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Posting a book in bits
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R.A.
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Nov 08, 2014 04:37PM
OK, here's my topic for discussion. Have any of you tried posting your book as you write it? I know someone on goodreads who posts her writing as a serial and then publishes it in book form when she's done with it. It has worked well for her. So I started something similar, making my 'in progress' book available to blog subscribers, and sending my weekly writing to those who asked for it. I'm not sure if this will work as well as posting it on the blog, but I'm trying to make people interact with me in order to get the free goods. Any thoughts on this or serials in general? Pros, cons, ways to improve the outcome?
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I like the idea but I haven't been disciplined enough to have a steady stream of content. I tend to write in bursts. I think readers would expect new content on a fairly regular basis.
I go back and change things too often to be comfortable publishing too many bits. Once I get at least halfway through the book, I might be willing to post the first chapter. Too many times, I get an idea in mid-stream that requires some additions/changes in earlier passages. The modifications may be small, but they matter later in the book. That being said, I recently experimented with this idea by posting the first chapter of my current novel on Wattpad. For a number of reasons, my book is taking longer than initially projected to complete and I wanted to respond to readers who were asking for a taste. I posted a link to Wattpad on my blog and received some good reader feedback.
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On the other hand, if it were done to try and attract readers so they buy other, paid-for books in the same world it might work.
I did this at Goodreads by leaving links to Google Docs. It was Kathy's Recollections and I posted it chapter by chapter leaving the links in a discussion in the Apocalypse Forever group. After all the chapters were finished, I left the Docs shared until I was finished editing and was ready to upload the book to Kindle Digital Publishing.If you are going to do this be sure you can delete your book from the site before uploading.
The idea is that people who enjoy it bit by bit will want to buy the complete novel when it has been edited. And even if they don't, they will tell their friends how much they're looking forward to the next installment and it will become something like a T.V. show. I don't know if it will translate into sales for me, but it has been fantastic for keeping me motivated to write. 1,000 words a week isn't very much, but it's more than I was doing before I obligated myself. And some weeks I do a fair bit more.
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R.A. wrote: "What do you all do to stay motivated?"I post a scene each Saturday at Google Plus. There is a community of writers doing this. Hashtag saturdayscenes. That gets my mental juices flowing.
I like the idea and can see how it could work, but I couldn't do it personally as I wrote the story, mainly because my first drafts are always so messy. I don't format or anything until the editing stages so I'd have to wait pretty much till I'm ready to publish to post the chapters, which isn't really the point of posting it in the first place! It also may depend on the story itself, but if authors find it helpful then I say go for it!
I know that I could use the electric shock of a regularly scheduled publishing deadline. I might go ahead and subject myself to it, even if no one else is holding me to it. Sometimes, I need something to jolt me out into action.
I know what you all mean. I warned people ahead of time that there would be errors and things that would need to be changed. So far no one has complained or unsubscribed, so I guess it's not too bad. Ubiquitous, it sounds like maybe that Saturday at Google Plus thing that Stan mentioned would work for you.Here's to more books and even more fans.
You must join the community to post or comment. Here is the link.https://plus.google.com/u/0/communiti...
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