Congratulations on your success as a fiction writer. I was accepted into the International Poetry Hall of Fame in 1997. Out of a 12 book poetry series, I was able to publish my 1st poetry book on July 26th, 2013. Then years later in 2019, I was able to get my 1st Horror Novel published on October 17th, 2019, then my second horror novel was published on April 30th, 2021, by my publishing company Book Baby Publishing Company -Bookbaby.com. I'm still working on my horror novel series.
How would you recommend going about finding readers for someone who wants to write & publish strictly fiction on Substack? I know you mostly focus on the fiction but with a healthy dose of writing advice & nonfiction in between so I was wondering if/how you'd change your strategy if you were doing just fiction.
Yeah, that's the real question, isn't it? I used to only do fiction back when I was on Wattpad, but of course I then had the benefit of their big reader userbase and the algorithm (which seemed to like me for a period). I only started doing the about-writing stuff properly in 2021 when I moved to Substack. It was mainly because I enjoy doing it and have always loved watching behind-the-scenes stuff on movies, games, music etc, and you don't tend to get as much about books (well, if you exclude the grotty get-rich-quick nonsense, anyway).
What I hadn't quite realised at the time is that having the two sides to the newsletter would be really useful in terms of getting readers. It's worked well - though there is a caveat, which is the open, ongoing question of how many of my subscribers are here for the fiction at all. And is that even a problem, if it is the case? I'm not sure!
It's also worth noting that while I've been able to grow the free list successfully (far beyond what I'd anticipated), my conversion rate for paid subscriptions is terrible. Note my lack of orange tick. :)
But to get back to your point...I'd head to places like BookFunnel, to do some group promos and collaborations with other writers. That's how I got started with this newsletter, in fact, as it was long before the days of Substack being 'a network'. BookFunnel was the foundation of my newsletter, in those early days. It's not free to use, but it always seemed like a much better (and cheaper) investment than doing, say, paid ads.
Otherwise, it's then about old fashioned networking. And this is something I should do more of, in fact. Contacting other writers. Getting to know fiction writers in your area (thematically or geographically!). Commenting and being involved in discussions, so that you're a visible presence (not in a "hey, check out my link!" annoying way, ofc). Consider contacting fiction podcasts to see if you can go on, or reviewers. Literature festivals. Bear in mind you don't necessarily have to talk about Your Book (which can be difficult or feel overly salesy) - you can also contribute your general expertise/enthusiasm for a genre, or a style of writing, etc.
I'm still figuring this out myself, to be honest. I think we all are?
Thank you, it's reassuring to know that you're still figuring it out too!
Of course, I might have been asking about something that's not exactly your expertise but I'm grateful for the helpful suggestions anyway! I guess all we can do is exchange advice & ideas, give it a try & see what works for us. It might be different depending on what you're writing, which readers you want to attract, what sort of community you want to build around your Substack etc.
As for paid sub conversion rate, I guess it's inevitable since in your case, almost all content is available for free? I hesitate to paywall too much as well since this is not Patreon & I feel readers expect some degree of free material here but personally, I'd like to experiment with a different ratio of free vs. paid & see how that works. I believe authors should be able to ask for some sort of compensation, however small, in a way that doesn't feel icky. And I also believe that readers tend to forget we (or rather, some of us, obviously not everyone) want to live off of our writing if we don't give gentle reminders every now & then.
Anyway, let's keep figuring it out together! And a huge thank you for all the advice you give around serial writing on Substack!
I do have loads of “Substack stuff” questions, one of them, which is the closest to what I think this q&a is about follows:
Serialisation vs one off digital “book” products.
Why not simply write small “e-books” and publish on Amazon Kindle? Or as well as a serialised set of content on here?
Through my eyes, I love my kindle and unless I can read book content there, I usually don’t bother.
Eg I have started your series from the beginning but reading through PC / iPad just doesn’t do it for me. It’s too much of a pain for where / when I prefer to read (in bed at night).
I’m interested in your thoughts particularly re reader preference / £,s income balance.
I guess in other words, I know you’ve published paperback / kindle (I think) books - so why do you choose to serialise on Substack (is it for income?) IF you think the reader convenience issue I note above is real?
If I was more organised I probably would release periodic collections of Triverse stories. That's a matter of time more than anything else.
Given I have only a certain amount of time, though, serialisation, chapter-by-chapter, is what interests me. I love writing it, and the form itself. I like the cumulative aspect to it, and how it encourages a regular writing habit.
From a marketing/promotion angle, I've never really understood how to get any form of success on Amazon. And I'd still be at the mercy of Bezos and his algorithms there, whereas Substack gives me a lot more independence. On Amazon I'm borrowing their customer base; here, my readers are my readers.
However! That's all about me, and none of what I just said speaks to the reader experience. I entirely agree with you about that: Substack has work to do. It's fine if someone is reading along and gets a new chapter in their inbox, but it's not a good experience for anyone catching up (as you've tried to do). It doesn't fit into the way people like to read fiction.
That's a big reason I provide an ebook version of Triverse for paid subscribers: much more convenient and it can be loaded onto a kindle or similar device.
I hope we'll see some movement from Substack around the user experience for fiction readers. Chris Best, co-founder, has talked about it a lot. At a Substack gathering last night I cornered every Substack employee I could find and made them promise to look into it. So, fingers crossed!
Serial fiction is what I like to write. But you're right that I should be putting out collections in other formats more frequently. 100%.
Thanks Simon. Can I ask a probably further cheeky question. About price & how you square the circle.
So someone can do paid subscription to your Substack & get a triverse ebook which will load onto kindle, however that is done. Great.
But… how does that “work” price comparison wise, if a subscription is £5 per month say (I don’t know what yours is, just an example) for x weeks / months to read the ebook, with say paying £5 once off for a kindle ebook? (I get in reality it might be multiple one offs as triverse seems like more than 1 ebook).
The alternative seems to be - There seems to be a fair few people on here basically sending people off to a “product” store site (not Amazon).
My issue is I like Substack and it costs me nothing. If I never turned paid on, sent folk to a product store, then if everyone did that, Substack itself would cease.
listening to one of John Ward’s interviews with Substack folks, it seems Substack want to do “product sales” alongside subscription. Which would be good I think but god knows when that will be.
Yeah, if Substack incorporates individual item sales things could get really interesting. Lots of implications there (good and bad and unpredictable!).
Pricing-wise it probably doesn’t make huge sense. Hence I’m not expecting anyone to subscribe in order to ‘buy the ebook’. A paid sub is a gesture of support, and there are some perks which are my way of saying an extra thank you: the ebook, booking video calls, accessing the full archives (hopefully other bits in the future).
If a Triverse ebook or paperback exists in the future and someone just wants to get that and be done, that’s fine. Similarly, I’ve said to people that if they really want the ebook version in order to catch up, but don’t want to or can’t afford to subscribe longer term, then it’s totally fine to just subscribe for a single month, grab the ebook and cancel. Not a problem.
It’s all very relaxed, basically. Which is probably why I’m not making as much money as I could be! But I like the casual vibe. And the fact that some generous people have chosen to take out subscriptions anyway makes it extra special.
I am beginning my own process of standing up a serialized fiction. Is there any specific way I need to go about? Is writing the story all at once best and breaking it up by chapters a way of doing this? Do you have an outline or goal in front of you where you want the story to go?
There's no right or wrong way of doing it. Most people seem to write and edit the entire manuscript ahead of time, before starting the serialisation. I'm on the other end of the spectrum, in that I write and publish as I go. Others are somewhere in the middle - they may not have finished the manuscript, but they have a healthy buffer of chapters already completed.
Even though I publish as I write, I do still have clear notion of where the story is going. I find that's essential for delivering a satisfying story, which feels like it's got direction and momentum.
Interesting question! The way I write has a lot of forward momentum, and I do plan ahead a fair bit, so have never found myself in entirely unexpected territory. That said, sometimes thematically a book can end up being about something slightly different, or deeper, than what I'd originally had in mind.
I think I've got better at this over time, too. My very first serial, back in 2015, definitely evolved more obviously as it progressed. By the end it was something quite different to what I'd initially envisioned. These days, I make sure I have a good roadmap to follow. :)
You mentioned Book Funnel as a way to find readers. Would you be willing to create a how-to post on your process? I would be interesting in reading how that translates to generating interest for a serial. I've heard of Book Funnel and have used it when reading bonus scenes from some of my favorite short story romance authors.
On Sept 4th I'll be publishing the 100th and final chapter of my debut serialised novel. It's taken me almost exactly a year.
I've been writing a second novel too, linked to the first to create the start of a series.
Weirdly, I feel more nervous about launching this second one than the first. I want to make sure it links up okay; that there's a suitable interval, but not too long; I don't want to lose my existing readership, etc etc.
** Do you have any advice on how to successfully segue one serialised novel into another, especially within the same series? **
One up-front caveat, in that I've not done that myself. :) I've serialised more than one novel, but they haven't been connected.
I wonder whether looking to some of our non-fiction comrades is the way to go. Mike Sowden over at Everything Is Amazing publishes in themed seasons. There's a continuity through all of his stuff, but he collects it all together in the seasonal groups, and often links between them. Conceptually that might be the way to go.
what kind of a break are you thinking between the books? A couple of weeks, a month? Longer? If it was me, I'd fill in some of that gap with behind-the-scenes stuff, introducing the new project and leading in to its actual debut.
Thanks for these thoughts, Simon. I'm already subscribed to Mike, but just been dipping in to-date - he has some fascinating science dives!
His 'seasons with interlinks' structure is indeed interesting. For me, a season would have (no. of chapters/2) as its total week count.
As I'm using a separate Substack for my series, l guess I could go up a level and assign each series volume/novel its own individual section. Then I could port my series subscribers across to each new section when created at each season start .
Then maybe give the backstory stuff its own top-of-page nav link, as a lot of it will be common to at least the first 3 novels (I've 6 planned – think big, why not!).
As for the gaps between novels - maybe a month? Fill it with chat discussions for those that have read it? Promote a published ePub version of the completed novel? Try to funnel more people through the paid subscription tunnel?
Thanks for helping me brainstorm! Hopefully, this also gives other folks a few ideas.
I have no idea if I’m doing it successfully, but I made a master index to all the books/serials and that is linked to the top of every chapter along with the link to the index for that particular serial.
The gap between the first and second was filled with “behind the scenes” style posts. The gap between the second and the third is currently filled with a short serial, separate from the series but set in the same universe.
The second way seems to be working better in that I’ve picked up a few subscribers?
I really need a way to tap back into the first book for newbies beyond including the link in every monthly digest.
This is great info, Leanne. Thank you. I've had some ideas for minor character spin-off adventures, but hadn't thought about using them as series fillers (perhaps I should watch more Star Wars on Disney+!). I also do need to amend my navigation for the second novel. Currently, I've linked every chapter *within* a novel to a full index/contents page, plus prev/next chapter nav links. However, that won't allow for another layer of up/down navigation *between* books in the series. So lots to think about - it's like building a house extension! Thanks again.
What's the single best decision you've made with your serials—whether that was a creative decision or a meta-writing one like marketing/format/delivery?
Then, rather than asking about a "worst mistake," what's the most important lesson you've learned that you had to learn the hard way?
For me, the best decision was to write and publish at the same time, putting out chapters before the whole manuscript was finished. It's not for everyone, but this was the quirk that got me writing consistently and productively. Prior to publishing week-by-week, I would always abandon projects or get distracted by something new and shiny. I had tons of half-finished projects, and had never published anything.
Then I tried serialising my work, as a short experiment, and discovered that I loved it. And I realised that just one reader on the other end was enough to keep me coming back each week. I stumbled upon the perfect format for me in terms of storytelling, but also for being consistently productive.
For 35 years I'd never finished or published anything. In the 10 years since I started writing serials, I've completed 3 major novel-sized projects and am nearing the end of my fourth. I've published an ebook and paperback of one of them. I've ended up somehow with a newsletter and almost 9,000 subscribers. Some subscribers even pay to subscribe, supporting what I do financially, which I still can't quite get my head around. As a consequence of publishing like this, I've met a ton of fascinating writers, I've spoken at festivals and have been invited on podcasts, have taught workshops. I'm pretty sure my consistent fiction writing and (more recently) the newsletter have been contributing factors to getting a couple of day jobs I've had.
None of which is to show off: but the point is that I wouldn't have done ANY of that, without that initial thought of "I wonder if serial fiction could be fun?"
In terms of a hard lesson, it's realising that Substack is quite awkward for fiction, and that I had to do a lot of heavy lifting around indexes, navigation, onboarding, structural clarity and so on. Writing on Substack has been absolutely the right decision for all sorts of reasons, but I certainly underestimated how much UX stuff Wattpad had been doing for free back when I published there.
I'm a beginner about to embark on my Substack journey, and hopefully serialisation too. Any tips to get me started? Things to do, and things NOT to do...
I am currently writing fiction on Substack, and I post my stories one chapter per day during the run of the story (generally 31 chapters per story). I have a NOVELS tab on my navigation bar and my first story began on Oct. 1 and ended on Oct. 31. I am going to post my next story beginning Dec. 26 and ending on Jan. 31, 2026. I would like to have each story listed on a separate page so a reader can click on a title and read the story's chapters in order, instead of having all chapters of all stories on the NOVELS tab. Is there a way to do this? I don't want to create a new tab for every story, because I plan to write several of them and I'm afraid my navigation bar will be overwhelming.
I’d suggest having that Novels tab go to an index where you list your different stories, and then readers can hop into whichever one they want.
At the moment your top nav 'Novels' option goes to you Novels 'section', where all the posts within that section are listed. The way to do this is like this:
1. Create a new post where you introduce and link to your stories.
2. In your dashboard settings, turn off the current 'Novels' menu item and add a new, custom one that links straight through to the new post you just made.
3. You can also 'pin' that new post so that anyone who does end up in the 'Novels' section gets to see the intro post first.
You can see the way I've done it if you go to my home page and then click 'Tales from the Triverse'. https://simonkjones.substack.com/
Hi Simon - I imagine you will say it depends on my goals. However, it was suggested by several “experts” here on Substack, that I could get more eyes on my fiction if I found a hook/product to bring them in (and monetize) that way.
There’s a definite connection between my stories and real life applications (older women seeking friendships and purpose). But all of this work takes me away from writing my fiction and at 72, I question what I’m doing just to finish writing and publishing a book series. Thank you for you insight.
The dual nature of my newsletter, having the non-fiction tips stuff on Mondays as well as the fiction on Fridays, has definitely helped it grow overall. But that was less of a 'strategy' and more that I really enjoy writing both of those things, and always have done, one way or another, long before I had a newsletter.
If there's another aspect that genuinely interests you, and which might work as a more direct way to find subscribers, than that's great. But I'd advise not to force it for the sake of growth - you'll just make yourself miserable.
You could try looking for readers via other techniques. For example, using something like BookFunnel to run group promos with other authors, using a sample of the book, or a previous work. I'll be writing about this soon.
But yes, write what you enjoy writing. Life is too short to do otherwise (regardless of anyone's specific age!!).
Hi Simon. Thank you for your response. It couldn’t have come at a better time. A few days ago, I was miserable and I pulled back entirely on the nonfiction. You’re right. I was forcing it and it was taking over my life so I haven’t had time or energy to write my fiction or edit my first book.
I do enjoy writing some posts on what I’ve learned through my years and in the last two days since I pulled the plug, I have realized what I could do. One is to increase my awareness of how this material naturally can flow through my fiction. And secondly when I want to write nonfiction, just write it!!
Thank you for recommending Book Funnel. I have looked at it but not fully. When I’m closer to ready with this first book, I will. I look forward to your article on that.
Thanks again Simon. I appreciate your time and information.
The contradiction with the newsletter game is that if you try to force it, people can smell that anyway. Whereas if you write normally and follow your interests, even if you post erratically, and don't follow any of the best practice advice, it'll probably work out in the end because it'll come across as being more genuine.
Unless you actually need to run a newsletter as a legit business, it's better to just sit back and enjoy the ride, I think.
I get that and I’m fortunate that I don’t NEED to publish anything more. I still have my Desert container garden newsletter from the business I sold in 2012. I teach classes on Zoom through our Botanical Gardens and have my books there and on Amazon. The money I bring in from those is enough to pay my business expenses and keeps my name out there. Plus a few of my 2700 garden followers have come over to my fiction. Life is good. 😊
Really interesting question, and one that applies to any story. Not just serials.
It depends a lot on the type of story. Some are best told plainly and clearly; others benefit from mystery, or obfuscation, There's no right or wrong, just what is appropriate.
This is also why narrative structure is really important to think about up front, before you start. Are you going to tell your story in first person or third person? Are you limiting it to a single point of view throughout, or will you swap between multiple characters? Is the narration strictly limited and subjective to those characters, or is there an omniscient narrator who holds all the strings?
My first serial I wrote 1st person, which gave it a really distinct voice. But I also found it difficult, because I couldn't easily cut away to show what was happening elsewhere. That restricted the story - sometimes in interesting ways, sometimes in frustrating ways.
My second serial was 3rd person because I knew it was a fantasy epic, and needed multiple perspectives. But I kept it very strict: a chapter would be locked to a specific character.
Triverse is different again, and much looser. I hop between characters within chapters quite happily. It's also an anthology series, more episodic than novelistic, so I'm quite happy to go off on slight tangents or focus on minor characters if it benefits the story.
Sorry, that was a REALLY long-winded way of saying 'it depends'. :D
My story is also a fantasy epic. But I restrict 99.99% to one pov every chapter.
I hope around between the 2 MC's but only use another POV when it serves te story or create interesting possibilities.
Like how I went from following the MC twins to two brothers 18 years earlier to see how their lives changed by something that is related to the MC's parents and now comes back to haul t the twins.
But thanks for the long winded answer :) good stuff
I recently joined this 'newsletter' after stumbling upon your substack via a recommendation by Oliver Evensen, so my questions are naive. You probably already addressed them in the past Q&A – Sorry about that.
1. Although I read and write in English all the time, French is my first language. I'm therefore considering writing my first novel (serialized or not) in French for better fluency and vocabulary. Do you know if serialized fiction has an audience in other languages? Or is it better to aim for the English-speaking public?
2. I love the idea of publishing (and reading) serial texts in chapters. I guess the first portion or even the whole thing would be free at first, but how do you see the commercial aspect of it? Is monetization possible, at least to recoup some of your time investment?
3. How do traditional publishers see serialized text if you have already published it online beforehand?
Great blog/newsletter and I'll delve into your gigantic Tales from the Triverse soon!
Sorry I didn't reply earlier! Your comment slipped through the net. So -
1. I don't think I'm qualified to answer this one, as I really have very little idea about how much of a French-speaking audience there is on Substack, or for serial fiction generally. I would assume there IS one, but don't know either way. Only one way to find out, I suppose? English would open up a larger potential audience, but it also depends on which language you're most comfortable writing in. (offering both would presumably be too much work?)
2. It's possible, but not easy. You can release paperbacks and ebooks of the finished thing. You can paywall the story, though that's tricky if you don't already have a dedicated readership. Or you can do a bit of a mix: maybe have it free on release, but then the archive gets paywalled. I think at first you do have to decide between building and growing you audience, and trying to make money. It's hard to do both at the same time, until you have a firm foundation.
Scheduling posts is something you do when you go to publish. At the bottom of the post settings, just before you hit the publish button, is an option to turn on scheduling. You can then pick the day and time! That's all there is to it. :)
I wrote my first serial in 2009 and upon reader request turned that into a book. After that I wrote seven more books in the same series, not published as serial online but only as ebook, paperbook and later audio.
However, looking at the new tools that are now available for web serials including monetization I am tempted to go back to serial fiction online. One caveat is of course wether to do a one-long-forever-serial like the ones that are succesful on Royal Road combined with Patreon or perhaps rather try to do a serial consisting of several shorter stories.
What is your thoughts on this? I am wondering if people will go back to read episode/chapter 1 if they stumple upon #458 of that serial? Or perhaps that is where you put out paper/ebook collections and sell those to people discovering you later?
Another challenge I see is that the story in a serial that is written and published before finished should probably more or less linear and progressing since you cant go back and edit to insert stuff like you often do when editing a novel.
Thanks for your interesting posts on serial fiction - and doing these AMA:s!
At the moment I think Substack is best suited to shorter serials and short stories. I say this as someone who is three and a half years into writing an epic serial! Royal Road is set up specifically for long serials, and provides a natural experience for readers. Substack, on the other hand, is designed primarily for essays, non-fiction articles and magazine-type content.
Until Substack makes some changes to the reader experience, there are some barriers.
In terms of chapter numbers, and whether someone will bother going back to chapter 1, or indeed be interested in hopping on board at chapter #458, this is something I wrestled with early in writing Triverse. I originally included chapter numbers in the titles for each post, but after the first 20-or-so I became increasingly conscious that it was starting to look like homework. To a new reader, it would appear to be an insurmountable amount of stuff to catch up on.
Hence Triverse chapters don't have numbering. I shifted to presenting individual storylines, which function semi-standalone, and which come in multiple parts. So there might be 5 numbered parts to a specific story, but I don't provide a number for the overall chapter position.
The main trick here is that I don't present every single post/chapter, of which there are now hundreds. I just link to the start of each story. A 7-parter is a single item on the index. It makes the project more approachable, I think.
What do you think of the idea of using Substack to build your readership by not charging for access, and then trying to monetize later by using Kickstarter to defray the costs of publishing?
I tried out various models of paywalling in the early days, back when I had a couple hundred subscribers (if that!). I quickly found that any form of paywalling, or early access, didn't really work. All it did was stop people from reading, which stopped people from subscribing. Unless you already have a massive list, or are a high profile writer, it's hard to make it work.
I've found it more effective to make pretty much everything free, but with an option for people to take out a paid subscription in order to support the work. There's also less pressure that way, as people are paying for a 'product', and it's more of a patronage model.
Once you've built a significant list, you can then think about doing other things: paywalling some pieces, or the archive, or harnessing that list towards ebooks or kickstarters.
It's about traditional marketing funnels, really, and figuring out how to get people in the door, and then what to do with them over time.
Congratulations on your success as a fiction writer. I was accepted into the International Poetry Hall of Fame in 1997. Out of a 12 book poetry series, I was able to publish my 1st poetry book on July 26th, 2013. Then years later in 2019, I was able to get my 1st Horror Novel published on October 17th, 2019, then my second horror novel was published on April 30th, 2021, by my publishing company Book Baby Publishing Company -Bookbaby.com. I'm still working on my horror novel series.
How would you recommend going about finding readers for someone who wants to write & publish strictly fiction on Substack? I know you mostly focus on the fiction but with a healthy dose of writing advice & nonfiction in between so I was wondering if/how you'd change your strategy if you were doing just fiction.
Yeah, that's the real question, isn't it? I used to only do fiction back when I was on Wattpad, but of course I then had the benefit of their big reader userbase and the algorithm (which seemed to like me for a period). I only started doing the about-writing stuff properly in 2021 when I moved to Substack. It was mainly because I enjoy doing it and have always loved watching behind-the-scenes stuff on movies, games, music etc, and you don't tend to get as much about books (well, if you exclude the grotty get-rich-quick nonsense, anyway).
What I hadn't quite realised at the time is that having the two sides to the newsletter would be really useful in terms of getting readers. It's worked well - though there is a caveat, which is the open, ongoing question of how many of my subscribers are here for the fiction at all. And is that even a problem, if it is the case? I'm not sure!
It's also worth noting that while I've been able to grow the free list successfully (far beyond what I'd anticipated), my conversion rate for paid subscriptions is terrible. Note my lack of orange tick. :)
But to get back to your point...I'd head to places like BookFunnel, to do some group promos and collaborations with other writers. That's how I got started with this newsletter, in fact, as it was long before the days of Substack being 'a network'. BookFunnel was the foundation of my newsletter, in those early days. It's not free to use, but it always seemed like a much better (and cheaper) investment than doing, say, paid ads.
Otherwise, it's then about old fashioned networking. And this is something I should do more of, in fact. Contacting other writers. Getting to know fiction writers in your area (thematically or geographically!). Commenting and being involved in discussions, so that you're a visible presence (not in a "hey, check out my link!" annoying way, ofc). Consider contacting fiction podcasts to see if you can go on, or reviewers. Literature festivals. Bear in mind you don't necessarily have to talk about Your Book (which can be difficult or feel overly salesy) - you can also contribute your general expertise/enthusiasm for a genre, or a style of writing, etc.
I'm still figuring this out myself, to be honest. I think we all are?
Thank you, it's reassuring to know that you're still figuring it out too!
Of course, I might have been asking about something that's not exactly your expertise but I'm grateful for the helpful suggestions anyway! I guess all we can do is exchange advice & ideas, give it a try & see what works for us. It might be different depending on what you're writing, which readers you want to attract, what sort of community you want to build around your Substack etc.
As for paid sub conversion rate, I guess it's inevitable since in your case, almost all content is available for free? I hesitate to paywall too much as well since this is not Patreon & I feel readers expect some degree of free material here but personally, I'd like to experiment with a different ratio of free vs. paid & see how that works. I believe authors should be able to ask for some sort of compensation, however small, in a way that doesn't feel icky. And I also believe that readers tend to forget we (or rather, some of us, obviously not everyone) want to live off of our writing if we don't give gentle reminders every now & then.
Anyway, let's keep figuring it out together! And a huge thank you for all the advice you give around serial writing on Substack!
I do have loads of “Substack stuff” questions, one of them, which is the closest to what I think this q&a is about follows:
Serialisation vs one off digital “book” products.
Why not simply write small “e-books” and publish on Amazon Kindle? Or as well as a serialised set of content on here?
Through my eyes, I love my kindle and unless I can read book content there, I usually don’t bother.
Eg I have started your series from the beginning but reading through PC / iPad just doesn’t do it for me. It’s too much of a pain for where / when I prefer to read (in bed at night).
I’m interested in your thoughts particularly re reader preference / £,s income balance.
I guess in other words, I know you’ve published paperback / kindle (I think) books - so why do you choose to serialise on Substack (is it for income?) IF you think the reader convenience issue I note above is real?
Ooh, great questions.
If I was more organised I probably would release periodic collections of Triverse stories. That's a matter of time more than anything else.
Given I have only a certain amount of time, though, serialisation, chapter-by-chapter, is what interests me. I love writing it, and the form itself. I like the cumulative aspect to it, and how it encourages a regular writing habit.
From a marketing/promotion angle, I've never really understood how to get any form of success on Amazon. And I'd still be at the mercy of Bezos and his algorithms there, whereas Substack gives me a lot more independence. On Amazon I'm borrowing their customer base; here, my readers are my readers.
However! That's all about me, and none of what I just said speaks to the reader experience. I entirely agree with you about that: Substack has work to do. It's fine if someone is reading along and gets a new chapter in their inbox, but it's not a good experience for anyone catching up (as you've tried to do). It doesn't fit into the way people like to read fiction.
That's a big reason I provide an ebook version of Triverse for paid subscribers: much more convenient and it can be loaded onto a kindle or similar device.
I hope we'll see some movement from Substack around the user experience for fiction readers. Chris Best, co-founder, has talked about it a lot. At a Substack gathering last night I cornered every Substack employee I could find and made them promise to look into it. So, fingers crossed!
Serial fiction is what I like to write. But you're right that I should be putting out collections in other formats more frequently. 100%.
Thanks Simon. Can I ask a probably further cheeky question. About price & how you square the circle.
So someone can do paid subscription to your Substack & get a triverse ebook which will load onto kindle, however that is done. Great.
But… how does that “work” price comparison wise, if a subscription is £5 per month say (I don’t know what yours is, just an example) for x weeks / months to read the ebook, with say paying £5 once off for a kindle ebook? (I get in reality it might be multiple one offs as triverse seems like more than 1 ebook).
The alternative seems to be - There seems to be a fair few people on here basically sending people off to a “product” store site (not Amazon).
My issue is I like Substack and it costs me nothing. If I never turned paid on, sent folk to a product store, then if everyone did that, Substack itself would cease.
listening to one of John Ward’s interviews with Substack folks, it seems Substack want to do “product sales” alongside subscription. Which would be good I think but god knows when that will be.
Yeah, if Substack incorporates individual item sales things could get really interesting. Lots of implications there (good and bad and unpredictable!).
Pricing-wise it probably doesn’t make huge sense. Hence I’m not expecting anyone to subscribe in order to ‘buy the ebook’. A paid sub is a gesture of support, and there are some perks which are my way of saying an extra thank you: the ebook, booking video calls, accessing the full archives (hopefully other bits in the future).
If a Triverse ebook or paperback exists in the future and someone just wants to get that and be done, that’s fine. Similarly, I’ve said to people that if they really want the ebook version in order to catch up, but don’t want to or can’t afford to subscribe longer term, then it’s totally fine to just subscribe for a single month, grab the ebook and cancel. Not a problem.
It’s all very relaxed, basically. Which is probably why I’m not making as much money as I could be! But I like the casual vibe. And the fact that some generous people have chosen to take out subscriptions anyway makes it extra special.
I am beginning my own process of standing up a serialized fiction. Is there any specific way I need to go about? Is writing the story all at once best and breaking it up by chapters a way of doing this? Do you have an outline or goal in front of you where you want the story to go?
There's no right or wrong way of doing it. Most people seem to write and edit the entire manuscript ahead of time, before starting the serialisation. I'm on the other end of the spectrum, in that I write and publish as I go. Others are somewhere in the middle - they may not have finished the manuscript, but they have a healthy buffer of chapters already completed.
Even though I publish as I write, I do still have clear notion of where the story is going. I find that's essential for delivering a satisfying story, which feels like it's got direction and momentum.
I visualised my process somewhat in this post, which might be of interest: https://open.substack.com/pub/simonkjones/p/the-story-loom?r=3rwg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Thank you for the reply and direction, I have more reading to do. The story loom seems like a helpful method that’ll I’ll have right keep in mind.
Did the story ever take you to such an unexpected direction that if you didn’t serialize you’d edit a lot in the previous chapters?
Interesting question! The way I write has a lot of forward momentum, and I do plan ahead a fair bit, so have never found myself in entirely unexpected territory. That said, sometimes thematically a book can end up being about something slightly different, or deeper, than what I'd originally had in mind.
I think I've got better at this over time, too. My very first serial, back in 2015, definitely evolved more obviously as it progressed. By the end it was something quite different to what I'd initially envisioned. These days, I make sure I have a good roadmap to follow. :)
You mentioned Book Funnel as a way to find readers. Would you be willing to create a how-to post on your process? I would be interesting in reading how that translates to generating interest for a serial. I've heard of Book Funnel and have used it when reading bonus scenes from some of my favorite short story romance authors.
Good idea! I'll see what I can do.
Hi Simon. Thanks for providing this AMA.
On Sept 4th I'll be publishing the 100th and final chapter of my debut serialised novel. It's taken me almost exactly a year.
I've been writing a second novel too, linked to the first to create the start of a series.
Weirdly, I feel more nervous about launching this second one than the first. I want to make sure it links up okay; that there's a suitable interval, but not too long; I don't want to lose my existing readership, etc etc.
** Do you have any advice on how to successfully segue one serialised novel into another, especially within the same series? **
Best, Johnathan
One up-front caveat, in that I've not done that myself. :) I've serialised more than one novel, but they haven't been connected.
I wonder whether looking to some of our non-fiction comrades is the way to go. Mike Sowden over at Everything Is Amazing publishes in themed seasons. There's a continuity through all of his stuff, but he collects it all together in the seasonal groups, and often links between them. Conceptually that might be the way to go.
what kind of a break are you thinking between the books? A couple of weeks, a month? Longer? If it was me, I'd fill in some of that gap with behind-the-scenes stuff, introducing the new project and leading in to its actual debut.
Thanks for these thoughts, Simon. I'm already subscribed to Mike, but just been dipping in to-date - he has some fascinating science dives!
His 'seasons with interlinks' structure is indeed interesting. For me, a season would have (no. of chapters/2) as its total week count.
As I'm using a separate Substack for my series, l guess I could go up a level and assign each series volume/novel its own individual section. Then I could port my series subscribers across to each new section when created at each season start .
Then maybe give the backstory stuff its own top-of-page nav link, as a lot of it will be common to at least the first 3 novels (I've 6 planned – think big, why not!).
As for the gaps between novels - maybe a month? Fill it with chat discussions for those that have read it? Promote a published ePub version of the completed novel? Try to funnel more people through the paid subscription tunnel?
Thanks for helping me brainstorm! Hopefully, this also gives other folks a few ideas.
Here are some others to look into on how to do this (you're not alone in your research!):
https://substack.com/@sereid
https://www.storyvoyager.com/
Thanks, Jade. I'm indeed a fan of Sally and Claudia – both fine writers and dedicated champions of the Substack fiction community.
Both great people!
I have no idea if I’m doing it successfully, but I made a master index to all the books/serials and that is linked to the top of every chapter along with the link to the index for that particular serial.
The gap between the first and second was filled with “behind the scenes” style posts. The gap between the second and the third is currently filled with a short serial, separate from the series but set in the same universe.
The second way seems to be working better in that I’ve picked up a few subscribers?
I really need a way to tap back into the first book for newbies beyond including the link in every monthly digest.
This is great info, Leanne. Thank you. I've had some ideas for minor character spin-off adventures, but hadn't thought about using them as series fillers (perhaps I should watch more Star Wars on Disney+!). I also do need to amend my navigation for the second novel. Currently, I've linked every chapter *within* a novel to a full index/contents page, plus prev/next chapter nav links. However, that won't allow for another layer of up/down navigation *between* books in the series. So lots to think about - it's like building a house extension! Thanks again.
What's the single best decision you've made with your serials—whether that was a creative decision or a meta-writing one like marketing/format/delivery?
Then, rather than asking about a "worst mistake," what's the most important lesson you've learned that you had to learn the hard way?
For me, the best decision was to write and publish at the same time, putting out chapters before the whole manuscript was finished. It's not for everyone, but this was the quirk that got me writing consistently and productively. Prior to publishing week-by-week, I would always abandon projects or get distracted by something new and shiny. I had tons of half-finished projects, and had never published anything.
Then I tried serialising my work, as a short experiment, and discovered that I loved it. And I realised that just one reader on the other end was enough to keep me coming back each week. I stumbled upon the perfect format for me in terms of storytelling, but also for being consistently productive.
For 35 years I'd never finished or published anything. In the 10 years since I started writing serials, I've completed 3 major novel-sized projects and am nearing the end of my fourth. I've published an ebook and paperback of one of them. I've ended up somehow with a newsletter and almost 9,000 subscribers. Some subscribers even pay to subscribe, supporting what I do financially, which I still can't quite get my head around. As a consequence of publishing like this, I've met a ton of fascinating writers, I've spoken at festivals and have been invited on podcasts, have taught workshops. I'm pretty sure my consistent fiction writing and (more recently) the newsletter have been contributing factors to getting a couple of day jobs I've had.
None of which is to show off: but the point is that I wouldn't have done ANY of that, without that initial thought of "I wonder if serial fiction could be fun?"
In terms of a hard lesson, it's realising that Substack is quite awkward for fiction, and that I had to do a lot of heavy lifting around indexes, navigation, onboarding, structural clarity and so on. Writing on Substack has been absolutely the right decision for all sorts of reasons, but I certainly underestimated how much UX stuff Wattpad had been doing for free back when I published there.
I'm a beginner about to embark on my Substack journey, and hopefully serialisation too. Any tips to get me started? Things to do, and things NOT to do...
On Substack specifically, make sure you take the time to customise your welcome emails and your About page. Easily missed, but very important.
For serial fiction, I have all sorts of hopefully useful material. I'd suggest starting here, where you'll find a quickstart 1-pager as well as an entire guide: https://simonkjones.substack.com/p/serial-fiction-toolkit
I am currently writing fiction on Substack, and I post my stories one chapter per day during the run of the story (generally 31 chapters per story). I have a NOVELS tab on my navigation bar and my first story began on Oct. 1 and ended on Oct. 31. I am going to post my next story beginning Dec. 26 and ending on Jan. 31, 2026. I would like to have each story listed on a separate page so a reader can click on a title and read the story's chapters in order, instead of having all chapters of all stories on the NOVELS tab. Is there a way to do this? I don't want to create a new tab for every story, because I plan to write several of them and I'm afraid my navigation bar will be overwhelming.
I’d suggest having that Novels tab go to an index where you list your different stories, and then readers can hop into whichever one they want.
At the moment your top nav 'Novels' option goes to you Novels 'section', where all the posts within that section are listed. The way to do this is like this:
1. Create a new post where you introduce and link to your stories.
2. In your dashboard settings, turn off the current 'Novels' menu item and add a new, custom one that links straight through to the new post you just made.
3. You can also 'pin' that new post so that anyone who does end up in the 'Novels' section gets to see the intro post first.
You can see the way I've done it if you go to my home page and then click 'Tales from the Triverse'. https://simonkjones.substack.com/
Hope that helps!
Hi Simon - I imagine you will say it depends on my goals. However, it was suggested by several “experts” here on Substack, that I could get more eyes on my fiction if I found a hook/product to bring them in (and monetize) that way.
There’s a definite connection between my stories and real life applications (older women seeking friendships and purpose). But all of this work takes me away from writing my fiction and at 72, I question what I’m doing just to finish writing and publishing a book series. Thank you for you insight.
The dual nature of my newsletter, having the non-fiction tips stuff on Mondays as well as the fiction on Fridays, has definitely helped it grow overall. But that was less of a 'strategy' and more that I really enjoy writing both of those things, and always have done, one way or another, long before I had a newsletter.
If there's another aspect that genuinely interests you, and which might work as a more direct way to find subscribers, than that's great. But I'd advise not to force it for the sake of growth - you'll just make yourself miserable.
You could try looking for readers via other techniques. For example, using something like BookFunnel to run group promos with other authors, using a sample of the book, or a previous work. I'll be writing about this soon.
But yes, write what you enjoy writing. Life is too short to do otherwise (regardless of anyone's specific age!!).
Hi Simon. Thank you for your response. It couldn’t have come at a better time. A few days ago, I was miserable and I pulled back entirely on the nonfiction. You’re right. I was forcing it and it was taking over my life so I haven’t had time or energy to write my fiction or edit my first book.
I do enjoy writing some posts on what I’ve learned through my years and in the last two days since I pulled the plug, I have realized what I could do. One is to increase my awareness of how this material naturally can flow through my fiction. And secondly when I want to write nonfiction, just write it!!
Thank you for recommending Book Funnel. I have looked at it but not fully. When I’m closer to ready with this first book, I will. I look forward to your article on that.
Thanks again Simon. I appreciate your time and information.
The contradiction with the newsletter game is that if you try to force it, people can smell that anyway. Whereas if you write normally and follow your interests, even if you post erratically, and don't follow any of the best practice advice, it'll probably work out in the end because it'll come across as being more genuine.
Unless you actually need to run a newsletter as a legit business, it's better to just sit back and enjoy the ride, I think.
I get that and I’m fortunate that I don’t NEED to publish anything more. I still have my Desert container garden newsletter from the business I sold in 2012. I teach classes on Zoom through our Botanical Gardens and have my books there and on Amazon. The money I bring in from those is enough to pay my business expenses and keeps my name out there. Plus a few of my 2700 garden followers have come over to my fiction. Life is good. 😊
Mate, you are awesome. Having a serial running that long is crazy. I just started and feel nearly intimidated by it haha.
But I do have a question about something I recently ran into while writing my serial.
How do you handle things that happen off-(the fictional)-screen?
Like, say you have a character POV you are following, and someone moves off somewhere else but later returns.
Something happened in the meantime, but there really isn't a way to bring that in anywhere.
The story of that person, however, is interesting to tell. Maybe it is good worldbuilding or a nice side story.
Do you write an interlude chapter for it, or just a side chapter apart from the main serial chapters, or do you just leave it to the imagination?
Really interesting question, and one that applies to any story. Not just serials.
It depends a lot on the type of story. Some are best told plainly and clearly; others benefit from mystery, or obfuscation, There's no right or wrong, just what is appropriate.
This is also why narrative structure is really important to think about up front, before you start. Are you going to tell your story in first person or third person? Are you limiting it to a single point of view throughout, or will you swap between multiple characters? Is the narration strictly limited and subjective to those characters, or is there an omniscient narrator who holds all the strings?
My first serial I wrote 1st person, which gave it a really distinct voice. But I also found it difficult, because I couldn't easily cut away to show what was happening elsewhere. That restricted the story - sometimes in interesting ways, sometimes in frustrating ways.
My second serial was 3rd person because I knew it was a fantasy epic, and needed multiple perspectives. But I kept it very strict: a chapter would be locked to a specific character.
Triverse is different again, and much looser. I hop between characters within chapters quite happily. It's also an anthology series, more episodic than novelistic, so I'm quite happy to go off on slight tangents or focus on minor characters if it benefits the story.
Sorry, that was a REALLY long-winded way of saying 'it depends'. :D
Thanks man.
My story is also a fantasy epic. But I restrict 99.99% to one pov every chapter.
I hope around between the 2 MC's but only use another POV when it serves te story or create interesting possibilities.
Like how I went from following the MC twins to two brothers 18 years earlier to see how their lives changed by something that is related to the MC's parents and now comes back to haul t the twins.
But thanks for the long winded answer :) good stuff
I recently joined this 'newsletter' after stumbling upon your substack via a recommendation by Oliver Evensen, so my questions are naive. You probably already addressed them in the past Q&A – Sorry about that.
1. Although I read and write in English all the time, French is my first language. I'm therefore considering writing my first novel (serialized or not) in French for better fluency and vocabulary. Do you know if serialized fiction has an audience in other languages? Or is it better to aim for the English-speaking public?
2. I love the idea of publishing (and reading) serial texts in chapters. I guess the first portion or even the whole thing would be free at first, but how do you see the commercial aspect of it? Is monetization possible, at least to recoup some of your time investment?
3. How do traditional publishers see serialized text if you have already published it online beforehand?
Great blog/newsletter and I'll delve into your gigantic Tales from the Triverse soon!
Sorry I didn't reply earlier! Your comment slipped through the net. So -
1. I don't think I'm qualified to answer this one, as I really have very little idea about how much of a French-speaking audience there is on Substack, or for serial fiction generally. I would assume there IS one, but don't know either way. Only one way to find out, I suppose? English would open up a larger potential audience, but it also depends on which language you're most comfortable writing in. (offering both would presumably be too much work?)
2. It's possible, but not easy. You can release paperbacks and ebooks of the finished thing. You can paywall the story, though that's tricky if you don't already have a dedicated readership. Or you can do a bit of a mix: maybe have it free on release, but then the archive gets paywalled. I think at first you do have to decide between building and growing you audience, and trying to make money. It's hard to do both at the same time, until you have a firm foundation.
3. It will vary from publisher to publisher, but whenever I've spoken to publishers it's not been a problem. If anything, it shows that a) you are capable of completing projects and b) people like your work. Both very useful things for a publisher to know. I wrote about this more over here: https://open.substack.com/pub/simonkjones/p/does-publishing-online-ruin-your?r=3rwg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Hope that helps!
Great and thanks so much for your answer, Simon! I'll dig deeper into your blog and see what's possible in other languages, too.
I'm still working on my pen name, hence the dubious copycat feeling - haha, sorry about that.
How do I work that scheduling posts thing that everybody except me seems to know how to use?
Scheduling posts is something you do when you go to publish. At the bottom of the post settings, just before you hit the publish button, is an option to turn on scheduling. You can then pick the day and time! That's all there is to it. :)
Still can’t schedule notes through Substack itself tho?
You can’t, though I don’t mind that personally. Scheduling Notes makes it far less personal and direct.
Okay. Thank you.
I wrote my first serial in 2009 and upon reader request turned that into a book. After that I wrote seven more books in the same series, not published as serial online but only as ebook, paperbook and later audio.
However, looking at the new tools that are now available for web serials including monetization I am tempted to go back to serial fiction online. One caveat is of course wether to do a one-long-forever-serial like the ones that are succesful on Royal Road combined with Patreon or perhaps rather try to do a serial consisting of several shorter stories.
What is your thoughts on this? I am wondering if people will go back to read episode/chapter 1 if they stumple upon #458 of that serial? Or perhaps that is where you put out paper/ebook collections and sell those to people discovering you later?
Another challenge I see is that the story in a serial that is written and published before finished should probably more or less linear and progressing since you cant go back and edit to insert stuff like you often do when editing a novel.
Thanks for your interesting posts on serial fiction - and doing these AMA:s!
At the moment I think Substack is best suited to shorter serials and short stories. I say this as someone who is three and a half years into writing an epic serial! Royal Road is set up specifically for long serials, and provides a natural experience for readers. Substack, on the other hand, is designed primarily for essays, non-fiction articles and magazine-type content.
Until Substack makes some changes to the reader experience, there are some barriers.
In terms of chapter numbers, and whether someone will bother going back to chapter 1, or indeed be interested in hopping on board at chapter #458, this is something I wrestled with early in writing Triverse. I originally included chapter numbers in the titles for each post, but after the first 20-or-so I became increasingly conscious that it was starting to look like homework. To a new reader, it would appear to be an insurmountable amount of stuff to catch up on.
Hence Triverse chapters don't have numbering. I shifted to presenting individual storylines, which function semi-standalone, and which come in multiple parts. So there might be 5 numbered parts to a specific story, but I don't provide a number for the overall chapter position.
I then created an index of the stories, which you can see here: https://open.substack.com/pub/simonkjones/p/how-to-read-tales-from-the-triverse?r=3rwg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
The main trick here is that I don't present every single post/chapter, of which there are now hundreds. I just link to the start of each story. A 7-parter is a single item on the index. It makes the project more approachable, I think.
Hope that made sense!
What do you think of the idea of using Substack to build your readership by not charging for access, and then trying to monetize later by using Kickstarter to defray the costs of publishing?
I tried out various models of paywalling in the early days, back when I had a couple hundred subscribers (if that!). I quickly found that any form of paywalling, or early access, didn't really work. All it did was stop people from reading, which stopped people from subscribing. Unless you already have a massive list, or are a high profile writer, it's hard to make it work.
I've found it more effective to make pretty much everything free, but with an option for people to take out a paid subscription in order to support the work. There's also less pressure that way, as people are paying for a 'product', and it's more of a patronage model.
Once you've built a significant list, you can then think about doing other things: paywalling some pieces, or the archive, or harnessing that list towards ebooks or kickstarters.
It's about traditional marketing funnels, really, and figuring out how to get people in the door, and then what to do with them over time.