Preparing for launch

At some point you have to hit the button

Don’t rush it. That’s the #1 tip for launching your serialised book, especially if it’s your first one.

Tip #2 is, don’t wait around until everything is perfect. If you do that, you’ll never start.

There’s a lot of details you’ll want to get right before you drop that first chapter, because first impressions matter and if a potential reader is discouraged by something you could have easily remedied, you’re not going to be able to get them back.

I’m going to assume you’ve already sorted your story’s title, the cover and the blurb. That’s what I covered last time. Next up it is all about you. It doesn’t matter if a book is well presented, if the author looks like the digital equivalent of having just rolled out of bed.

Choose your platforms. There are lots of options these days, but don’t feel that you need to go after every single one. It might be better, especially at first, to target a single platform and really go deep. I started out solely on Wattpad, which enabled me to understand and engage with its community of readers. It’s not only about the risk of spreading yourself too thin: it’s also a simple matter of time and practicality. Updating a serial on multiple platforms simultaneously can be a significant admin task, and possibly an extra burden you’d rather not take on straight out of the gate. Remember that you might end up receiving comments on every single platform you use; how much you interact with your readers is up to you, but you don’t want to end up with so much administrative faff that it starts to eat into your actual writing time.

I’ve whittled mine down to this Substack, Wattpad and Royal Road. Those are the ones that give me the best reader response versus effort.

Regardless, everywhere you have a presence will have similar requirements. A profile picture, a bio of some sort, external links. You want to make sure these are all of high quality and that they’re also consistent. As an author you have a personal brand which you need to cultivate and protect, so make sure you don’t have embarrassing, inappropriate or simply bad profile pics. Make sure your bio isn’t riddled with typos.

Don’t be shy. If you have interesting experience that is relevant, do mention it. I always mention that I won a Watty Award for A Day of Faces and that I’m a Wattpad Star. I mention how I’ve given talks about serialisation at festivals, and that I’ve delivered training for organisations people will have heard of like the BBC. It’s not showing off; it is giving people assurance that I’m worth their time. If you don’t have those kind of credits don’t worry - you’ll still have a personal story of some sort that explains how you ended up being a writer and publishing a serial story.

Your story makes you unique, and it’ll appeal to potential readers and start to create that author-reader bond that is so valuable.

As writers we’re terrible for feeling imposter syndrome. To say “I’m a writer” is a real challenge and a mountain to climb. But don’t deprecate yourself in front of your readers - by all means discuss your anxieties with other writers and friends, but to your readers you have to always be The Author. They need confidence in you, as a person, as a creator of stories, as someone who will finish the damned project. That last one is especially important - nobody wants to start reading a serial if they’re worried it’ll never be completed.

Once you’ve got your profiles all sorted, you might want to consider laying some foundations before you begin serialising your main project. Maybe post some short stories, so that people can get a taste of what you do, and to demonstrate that you have a breadth of work. When you start publishing your main project, your profile will look all the richer for it. You’ll also be able to wrap your head around the inevitable quirks of each platform while experimenting with less important stories. That way you’ll have everything figured out for when you begin full serialisation.

You can also make judicious use of non-fiction to start spreading the word. Share your writing insights and tips on technique and craft, or write a journal about your writing journey. Go behind-the-scenes of your project and reveal some of its creation to future readers. This can be done on your chosen platforms or you can do it elsewhere and use it to point people towards your fiction. I sometimes put my non-fiction up on Medium. This Substack newsletter is a combination of both. It’s always about finding the right audiences in the right places.

Remember that your online serial doesn’t have to take exactly the same form as A Book. You can play with the form because you’re not governed by page counts and print costs. Put up teaser material in advance of the first ‘proper’ chapter, or share illustrations of your lead cast. Conduct faux interviews with your characters, before they appear in the main story. Have some fun, so that people are prepped for the main event.

Make sure you tell people. Be proud of your work. Value it. Believe in it. Tell friends and family and ask them to tell people. Share it on the social media channels you use. Mention your book every time you get an opportunity. Do this before you actually start serialising it, so that it starts to worm into people’s brains nice and early. Make sure there’s some sort of landing page available ahead of time that you can point people at to find out more, even before the story itself begins serialising. Are there communities you’re part of who would be interested, online or in person?

Keep an eye on the quality of all your material, in terms of spelling errors and typos, unintentional broken grammar and so forth. Even if you’re doing a live write and publishing as you go, make sure you build in time to give each chapter a few read-throughs and edits before you hit publish. Multiple typos in the opening paragraph of your book is bad news.

Finally, set a date. Figure out when you’re going to start serialising your book. Pick a day that you know you’ll be able to stick to, like every Friday, for the duration of the book. Get that date out into the wild so that people can start to get excited, and so that you’re held to account. It’s a scary thing to do but it makes what you’re doing real.

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Thanks for reading. I hope that was of use. There’s one more week of my Writing Serialised Fiction guide and then it’ll be complete - for now - and available as an online resource here. Please do point people this way if you think they might be interested.

Mondays will continue to be my writing life/behind-the-scenes/craft newsletter, but they’re likely to be less structured that what I’ve done thus far. Expect more analysis of Triverse as I publish it, and reports and finding on other publishing-related activities.

As an example, I’m in the process of getting my previous book, No Adults Allowed, ready for publishing via Amazon. This means a lot of formatting, research and other prep work, and I’ll be sure to share my findings as I go. Old news to many of you, I’m sure, but there’s always new people discovering this stuff.

Until next time.

SKJ