Can Serialized Fiction Convert Binge Watchers Into...

[aurora]

...Binge Readers?

I thought this was an interesting idea that we might want to discuss.

www.npr.org/2016/07/26/484171813/can-serialized-fiction-convert-binge-watchers-into-binge-readers

Now that the latest season of Game of Thrones has ended, fans may be feeling a little untethered — and some publishers would like to fill that gap with serialized books. As TV dramas get better and better, book publishers are hoping to convert binge TV watchers into binge readers.

Serialized books have a long history in publishing — Charles Dickens famously released many his novels in serial form. Sean McDonald, a publisher and editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, says, "We love to think about hearkening back to the way Dickens was published and people waiting anxiously at the dock for the new installments to arrive."

FSG is known for its serious, award winning novels, not so much for serialized fiction, but McDonald says that not long ago, they tried an experiment. They published three books, the Southern Reach Trilogy, on a much faster timetable than usual. All three were released in less than a year — a year that coincided with another cultural phenomenon.

Television, McDonald says, was "getting taken much more seriously as an art form." There was a renewed focus on episodic storytelling and "it felt like this was a way for us to engage with that and not to have books be left out," he explains.

This year, FSG is trying something similar, publishing The Tale of Shikanoko in four parts over six months. Publishing this way feels very much like delivering a season of programming, says McDonald.

Julian Yap and Molly Barton are taking it a step further — they've just launched a company called Serial Box which aims to be "HBO for readers." Serial Box releases "episodes" (not "books") over a 10 to 16 week season. Each season is written by a team of writers.

"We're not just chopping up novels and sending out chapters," says Barton.

The process is directly modeled on writing for a TV series. "We begin with the equivalent of a showrunner and three or four supporting writers," Barton explains. Together, they break down the plot, talk through the characters, and map out current and future seasons.

Serial Box launched officially with four serials and a fifth on the way. Subscribers can buy one serial at a time in text or audio form, or they can buy a season pass. Each episode takes about 40 minutes to read, the same time as it takes to watch an average TV drama. Julian Yap says people do still love to read, but they don't have time a lot of time.

"There's a lot of data that people are reading more than ever, but they're also reading shorter than ever," says Yap. "They have trouble fitting a whole novel into their lives. We wanted to produce fiction that fit into people's lives."

Serial Box's episodes are designed so that you can consume them during a commute. But not everyone is convinced that present day reading habits are conducive to binge reading.

"I don't think that people really consume books in the same way that they consume TV shows," says Jane Friedman, who teaches digital media and publishing at the University of Virginia. Friedman agrees that people's reading habits are changing, but she doesn't think binge reading is anything like binge watching.

"We always have a mobile device with us and so we are reading in short bursts of five to ten minutes ..." she says, "but that's a very different dynamic than say, the binge watching a TV series. In fact, reading in five to ten minute bursts is distinctly not binge reading."

Friedman says interest in serialized fiction has increased since the advent of digital publishing, but it's hard to make money — even for Amazon.

"Most authors I talk to — and even Amazon — has said that every time they do a serial they make at least half their money on then selling the whole thing together as a bundle," Friedman says.

But the founders of Serial Box are confident that serialized fiction will appeal to both dedicated readers and TV watchers. And if you do binge read an entire season of episodes, well ... congratulations ! You've just read a book.

[aurora]

Personally this sounds something like reading a book chapter by chapter, but I can see one big potential up side: if book "seasons" catch on in similar ways to GOT-like TV shows, maybe more people will be reading the same thing at the same time and talking about it.

[snshne322]

I think it could certainly inspire some readers. I'm an almost exclusive series reader. I didn't mean to be, but I do love that rush. I love/hate the agonizing wait, and love being able to revisit characters. I can see those who read GoT to be inspired easily to watch the TV show, though I don't see it working as well the other way around. I hope I'm wrong! I know of most of my friends IRL that have watch GoT, only 1 or 2 have read the books.

I'm intrigued by the season books. I think the time suck that a lot of people find with reading could be relieved if you only have 40-50 pages per season and then are able to talk about it with others in small portions. I also wonder if that's a great option for a lot of book clubs. I weekly meet up to discuss sounds like fun when you have installments.

[abs]

That's interesting!!

I do love book series because it's usually so easy to jump into book two and beyond. It's fun to get totally submersed into a different world and series are really, really good at accomplishing that.

This sounds a little different but I am all for anything that gets people reading.

[susiebw]

I remember when Stephen King did the Green Mile as a serial, and I was at the book store on release day every single time. I loved it. I think this idea is great. It works for comics, why not regular fiction?

[revjen]

I don't think it will convert anyone from a TV watcher into a reader. Call me cynical if you want. I think it will open another Avenue for those who like to read. I don't think it will create new ones.

[aurora]

Jul 27, 2016 14:58:13 GMT -5 revjen said:

I don't think it will convert anyone from a TV watcher into a reader. Call me cynical if you want. I think it will open another Avenue for those who like to read. I don't think it will create new ones.

I'm thinking there is a possibility for certain mob mentality items, some really fabulous story telling that just happens to fit well in the medium.

I'm thinking like how HP brought a whole new generation of kids into reading and formed all sorts of communities because of the "serial" nature of the series release. (I realize this is not quite the same as what the article was saying.) Heck, I was definitely an adult when I started reading, and I still hung out on message boards before the releases of books 6 and 7 speculating on what might happen next.

But I agree it likely won't significantly change the # of readers.

[dorothyinAus]

When I read the headline, I thought "wait a second, serialized fiction is not a new thing; it's a very old thing."

As much as I like the idea of serialized fiction, I think it needs to be something that will grab attention across a broad spectrum of the population -- the way hugely popular tv shows, movies, and podcasts have. It can't be something targeted to a niche market, because there is already a niche market of readers. And this readers will either like the idea of serialized or chapter books, or they won't.

I do not object to serialized reads.  Over the past few years, I have had a project to read a book over the course of a year.  I read the Bible that way twice (the Protestant and Catholic versions).  I read A Reader's Book of Days and Monarchs, Murderers, and Mistresses:  A Royal Book of Days, both of which are designed to be read a snippet/page a day.  And this year I am reading The Hound of the Baskervilles as a page-a-day calendar.  So having a bit of the book each day is not a problem to me.

Personally, nothing turns me off reading something faster than EVERYONE reading it and talking about the same thing at the same time. It's part of why I don't read bestsellers until long after the furor has died down.  So I wouldn't be up for that kind of mass, concurrent, read.

But I agree that the idea of serialized fiction will not necessarily bring more people to reading, it will just take readers from other genres/niche markets.  I think too many people are intimidated by reading, or do not believe reading is worth their time - time that can be spent online, watching tv, or other more passive forms of entertainment.

[snshne322]

Jul 28, 2016 16:51:10 GMT -5 aurora said:

Jul 27, 2016 14:58:13 GMT -5 revjen said:

I don't think it will convert anyone from a TV watcher into a reader. Call me cynical if you want. I think it will open another Avenue for those who like to read. I don't think it will create new ones.

I'm thinking there is a possibility for certain mob mentality items, some really fabulous story telling that just happens to fit well in the medium.

I'm thinking like how HP brought a whole new generation of kids into reading and formed all sorts of communities because of the "serial" nature of the series release. (I realize this is not quite the same as what the article was saying.) Heck, I was definitely an adult when I started reading, and I still hung out on message boards before the releases of books 6 and 7 speculating on what might happen next.

But I agree it likely won't significantly change the # of readers.

There's also Serial from This American Life.  I'd listened to audio books before, but I don't think I'd listened to one Podcast before Serial Season 1.  People were HOOKED.  I think it opened up to a lot of people what podcasts really were.  I don't know if the same people stayed in the Podcast world, but I think it brought out a new audience.  I think that could be really fascinating with book episodes.

[Nonny]

I think the concept of serialized fiction is an interesting one, even if it isn't really something I've been particularly swept up in (beyond anxiously awaiting for the latest HP sequels to be published, but that really isn't the same).

But on the flip side, I view TV watching and reading two distinct activities that I enjoy for different reasons and give me different pleasures. I watch a LOT of TV, like, the TV is on in my house probably a good 12 hours a day, and I actually managed to make a career out of TV watching, where I'd go to work and I'd be watching TV or movies all day as part of my job. But with the exception of a just a handful of shows, it's largely a passive/background activity where I'm doing something else at the same time (and 75-90% in any given day is reruns of things I've watched and enjoyed in the past, not new content)

Books aren't like that, because I have to be active participant and it's a solo activity. I definitely like discussing books with others (which is why I'm in two book clubs), but it requires a different part of my brain to be engaged when I'm reading a book then when I'm watching a TV show, and it requires me to be in a different mood. I can watch any TV pretty much any time, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to tackle a fantasy novel versus a WW2 epic versus a memoir and so forth.

I guess this is my long way of saying I'm in favor of serial releases, but I don't think it's going to be changing anyone's TV watching habits, or converting any hardcore TV watchers into readers if they aren't already readers.