Releasing a novel in four parts at 99c a go? Sounds familiar. Also, I remember I was nervous as hell and you were one of the people who cheered me on. Hope it works for you!
I was... and I was also one of those who found it mighty frustrating. I was on holiday at the time, read parts 1-3, and was irritated that I couldn't finish it before going home.
I decided against doing Mrs Patel this way, and probably won't use it for Yellow Flowers either. I concluded that this method probably works better for established writers with an existing fanbase who are eager to get their hands on anything they can as soon as they can.
I'm reading a couple of stories in instalments at the moment, for the first time. I'm struggling with them, I think, because a schedule of regular episodes doesn't match how I like to read. I'm always reading a few books at once and I switch between them, but each time I read I read as much as I feel like reading of that particular book. Sometimes I'll read only minutes of something but sometimes hours; it depends what mood I'm in and how I feel about the story, it's pace and stage, as much as what time's available. If the episodes are short, only a couple of scenes, I can feel frustrated when I run out of road before I'm ready to stop reading. All in all I think it works better for me to just buy a complete story and have control over the portions. I think you're right as well about the impact of actually designing a story for specific instalments and completing the whole work before releasing any of it.
Yeah, I totally get that: I'm the same way with my reading. My gut feeling is that episodic format can work well if you already have a following and your fans are avidly waiting for something for you: they'd rather have a little something than nothing at all, and they actually enjoy the masochistic anticipation of waiting for the next episode.
Releasing a novel in four parts at 99c a go? Sounds familiar. Also, I remember I was nervous as hell and you were one of the people who cheered me on. Hope it works for you!
I was... and I was also one of those who found it mighty frustrating. I was on holiday at the time, read parts 1-3, and was irritated that I couldn't finish it before going home.
I decided against doing Mrs Patel this way, and probably won't use it for Yellow Flowers either. I concluded that this method probably works better for established writers with an existing fanbase who are eager to get their hands on anything they can as soon as they can.
I'm reading a couple of stories in instalments at the moment, for the first time. I'm struggling with them, I think, because a schedule of regular episodes doesn't match how I like to read. I'm always reading a few books at once and I switch between them, but each time I read I read as much as I feel like reading of that particular book. Sometimes I'll read only minutes of something but sometimes hours; it depends what mood I'm in and how I feel about the story, it's pace and stage, as much as what time's available. If the episodes are short, only a couple of scenes, I can feel frustrated when I run out of road before I'm ready to stop reading. All in all I think it works better for me to just buy a complete story and have control over the portions. I think you're right as well about the impact of actually designing a story for specific instalments and completing the whole work before releasing any of it.
Yeah, I totally get that: I'm the same way with my reading. My gut feeling is that episodic format can work well if you already have a following and your fans are avidly waiting for something for you: they'd rather have a little something than nothing at all, and they actually enjoy the masochistic anticipation of waiting for the next episode.