which links to the Start Here chapter that sits front & center on the publication. And then the index to the current season.
I also didn’t want the daunting Chapter 236 debacle either. 24 is daunting enough. 🤪 So I’ve separated them into seasons, and in the tagline, not the chapter name, I have L&W7–tagline. Short for Love & War, the second Season, which has its own similar but unique cover from Season 1, Kore & Klymemos, or Season 3, Order & Discord. So the seasons all have “Bleep & Blop” structure, with the same colors and pomegranate motif but a unique cover art that carries all the way down that season’s chapters on the publication main page.
I think that will be way more important when I have multiple worlds/series in their own Sections. That way you’ll always know if you’re getting some random post that has nothing to do with the series you’re currently reading.
Eh. It’s cumbersome. Because you’re right, it’s not designed like Wattpad for the serial reader experience so we have to Jerry rig so hard. A suggestion was once made for Substack to give us the ability to curate Playlists like Spotify. Now THAT would be grand! In the meanwhile we can make indexes that they can bookmark, and Previous & Next links for a bit easier navigation experience.
As for “chapter 14?! Run awaaaay!” I guess as a serial writer, I’m looking for readers like me. I SUCK at following a series every week. I’m a binger, through and through. For TV and books both, so I hope to find my fellow gorge-readers and make the breadcrumbs as easy to follow as possible.
Thanks for this lovely guide! It’s all a grand experiment. 🤜✨🤛
Absolutely! And yes, I don’t worry much about readers being put off by a long serial, specifically because they’re not the readers I’m after. There will always be readers who prefer to wait for the ebook or paperback.
All the heavy lifting is for the readers who do like serial, long-running stories.
Tooootally!!!
Thank you, Simon, another extremely helpful post! I am only four ‘chapters’ into posting my serialised story, and know an index would make things easier for new readers XO.
Following your suggestion, I might switch to parts, seasons and episodes, though my intended structure is an arborescent one—I don’t want to impose a chronological structure, but like the idea of readers following their interest and branching off to different sections via hyperlinks. Example: I refer to a character, or a place, and they can navigate there. I’ll have to add that feature when I have more online though.
Your own structure of standalone pieces allows for that, too, so I’m again grateful that you’ve figured out how to do this!
Question about one-line episode summaries: can we choose what appears at the top of a (social media) preview, or does it have to be the summary? Previews seem to automatically select the first lines of a post.
Thanks again!
You can select that, yes! In the post’s settings (the bit you see just before publishing/updating) you can scroll down to the social preview and adjust the image and copy.
Thank you for introducing me to the term ‘arborescent’! What an excellent word.
Aha!! Fantastic, thank you for the tip!
Thanks for this one, Simon! You’ve been such an important resource as we gear up to launch Stardust Press. Accessibility seems to be the most important element of newsletter serialization, and your approach is the gold standard.
It sure is a lot of work to serialise a book. Thank you for such an informative article, Simon. As a reader I find it extremely helpful. I thought the idea of an Index is fantastic! I read your longer version of how you had divided your book. The index you have added is fabulous! I do have some questions though.
Is it really necessary to divide the book in seasons and episodes to serialise it? Won’t the chapters be enough? I mention this because I’m reading a book of one of my favourite author here in Substack and he has the index too, and If the serialised version opens at a determined chapter say, chapter-9, and I haven’t yet read chapter-3, from the index provided it’s so easy to jump to chapter-3. And, Simon, the way he has distributed the book in a serialised format without the need to break into Seasons and episodes, instead maintaining the continuity with chapters works wonderfully.
Chapters instead of Seasons and episodes work perfectly for me.
Once again, thank you for such an excellent and informative article!