Experiment: My New Serial Novel (Or You Can Just Get The Entire Thing)

Now that I've finished the final revisions to my novel "All The Creatures Were Stirring", the prequel to "Flesh Wound", I am going to experiment with the release of the book.

Here's the background:  I wrote "Creatures" about eight years ago, long before I conceived of "Flesh Wound".  I'd already written other stories with Max Chandler as my lead protagonist, and Danni McCullough had appeared in those stories as well.  "Creatures" takes place over the Christmas holiday, just two months after the armed robbery when Max was shot.  Claire has filed for divorce, and Max has moved out.  The wounds are still very fresh.  For more on the story, hover over the "Novels" tab on this site and you'll see a submenu with "All The Creatures Were Stirring" pop up.  Click on it, and you'll get the skinny on what happens in the novel.

I originally published "Creatures" on Amazon.com's Digital Text Platform, a self-publishing site that allows people with Kindle readers to download copies of the novel for their Kindle device.  To date, several dozen copies of the book have sold via that route.  I pulled "Creatures" off Amazon.com recently, and rewrote some of it to make it a better fit with the circumstances and timeline in "Flesh Wound".  This rewrite did not affect the murder mystery plot of the story at all.

Publishing on the DTP did require me to purchase an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for "Creatures".  The ISBN identifies the title to which it is assigned as well as the publisher to be contacted for ordering purposes.  Since "Creatures" already has an ISBN and I still own the publishing rights for it, I'm not going to send it out to publishers for consideration.  What I'm going to do instead is offer it for sale directly from my website in two different ways:  as an entire E-novel, or as a serial E-novel.

How will this work?  Glad you asked!  First, I'm going to offer Chapter 1 of "Creatures" for free on the "Creatures" page of this website.  Anyone can read it via PDF file on their computer screen.  If they want to read more, they'll have two options.

ENTIRE NOVEL: The entire novel in PDF file format will can be purchased for $8.99 from this website (via PayPal – you can use a credit card if you do not have a PayPal account).  The PDF file will be downloaded to your PC, and you can sync it with your Kindle reader, print it out, and/or read it on your PC screen.

SERIAL NOVEL: Starting with Chapter 2, files containing four chapters each will be available for purchase for $0.99 apiece.  So, if someone reads Chapter 1 and likes it, but doesn't want to shell out $8.99 for the entire novel, they can get Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 for $0.99.  They will be in PDF file format, downloaded to their PC, and can then be synced with their Kindle reader, printed, and/or read on their PC screen.  If they want to keep reading after Chapter 5, they can come back to this site and purchase Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 for another $0.99.  And so on, until they've got the entire novel.

I'm good enough with numbers to have figured out that if someone wants to read the entire novel as a serial, ordering all 10 chapter bundles will cost them $9.90.  That is an entire 91 cents more than if they'd have just purchased the entire novel up front.  Still, I think it will be a good way for someone to invest less than $8.99 all at once if they want to be sure they'll enjoy the story before getting the whole thing.

To be honest, this is an experiment.  I want to find out a couple of things.  First, do people have an appetite for novels in serial format?  Second, will people go to the "Creatures" page on this website to check out the book, and be willing to purchase it directly from there?

Keep in mind, there is no hard copy of this novel in existence.  This is only an e-book at this point.  I suppose it is possible that sometime down the road a publisher may want to pull the e-book off the internet and publish a hard copy.  God bless them if they do, but that time is not now.

I have talked to people who have read "Creatures", and they like it.  If you read "Flesh Wound", you'll recognize Max, Danni, and her brother Mike.

I am planning to have "Creatures" up on this site and available for sale by October 1!  I will keep you all posted on the exact date.  Until then, have a spectacular day and read something that makes you think!  Like "Flesh Wound", lol.    -Jon