Well hello again Writingforums.org! It's been far too long, and I can't tell you how glad I am to be back. In honor of my return (presumptuous? I think so.) I would like to post a question here. It might belong in publishing or plot development more than here, but we'll see. Although it's been briefly covered on this forum before, I find myself wondering why there isn't a market for serialized short-fiction. Note: Serialized short-fiction is what I'm calling short stories written in episode format, similar to television. With the number of times it has come up on this forum and others, writers are clearly churning out this kind of work. So...why aren't people responding? With the popularity of television, the decreasing lengths of modern novels, and the rise in self-publishing (in conjunction with e-books) one would imagine this concept wouldn't be as reviled as it is. So, the direct question is: Why do you think this form of fiction hasn't taken off? I look forward to hearing some theories
the thing is, where/how would it be disseminated?... it would require magazines that find it financially beneficial to feature such series... and i don't know of any that do... if there are some, i suspect they're all too few, for writers of same to have much chance of having their work accepted/published... btw, welcome back, mw! love and hugs, maia
Why thank you! With traditional print, I think you certainly have a point. It's difficult enough for literary journals and magazines to stay afloat without picking up an ongoing series. How about the non-traditional means of e-books? It hasn't taken off there either, which I suspect is reluctance to pay money for a short story. However, with how easy it is to publish an e-book, I'm surprised that we don't see individual authors doing this.
But what, in an e-book format, would be the advantage of serialization? Not cost of production, certainly, as it was when serials were published in days of yore. Not cost to the consumer. Not ease of access (the need to return to the source periodically to "pick up" the latest installment being more work than buying a single work). I realize that serialization allowed for a certain type of storytelling that had a certain character, but the form evolved over time and for reasons other than the character of the narrative.
