Charlotte, I have a lot to say. This is the kind of conversation I like to have over a cortado in a noisy coffee shop.
I’m going to publish serially here on Substack next year. In terms of timing, I will only publish once the book has been edited and beta read, just like my normal publishing process. After the serial release (chapter a week?) is complete, I will publish on Amazon (ebook and paperback) and give my paid subscribers their signed paperback. My serial releases will be free. I’m not worried about folks forwarding or copying and pasting. I agree with Hugh Howey on this one: getting wide readership is more important than copyright and profit. Once your books are popular, the money will come.
There’s too much to unpack regarding your excellent and thorough article, but I will say that the more we (long form fiction writers) publish here the better the interface will become. Particularly if we demand improvements. Substack wants to make money. So they will continue to innovate if it increases revenue. And that helps us writers too.
I love this response so much! And I love cortado. Haha.
I think Substack will keep innovating too, though I hope they don’t turn too social cause I’m enjoying the bot-free environment...
As a reader, my thoughts are that you should do a chapter every couple days at least. Idk a week seems like a long time to wait... but not sure what the norms are.
I'll do a survey early next year and see what my (tiny) audience thinks. In the golden age of serialization, authors like Charles Dickens published weekly in the newspaper. I think I might be more inclined to read at the weekend rather than daily (and would likely postpone reading seven daily chapters until I had time on Sunday morning). We'll see when I launch my stories on Substack next year.
Revisiting novel/story serialization isn't new, of course. The Washington Post published its own David Hilzenrath's novel, "Jezebel's Tomb" in 2008. And of course places like WattPad, Kindle Vella, and folks's own websites are host to serial fiction. But Substack seems to be ideal for writers in that we can dictate our fee (if we want one) in order to afford writing full time (potentially).
I agree that I don't want Substack to become an attention-grabbing social site. But I do want there to be enough discoverability that writers can be seen. Helping each other goes a long way. As Hugh Howey also said, writers are not competing with one another; readers are always looking for something good to read.
Agree! Great examples too. I did a poll on my Facebook to ask how many book chapters friends read per week and most responded saying 1-3 chapters per day. Or nothing.
I think readers are like alcohol drinkers-- either they read a ton or barely at all... So I could see some folks building up the serial episodes and then reading a bunch on the weekend.
I agree, Substack has a way to go regarding serial fiction. It was obviously designed for non-fiction. Regardless, I wrote my second novella one chapter at a time on Substack.
I put it in its own Section so it had a built in index. And I pinned chapter 1 to the top of the section index. I also included links to the next chapter at the end of each chapter.
Unfortunately, Sections are only visible in a browser. App users don’t see them.
One thing I loved about my writing a novel live experiment was I got helpful comments that offered suggestions and caught typos. It was like a group beta read.
But Substack does need to add serial features before it becomes an ideal place for serial fiction. Especially to the app. As reading on an iPad is more like reading a book. If that is what people still want. Future readers may not care as less people read physical books.
I use sections, too, Mark. And I also have a huge table of contents pinned to the top of my main page, but I don't think that shows in the app, either, which is a bummer.
I just checked yours and your index page is pinned to the top of the app! Right after you bio. I think this is the way to go. The only improvement I could see on yours is if you added the link to the next chapter at the bottom of each chapter.
I 100% agree. And congrats on your novella! Pinning chapter one is a great idea. Mostly I see people pinning more of an "about page," describing their publication in general, but chapter one is probably better to suck people in...
Like you said, a main draw for authors to release serially on Substack is the interactive element and the beta group feedback. For example, the novel I'm considering releasing has aviation and meteorology elements, which I've researched and chatted to some experts about, but I'm sure having a link that I could post in a reddit forum or a facebook group for those sections would yield even better feedback.
Ahhh you're making me reconsider releasing mine here in beta! Thank you for this comment!
I enjoyed it. But I naturally write short chapters that work well on Substack (my first novel had 70 short chapters! 🤣) And I love getting comments on my writing. I don't get that with a book on Amazon. Maybe an occasional review, is all.
It is great to have interaction with your readers. One reader corrected me on the difference between one and two-hump camels, which I had no clue, and wouldn't have thought to research. Others offered lots of helpful suggestions (some in the comments, but many via email replies.) It was fun.
Although I did have a few readers waiting for the second book, so that helped. I plan to write the third book in the series on Substack also. It's not like I'm a famous author who sells thousands of books, so I figured why not serialize them first? Then clean them up and put them on Amazon.
Hey Charlotte! I would read a novel via e-mail or the Substack app, but I admit that there are issues with this. I've also used Kindle Vella. I have no experience with Radish.
I think the biggest issue that any author faces is the habits of your readers. Why do people want paragraph indents? Page flips? Some large part of the motivation to want those things is simply because we've always had them. I wish Substack would replicate Medium's rich formatting here. They have improved things a lot, but I would still like drop caps and paragraph indents as you have mentioned.
The navigation issues can be overcome... it's just a very manual process. As you've pointed out, Elle probably has the best lay out for her novels, but that's because she's put in the work. I believe that even her pages may not be as good as they could be. I say that because I believe Substack has released additional navigation tools while she was actively writing her first book. So, she'd have to go back through every single chapter to add them... which would no doubt be quite tedious.
During one of Substack's recent Office Hours an engineer announced the availability of Forward and Back buttons. This was a feature created specifically for serialized content. I asked about the possibility of creating an Index button that would lead people to a Table of Contents and he said that it's already possible to do this. All you have to do is to create a special page that contains your table of contents with links to the relevant chapters. Then, make a button that links to that page. Include that button with all of your stories. That's not a perfect solution, but it is an improvement.
Whether you should release a paid version here or wait? That's a tough call. I would mention that it's okay to release an e-book first and then come back later for print or audio. A lot of traditional publishing houses operate like that. No reason you have to release everything on the same day.
The other thing worth pointing out is that Substack doesn't have an exclusivity clause in their contract. So, you're free to upload your novel to as many places as you like.
This is so helpful! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insight! I did not know about the separate Table of Contents page idea. Makes sense.
On reader preferences, more than past book habits, I think online content with HTML and line breaks have trained our brains to read online text in a certain way. Now, the shorter the paragraph, the more likely it is to seem "important" to our brains. Our eyes jump around more online, or at least mine do. I'm sure someone must be studying this with eye tracking technology.
I also suspect that younger people don't have the same bias towards book formatting because maybe they grew up reading books online or on Wattpad, but I was raised in the Oregon Trail era...
Great analysis! Given Substack's innovation and responsiveness, I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the platform becomes more conducive to reading fiction.
I'm also curious about, and need to do more research on, the other aspects of serialized fiction publishing - e.g. frequency of publication, subscription prices, whether or not a publication also sends out posts other than the serial fiction, etc.
Charging a monthly fee and, let's say, publishing a novel over the course of a year ends up being much pricier for the reader than just buying a novel outright.
Also, while as a writer the thought of publishing fiction on Substack excites me, as a reader, I must confess, not so much! (Due to both the serial and digital aspects of the reading experience).
Same, though I really like the publication Dirt, which is daily, so I think I might be into a daily novel, but haven’t tried reading one yet. Min weekly, but preferably 3x plus per week seems to be the pace. And Amazon Vella is recommending between 1200-3k words per episode.
Pricing is tricky. I’ll discuss that when I write part 2 of this. Still researching that one.
I feel the same way, but I also know that I feel that way because I am used to the book format. Readers in the 19th century only read via serial, often waiting months in between chapters.
Still, I have considerably adapted my reading style since the Substack app came out. I now do more reading in my Substack app than I do in my Kindle app, which has meant that now I read more essays than I do books. And I read more fiction chapters or short stories than I do full novels now. I also much prefer the continuous scroll (page flipping on a phone or iPad drives me crazy).
Because of this, I think it’s less about reading a novel on Kindle vs. Substack, but more about redefining the novel (do you really need to start at the beginning or can you enjoy this one vignette? This one thought or idea?)
I do think the web version is much easier to navigate than the app version. And I’ll have to take that into consideration as I layout my chapters. (Also, FWIW, I would totally write more often if I was doing this full time, but I am not!)
This all makes sense. And I think yours work better than most at the slower speed because they can standalone. Interesting that you don’t enjoy the page turns. That is something I like. Can’t wait for Substack to improve the app!
What a great article, Charlotte! I did read one book on Substack. I waited until it was over and then read it within a week. I had ALL the issues you mentioned here. The most frustrating was when I would stop reading mid chapter and when I went back I had to scroll up and down to find where I left at the previous day. It was so frustrating that sometimes I would just give up and read the chapter again from the beginning.
The ONLY reason why I finished this novel on Substack is because the novel was very well written. Had that no been the case, I would've given up after the first couple of chapters.
Agreed. Except T Van Santana’s because their novel doesn’t require an order. You can read it through different “paths.” The medium works for the message.
Which was the well-written novel? Can you link it?
Thank you for making this petition. I would be glad to sign it.
The answer could even be as simple as a new feature like the magazine Style-Theme. They paid out all that money for those big time authors, now they need to capture the market for long form serials by making it user friendly.
Thanks for this thoughtful exploration ... it’s really useful. I largely agree with your critique of the Substack features. I’ve got a mechanism I use to enable the next chapter issue, but it’s not perfect (partly my inconsistency). As for the downward scroll, yeah--it promotes skimming. I have to force myself not to skim and that’s no good. As for paying ... such a hard subject! I’m oversubscribed, on Substack and beyond, so I’m not even considering adding another ... and that would leave me to say, I wouldn’t pay for yours (but I would at least consider it if I read the first couple chapters free and got hooked.)
Thank you for sharing this! I’m oversubscribed as well. Haha but I love all the publications I pay for. I’m going to check out navigating through your Substack book.
I yearn for the day when serial chapters can be uploaded straight to a user’s kindle/reader/Substack app and appear in the ebook format by page. I also like the idea of everyone being able to highlight and comment on lines of text.
I was looking for something in my chapters today and noticed that I didn’t get them all linked up correctly. And I’ve made a table of contents type page, but am not finished with it. You can see the bones for it on my Fiction tab. Drop me a note if you want to go deeper: tompendergast@gmail.com
Thank you. I’m using the mobile app now, so I can only see the chapters mixed in with posts, but it looks like a cool/scary topic! Surveillance culture at work? That’s something I’m waaaay too familiar with having worked in the foreign service for the State Department... Honestly, it can get so dark so fast. Now I must read it!
Well, I see that the Sections I use on the website don’t carry over to the app at all, so it does become a real problem in channel changing ... grr. Well, this whole serialization thing was and remains a big experiment. I just put the finishing touches on the first draft of this novel, and am about to set about revising and seeing if I can land it between proper covers. If not, I’ll self-publish. But this will all be 2023 and beyond.
I think it’s still very cool! And I love the multi-media and interactive element, like The Martian. The crowd-corrected novel.
Another cool feature would be if Substack let you send the current version by email as a pdf for latecomers who wanted to catchup with one document. Though I guess you could add this as your own link or send it via email to your list, but that also sort of defeats the serial nature of the project.
You don’t even want to know... I’m still recovering. Lol So happy that I can say whatever I want now! Mostly... though sometimes the paranoia still gets me.
I made it to the Kansas River and died of dysentery.
I don’t know if HTML is the culprit, but being online definitely plays a part. So many dings and notifications and “I could be playing that one game right now.”
I’ve realized I feel similar. Plus, I love highlighting books. What are your favorite genres to read in? Thank you for your honest feedback! I like ebooks and I don’t mind reading on my phone, or audiobooks, but the email thing is a no-go for me too.
Nice! I love literary essays too. And I feel you on the screens. I’ve only started reading ebooks in the past two years. Before that I was paperbacks only or audiobooks.
Charlotte, I have a lot to say. This is the kind of conversation I like to have over a cortado in a noisy coffee shop.
I’m going to publish serially here on Substack next year. In terms of timing, I will only publish once the book has been edited and beta read, just like my normal publishing process. After the serial release (chapter a week?) is complete, I will publish on Amazon (ebook and paperback) and give my paid subscribers their signed paperback. My serial releases will be free. I’m not worried about folks forwarding or copying and pasting. I agree with Hugh Howey on this one: getting wide readership is more important than copyright and profit. Once your books are popular, the money will come.
There’s too much to unpack regarding your excellent and thorough article, but I will say that the more we (long form fiction writers) publish here the better the interface will become. Particularly if we demand improvements. Substack wants to make money. So they will continue to innovate if it increases revenue. And that helps us writers too.
I love this response so much! And I love cortado. Haha.
I think Substack will keep innovating too, though I hope they don’t turn too social cause I’m enjoying the bot-free environment...
As a reader, my thoughts are that you should do a chapter every couple days at least. Idk a week seems like a long time to wait... but not sure what the norms are.
I'll do a survey early next year and see what my (tiny) audience thinks. In the golden age of serialization, authors like Charles Dickens published weekly in the newspaper. I think I might be more inclined to read at the weekend rather than daily (and would likely postpone reading seven daily chapters until I had time on Sunday morning). We'll see when I launch my stories on Substack next year.
Revisiting novel/story serialization isn't new, of course. The Washington Post published its own David Hilzenrath's novel, "Jezebel's Tomb" in 2008. And of course places like WattPad, Kindle Vella, and folks's own websites are host to serial fiction. But Substack seems to be ideal for writers in that we can dictate our fee (if we want one) in order to afford writing full time (potentially).
I agree that I don't want Substack to become an attention-grabbing social site. But I do want there to be enough discoverability that writers can be seen. Helping each other goes a long way. As Hugh Howey also said, writers are not competing with one another; readers are always looking for something good to read.
Agree! Great examples too. I did a poll on my Facebook to ask how many book chapters friends read per week and most responded saying 1-3 chapters per day. Or nothing.
I think readers are like alcohol drinkers-- either they read a ton or barely at all... So I could see some folks building up the serial episodes and then reading a bunch on the weekend.
I agree, Substack has a way to go regarding serial fiction. It was obviously designed for non-fiction. Regardless, I wrote my second novella one chapter at a time on Substack.
I put it in its own Section so it had a built in index. And I pinned chapter 1 to the top of the section index. I also included links to the next chapter at the end of each chapter.
Unfortunately, Sections are only visible in a browser. App users don’t see them.
One thing I loved about my writing a novel live experiment was I got helpful comments that offered suggestions and caught typos. It was like a group beta read.
But Substack does need to add serial features before it becomes an ideal place for serial fiction. Especially to the app. As reading on an iPad is more like reading a book. If that is what people still want. Future readers may not care as less people read physical books.
I use sections, too, Mark. And I also have a huge table of contents pinned to the top of my main page, but I don't think that shows in the app, either, which is a bummer.
I just checked yours and your index page is pinned to the top of the app! Right after you bio. I think this is the way to go. The only improvement I could see on yours is if you added the link to the next chapter at the bottom of each chapter.
So that the reader can read through without returning to the index page.
I go back and add those in usually. I haven't done that with the new novel because of its insane lack of conventional structure.
Thank you for letting me know!
I hope a section index is added to the app eventually.
Same.
I 100% agree. And congrats on your novella! Pinning chapter one is a great idea. Mostly I see people pinning more of an "about page," describing their publication in general, but chapter one is probably better to suck people in...
Like you said, a main draw for authors to release serially on Substack is the interactive element and the beta group feedback. For example, the novel I'm considering releasing has aviation and meteorology elements, which I've researched and chatted to some experts about, but I'm sure having a link that I could post in a reddit forum or a facebook group for those sections would yield even better feedback.
Ahhh you're making me reconsider releasing mine here in beta! Thank you for this comment!
I enjoyed it. But I naturally write short chapters that work well on Substack (my first novel had 70 short chapters! 🤣) And I love getting comments on my writing. I don't get that with a book on Amazon. Maybe an occasional review, is all.
It is great to have interaction with your readers. One reader corrected me on the difference between one and two-hump camels, which I had no clue, and wouldn't have thought to research. Others offered lots of helpful suggestions (some in the comments, but many via email replies.) It was fun.
Although I did have a few readers waiting for the second book, so that helped. I plan to write the third book in the series on Substack also. It's not like I'm a famous author who sells thousands of books, so I figured why not serialize them first? Then clean them up and put them on Amazon.
Yes! This is an awesome approach! Love your thinking. I also dig books with short chapters.
Hey Charlotte! I would read a novel via e-mail or the Substack app, but I admit that there are issues with this. I've also used Kindle Vella. I have no experience with Radish.
I think the biggest issue that any author faces is the habits of your readers. Why do people want paragraph indents? Page flips? Some large part of the motivation to want those things is simply because we've always had them. I wish Substack would replicate Medium's rich formatting here. They have improved things a lot, but I would still like drop caps and paragraph indents as you have mentioned.
The navigation issues can be overcome... it's just a very manual process. As you've pointed out, Elle probably has the best lay out for her novels, but that's because she's put in the work. I believe that even her pages may not be as good as they could be. I say that because I believe Substack has released additional navigation tools while she was actively writing her first book. So, she'd have to go back through every single chapter to add them... which would no doubt be quite tedious.
During one of Substack's recent Office Hours an engineer announced the availability of Forward and Back buttons. This was a feature created specifically for serialized content. I asked about the possibility of creating an Index button that would lead people to a Table of Contents and he said that it's already possible to do this. All you have to do is to create a special page that contains your table of contents with links to the relevant chapters. Then, make a button that links to that page. Include that button with all of your stories. That's not a perfect solution, but it is an improvement.
Whether you should release a paid version here or wait? That's a tough call. I would mention that it's okay to release an e-book first and then come back later for print or audio. A lot of traditional publishing houses operate like that. No reason you have to release everything on the same day.
The other thing worth pointing out is that Substack doesn't have an exclusivity clause in their contract. So, you're free to upload your novel to as many places as you like.
Hopefully, some of that is helpful.
This is so helpful! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insight! I did not know about the separate Table of Contents page idea. Makes sense.
On reader preferences, more than past book habits, I think online content with HTML and line breaks have trained our brains to read online text in a certain way. Now, the shorter the paragraph, the more likely it is to seem "important" to our brains. Our eyes jump around more online, or at least mine do. I'm sure someone must be studying this with eye tracking technology.
I also suspect that younger people don't have the same bias towards book formatting because maybe they grew up reading books online or on Wattpad, but I was raised in the Oregon Trail era...
Great analysis! Given Substack's innovation and responsiveness, I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the platform becomes more conducive to reading fiction.
I'm also curious about, and need to do more research on, the other aspects of serialized fiction publishing - e.g. frequency of publication, subscription prices, whether or not a publication also sends out posts other than the serial fiction, etc.
Charging a monthly fee and, let's say, publishing a novel over the course of a year ends up being much pricier for the reader than just buying a novel outright.
Also, while as a writer the thought of publishing fiction on Substack excites me, as a reader, I must confess, not so much! (Due to both the serial and digital aspects of the reading experience).
Same, though I really like the publication Dirt, which is daily, so I think I might be into a daily novel, but haven’t tried reading one yet. Min weekly, but preferably 3x plus per week seems to be the pace. And Amazon Vella is recommending between 1200-3k words per episode.
Pricing is tricky. I’ll discuss that when I write part 2 of this. Still researching that one.
I feel the same way, but I also know that I feel that way because I am used to the book format. Readers in the 19th century only read via serial, often waiting months in between chapters.
Still, I have considerably adapted my reading style since the Substack app came out. I now do more reading in my Substack app than I do in my Kindle app, which has meant that now I read more essays than I do books. And I read more fiction chapters or short stories than I do full novels now. I also much prefer the continuous scroll (page flipping on a phone or iPad drives me crazy).
Because of this, I think it’s less about reading a novel on Kindle vs. Substack, but more about redefining the novel (do you really need to start at the beginning or can you enjoy this one vignette? This one thought or idea?)
I do think the web version is much easier to navigate than the app version. And I’ll have to take that into consideration as I layout my chapters. (Also, FWIW, I would totally write more often if I was doing this full time, but I am not!)
This all makes sense. And I think yours work better than most at the slower speed because they can standalone. Interesting that you don’t enjoy the page turns. That is something I like. Can’t wait for Substack to improve the app!
Well dang, this really got me thinking about future fiction strategies... Thanks for this review, it seems right on the money.
What a great article, Charlotte! I did read one book on Substack. I waited until it was over and then read it within a week. I had ALL the issues you mentioned here. The most frustrating was when I would stop reading mid chapter and when I went back I had to scroll up and down to find where I left at the previous day. It was so frustrating that sometimes I would just give up and read the chapter again from the beginning.
The ONLY reason why I finished this novel on Substack is because the novel was very well written. Had that no been the case, I would've given up after the first couple of chapters.
So yeah, reading fiction on Substack is a no no.
Agreed. Except T Van Santana’s because their novel doesn’t require an order. You can read it through different “paths.” The medium works for the message.
Which was the well-written novel? Can you link it?
This is the one: https://www.catchrelease.net/s/memory-of-my-shadow
Thank you for making this petition. I would be glad to sign it.
The answer could even be as simple as a new feature like the magazine Style-Theme. They paid out all that money for those big time authors, now they need to capture the market for long form serials by making it user friendly.
Thanks again
Totally agree!
Great post!
Thank you! Thanks for reading.
Thanks for this thoughtful exploration ... it’s really useful. I largely agree with your critique of the Substack features. I’ve got a mechanism I use to enable the next chapter issue, but it’s not perfect (partly my inconsistency). As for the downward scroll, yeah--it promotes skimming. I have to force myself not to skim and that’s no good. As for paying ... such a hard subject! I’m oversubscribed, on Substack and beyond, so I’m not even considering adding another ... and that would leave me to say, I wouldn’t pay for yours (but I would at least consider it if I read the first couple chapters free and got hooked.)
Thank you for sharing this! I’m oversubscribed as well. Haha but I love all the publications I pay for. I’m going to check out navigating through your Substack book.
I yearn for the day when serial chapters can be uploaded straight to a user’s kindle/reader/Substack app and appear in the ebook format by page. I also like the idea of everyone being able to highlight and comment on lines of text.
I was looking for something in my chapters today and noticed that I didn’t get them all linked up correctly. And I’ve made a table of contents type page, but am not finished with it. You can see the bones for it on my Fiction tab. Drop me a note if you want to go deeper: tompendergast@gmail.com
Thank you. I’m using the mobile app now, so I can only see the chapters mixed in with posts, but it looks like a cool/scary topic! Surveillance culture at work? That’s something I’m waaaay too familiar with having worked in the foreign service for the State Department... Honestly, it can get so dark so fast. Now I must read it!
Well, I see that the Sections I use on the website don’t carry over to the app at all, so it does become a real problem in channel changing ... grr. Well, this whole serialization thing was and remains a big experiment. I just put the finishing touches on the first draft of this novel, and am about to set about revising and seeing if I can land it between proper covers. If not, I’ll self-publish. But this will all be 2023 and beyond.
I think it’s still very cool! And I love the multi-media and interactive element, like The Martian. The crowd-corrected novel.
Another cool feature would be if Substack let you send the current version by email as a pdf for latecomers who wanted to catchup with one document. Though I guess you could add this as your own link or send it via email to your list, but that also sort of defeats the serial nature of the project.
Oh boy, yeah, now that’s a whole different level of surveillance, and from multiple sides.
You don’t even want to know... I’m still recovering. Lol So happy that I can say whatever I want now! Mostly... though sometimes the paranoia still gets me.
Funny, I left a career in cybersecurity about a year ago and it took a while to silence the paranoia. And I was on the wimpy, soft side of cyber too.
Leaving chapter one of your novel on Substack here for people to easily find to understand the top link navigation we're discussing in these comments. https://tompendergast.substack.com/p/that-guy-in-the-van-is-there-again
Bookmarking for future consideration, this looks interesting.
❤️ Stop on by anytime.
I made it to the Kansas River and died of dysentery.
I don’t know if HTML is the culprit, but being online definitely plays a part. So many dings and notifications and “I could be playing that one game right now.”
Hahaha so you know how I feel! Oregon Trail folk unite. I def need to "touch grass" more too, as the kids say these days!
I’ve realized I feel similar. Plus, I love highlighting books. What are your favorite genres to read in? Thank you for your honest feedback! I like ebooks and I don’t mind reading on my phone, or audiobooks, but the email thing is a no-go for me too.
Nice! I love literary essays too. And I feel you on the screens. I’ve only started reading ebooks in the past two years. Before that I was paperbacks only or audiobooks.