Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Lyn Cote Asks--Do You Like to Read Serial Romances?




A serial romance is of course a romance that a person reads in installments. Most of Charles Dickens' novels were first published in serial form. So it's a time-honored way of publishing fiction.

It's not done a lot in print any more but with the birth of digital publication, it has new life. Have you ever visited Wattpad?  It is a website where authors, some published and some unpublished, post books chapter by chapter or scene by scene. And readers can leave comments and vote for the books.

This is just one way authors are trying to find new ways to connect with readers.

I experimented with this a few years ago on my blog.

I serially posted the very first romance I'd ever penned, titled La Belle Christiane, on my blog in installments, 3 scenes a week MWF January through July. (It was a long manuscript!).

Doing this gave me a chance to revise it with weekly deadlines and it also gave me a way to gauge whether readers found it interesting or not.

Overwhelmingly I got a thumbs-up from my blog subscribers and I received good feedback on what readers liked or didn't.

Though I've since published this book in ebook and print, I still have this book archived on my website. If you'd like to read it, click here.

That brings me to my latest venture (or adventure). I had already written the sequel to La Belle Christiane, which is Lady Sarah. At first I thought I'd post it on my blog and then decided to try another experiment.

This time I'm not posting the manuscript scene by scene on my blog, I'm sending it out one chapter a week to my enewsletter subscribers. I'm about halfway through this process.

So my question:

Would you like to receive a chapter a week of a romance by email?

If you would, drop by my website and enter your email in the enewsletter box in the banner. (BTW Since you'd be starting in the middle, I will email the earlier chapters to new subscribers.)

BLURB:
An American Regency Set in Creole New Orleans

In the early days of the new American nation, fifteen year old Sarah Eastham has all the advantages of social position, wealth and influential friends till an old secret is revealed and plunges her into scandal, one not of her making. Her whole life is upturned and she makes a crucial and disastrous decision to marry the wrong man...

For more about Lady Sarah, click here.

So are you interested in reading a romance in serial form?--Lyn

8 comments:

  1. This is an interesting way of delivering a story. I imagine it works best if you have many blog/newsletter subscribers. You also mentioned Wattpad and that is another good option. Glad to hear this is working for you, Lyn.

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  2. Personally, I would rather read the story on a blog or Wattpad. I don't like reading chapter by chapter through email, even if it's an author I really enjoy reading.

    But yes, I love reading stories that are updated week by week, sometimes month by month (ugh). As long as the story remains good, the only thing I care about is how often, and consistently, the story is updated.

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    1. But nothing would stop you from saving the installments and reading them when you had them all, would it?

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  3. I love to see what other authors are doing. This seems like a great idea. I did 3 novelette installments this year now packaged in Gemma Rules. The first installment is a freebie when readers sign up for my newsletter. I hadn't thought about sending it out in weekly chapters. Thanks for being such an innovator and good luck!

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    1. You're welcome! I'm hoping I'll have a pool of readers for reviews too!

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  4. What an interesting idea! I may try it just to see if it helps me write faster.

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    1. Well, it's certainly keeping me on my toes. I just ran into a chapter that needs a complete overhaul!

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