Blog novels..

[billz015]

I don't know if I titled this correct, but recently I've come across the work of David Wellington. Basically he publishes his work in blogs and then gets it in print. He has a huge readership, and his books are at the very least interesting. Would you consider this a smart thing? And is it a good way at all to publish your books?

It seems like something that would take a lot of promotion and such, and more work than just writing. It doesn't even seem like he makes a whole lotta money either(I don't know him so I don't know, but his books didn't have a great sales rank on Amazon).

[DamaNegra]

Well, if I could read a writer's work at his blog for free or buy his book... well... it isn't much of a choice. Maybe that's why he doesn't sell that much.

[TwentyFour]

I wrote a blog story and most people I chatted with got angry. It was a satire of chat life, making fun of all my chat friends. I titled it "Chat Soap: Title of episode here"

I got tons of views and some told me it was great, but some threatened to kill me over their "Online Lovers" and so on...

I was told to write it as a novel but I think it would have been a better comic book!

[MadScientistMatt]

I'm not sure I would want to try this approach either. There are several problems I can see. One is that blog readership numbers don't seem to translate into sales. I've tried to make some money through the Amazon Advantage program, selling books on my blog that relate to its contents. So far, I've sold one single used book. I'd say that maybe one in a thousand blog readers might buy a book off your blog.

Second is just getting readers for a blog like that. I don't normally search the blogosphere for fiction.

Third is that a format that's easily readable on a web page may not translate that well onto the printed page. The formatting is different; web writing calls for breaks between paragraphs and shorter paragraphs than on paper. Plus, reading a novel in reverse chronological order is a pain.

Fourth can be summed up in two words: Copyright issues.

[emeraldcite]

I really like Wellington, but what he did is rare. You probably won't be as lucky.

If you want to see some of the dangers, read Cherie Priest's history of Four and Twenty Blackbirds, which started out on her blog (http://wicked-wish.livejournal.com/600869.html).

Can good things happen to fiction on blogs? Yes. Is that the norm? No.

Don't bank on it going anywhere. It's best to try traditional routes first.

[LightShadow]

I love my blog, and I enjoy reading blogs. Shortstories are fun, but novels? Books? I don't know about that. I like giving away freebies everyonce in a while, but not a whole book to everybody. Besides, there's something special about smiling on the back cover.

[WolfgangNibori]

So.... two years later what do you all think??

[Fresie]

So.... two years later what do you all think??

Personally, I have to admit I'm toying with the idea. I do realise it's gonna ruin the book's chances, though. What I find tempting is the return to this "to be continued" philosophy; I remember myself looking forward to weekly issues of [insert magazine name here] to read another installment of another never-ending (admittedly awful) SF novel. I do have a tiny bit of readership that might wish to follow the story and give some feedback. I do realise it's not exactly professional, though.

I look at it as a writing exercise, mainly to practice writing some grabbing fiction, making sure every installment is entertaining and conflict-driven. The way Dickens and Dostoevski learned it, by writing in installments for magazines.

[Karen Duvall]

I post teasers of my urban fantasy novel on my blog every Tuesday. They're really short excerpts, usually 3 or 4 paragraphs, and it's fun to do. I don't give away much, but it's an opportunity to showcase my writing. I get the greatest number of visits to my blog on Tuesdays.

[David I]

I'm not inclined to read novels on line, so I wouldn't place one of mine there.

[WolfgangNibori]

The continuing story concept is certainly something that excites me and with it being online, unlike my poor performance at meeting television schedules, it might be easier to keep up with the story through to completion. I suppose there, Tivo, too but.. I dunno, books are more fun. :)

[Smiling Ted]

There's a book craze in Japan right now based on Twitter - posting two-sentence phrases to a website from your cell-phone. The novel are mostly very simple romances with even simpler writing styles, but....

[Gillhoughly]

His approach could be a fluke or what's in the future for many writers, including a mid-lister like myself. I have certainly considered trying it.

Unless you are a really GOOD writer the first time out the gate with your first effort (what are the odds?) I would not recommend this approach as a means to get published.

It worked for him, but perhaps he had a lot of beta-readers and feedback and editing help before putting up that first chapter on the ol' blog.

He was also able to finish it, indicating that he may have had an outline to follow and kept himself on a writing schedule toward completion. Not many neo writers are able to do that, either. Heck, it's a struggle for me!

While it's a cool way to build an audience, keep in mind that it's not going to work for everyone. An acquiring editor might read the work on line and be impressed, but however good it is, technically that book has already been "published" making it a hard sell to the Suits upstairs.

This fellow was an exception to the rule, but many factors contributed to it. It worked for him, but it's not a template for everyone.

If you're interested in trying it out, then a shorter work featuring characters from your magnum opus might be better. You have a chance to build an audience, get in some much needed writing practice, get in the habit of writing to a deadline, and can ask for feedback.

All that will help in the writing of the longer work you intend for pro-publication and won't compromise its first publicaton rights status!

Consider the shorter work to be the practice you do before going on stage for the big concert!

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif

[yttar]

Hello, my wife pointed out this thread to me, so I've hyjacked her account for a little while.

I'm currently writing a web-novel using blogger, and since starting, I've found many others who have done (or tried) to do the same. Many of them seem to lose steam and die out after a while. Almost no-one becomes big and famous with it. Plus, there is a reason blogs are often called online publishing. Once it's up for people to read, it's considered published. So imagine the battle to sell secondary publishing rights to someone when it's already been published once for free? Not an easy thing to do.

So why am I doing it? Writing practice. Plain and simple. I don't expect to ever have some big-shot come across my blog and offer me any kind
of publishing contract. I never expect to go out and market it to agents. It's a writing exercise that I'm doing in my free time while working on other projects.

First couple of times I tried writing a novel length work, it failed horribly. I had no idea of the difference it would be from writing a short piece of fiction.

So now I'm writing a longer serial just for the practice. If I ever get a strong readership, maybe they'll give me a strong sales boost if I ever get a different work published through the traditional routes.

But never expect to see "The Dragon Knights" in print. I don't think it will happen.

(P.S. Feedback appreciated.)

[bunnygirl]

Alternative methods of getting your writing in the public eye, such as blog fiction and POD (print-on-demand) are great for personal entertainment, practice, or for exploring styles and themes that would make traditional publication a difficult or impossible sell. However, if none of the above describe your goals, don't do it.

Yes, sometimes someone does manage to hit the big time via blog, POD, or some other unconventional means. And sometimes people win the lottery. Nice if it happens, but don't bet the farm on it.

[WolfgangNibori]

Yeah, that's definitely true that you might not want to bet the farm on this approach to writing. However, it's a young medium, more or less, isn't it?

Seems like there must be some way to develop it into a viable medium for certain authors.

Just my thoughts, anyway! :)

Oh and for the record, I'm certainly not encouraging any one to go out and actually publish their novel this way in the hopes that it'll lead to a writing career. Things rarely seem to work out that way from what I've read.

[Raphee]

I am part of one such blog writing group right now.
I started a novel on my blog with others, but only worked upto ch 4 and then had to bow out because of my focus on my MS that I am writing for publication.
Basically it is being done as a writing exercise and there are three published authors who are part of this group.
you can checkout my blog http://reality967.livejournal.com
Here you can follow the links to the other writers still persevering and writing a chapter a week as an exercise. The project is called The Dickens Challenge; anyone can join in.

[WolfgangNibori]

Thanks for sharing, Raphee that looks like a good exercise for those wishing to strengthen their writing skills and get their name out there.

[Gillhoughly]

Taking follow-up comments in to consideration, this point is worth a repeat:

If you go this route--finish what you start!

Not everyone is ready to commit to that.

I'll cruise sites and blogs, see the novel and story starts, the "writing exercises", and other variations on that theme. The unfinished pieces that have been languishing for months because the writer got busy or ran out of ideas are a clear message that the writer ain't ready.

I, for one, am not fond of that kind of cliffhanger. It leaves a bad taste in the brain when you come to see the writer has let you down. Yes, your name is out there--but not in a good way!

If you want to build an audience with a bit of real work, make a writing schedule and keep to it. That work will have to be the most important thing in your life for the duration. Home, family, job are all in the background unless you're incredible at multi-tasking.

If you only want a spare time writing exercise, post the entire completed work or end up annoying people who want to read the next chapter, but never will, 'cause you got busy or lost steam. It's just too easy to come up with an excuse not to write!

[Shadow_Ferret]

So.... two years later what do you all think??
2 years later I still want to get PAID for my novels, not give them away for free.

[mada]

I used to work as a digital scrapbook designer, and I think that I learned a very valuable lesson from that experience. When I first started, I gave away the things that I made, trying to get my name out there, trying to figure out if I really had talent, etc. From the number of downloads my pieces were getting, I imagined that once I found a store to sell in, the money would flow.

Notice, I said I USED to do this. What I learned was that many more people are willing to get something for free than to pay for it. When I was selling, I would have sales and increase my revenue but if I didn't, I was literally making pennies per hour of work that went into the kits. I don't think I could work on a novel and post it on my blog, even chapter by chapter. Just because they like my story when it's free doesn't mean they're going to buy it in print and I don't think it means they'd search out and pay for other novels I may write simply because they like the blog novel.

[Fresie]

Raphee, thanks a lot, I'll check it out.

Oh, and I forgot to mention another reason why I feel tempted to do it. Guilty pleasures. I've got a couple of reeeeeally borderline Mexican soap ideas I'd love to try. I wouldn't be caught dead writing this type of thing but I'd love to, so online seems to be just the right place to get it out of my system. :)

[DonnaDuck]

Well, it's like getting discovered while writing fanfiction. It's been done but don't bank on it happening to you.

While the WIPs I'm working on won't be published on the net, I will publish little pieces of information on the worlds and people just to give people an idea of what I'm writing. However, I'm also building two serial novels that are strictly written for the web. One is to just let my brain go nuts and write as whacky as I can get. The other is a neat idea i had about vampires that grew and I actively decided to write it for the web. But that's the thing, I don't think tradiational novels translate to the webpage. The structure is simply different. While my WIPs chapters are long and nothing much may happen in them, the web serial chapters are short in comparision and poignant. They have to be in order to appease the web-reading masses. When I read web fiction, I like relatively short posts with something to drive me forward in reading. Really, something's gotta happen in each chapter.

The standard person that will read these does have a short attention span and I speak for myself when I say I don't like to stare at a computer screen for eons reading walls of text so the less meandering, the better. I think it's still a new medium, it is growing but, at this point, I think it's more of a popularity thing. Although, there are web serial novelists that can make money from their work via the advertising on their website. I believe the owner of www.pagesunbound.com does this.

For me, my serials are about me managing my writing time and getting on a writing schedule. If I can stick to it and keep to my word, that's one hurdle I can get over.

[ishtar'sgate]

I think if a person is a regular blogger and has the time, a short story completed in one or two sessions could be a nice supplement while readers are waiting for your next novel to come out. Personally, I don't have the time. I'm working on two novels right now and don't have time for anything else. However, I've noticed that some writers are terrific multitaskers so more power to 'em!
Linnea

[WolfgangNibori]

You know, I feel that serial web novels could do well if they maybe utilized some illustration. It's so easy (and cheap!) to display images that you could use either photographs or hand drawn illustration. I personally perfer longer chunks of story, but I also don't mind reading e-books so maybe I'm weird. I prefer the freedom of reading while I surf to having to hold an actual book.

Then again, like I said, I may be weird :)

[Fresie]

Oh, one last thing I meant to ask you, guys.

If a finished novel is published online (in a blog, wherever) -- yes, it's published. But what if it's a draft, still far removed from the finished version and basically just being workshopped? Will it still affect the chances of the finished book which might end up looking nothing like it?

What do you think? Thanks a lot!

[jannawrites]

I would never do it, for the simple fact it's just not my style. But I've been reading about the fascinating journey of one woman on her blog (she has a GIGANTIC following), and I keep thinking she needs to get this published in book form. It would reach a completely different range of people, I'd think, who wouldn't normally be cruising blogs.

[DonnaDuck]

Oh, one last thing I meant to ask you, guys.

If a finished novel is published online (in a blog, wherever) -- yes, it's published. But what if it's a draft, still far removed from the finished version and basically just being workshopped? Will it still affect the chances of the finished book which might end up looking nothing like it?

What do you think? Thanks a lot!

I wouldn't do that. Draft or not, unless it's unrecognizable at the end product, it's unwise to do something like that. While I doubt you can legally plagiarize your own work, that might be an issue, not to mention, even though it is a draft, it's still considered published and the first print rights for that piece are gone. Not wise in any form.

[Fresie]

I see. Thanks a lot.