Question...Are Series With 5 Parts Or More Worth It?

Tolkien actually wrote LotR as one book. He wanted it published that way, but his publisher didn't think it was economically feasible and I doubt they had the technology then to bind it properly, so broke it into 3. Tolkien's preferred method would have been to publish LotR as one book and then use the Silmarillion as the second part of the duology. A better comparison would be Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, which was originally pitched as a trilogy, but went to 14 books! George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire was also envisioned by the author as a trilogy, but is into 5 books and counting.

...and waiting. And that is the problem.

One of the problems was that paper was still being rationed after WWII so it made more sense to publish the first volume (books I & II) and see if that sold than to risk a large chuck of their paper ration on a single work.

They could have published it as one volume, just not as a paperback.

Goodgulf

I find that when I read stories on line, I only have the patience for those that run to about 2,000 or 3,000 words. Don't know why this is, because in books or on my kindle, I avoid collections of short stories, but seek out those books that can suck me in and keep me there for as long as possible. Jordan kept me on the hook for almost 20 years.

When I write, I rarely start a story with the intention of doing a series or serial, but often the characters dictate the length with no real pre-planning on my part. As long as the story is still developing, and the characters and their actions still interest me, I continue to write until one or the other of those components seems to me to grow stale. At that point, I try to reach some sort of reasonable conclusion so that the story as a whole has a recognizable end (I'm not always successful at this, because if the characters have become stale in my mind, then writing a good ending becomes a real chore).

In this spirit, for posting online, I write the larger works in bite sized chapters, with each chapter including all of the necessary components so that it could be enjoyed (I hope) by itself.

As to the original question, "is it worth it?" I'm not really sure what that means. In my case, I'm not so much writing for an audience as I am giving voice to the tale. It is true that a series of chapters posted separately may not get as many comments as the same number of individual stories, but I'm not so sure that is a very good measure of the work.

Looking back in this thread, I guess that flopsy sums this up much better and in far fewer words than I, and the advice provided by Goodgulf and rollin really hits the mark.

Worth it? Yes, most definitely! Writing The Girls of Cropton Hall was the most fun I'd had in years. Although at first I was making it up as I went along, introducing new characters with each part, after a while I started to plan the main plot strands a few parts ahead, and it grew into a kind of saga that helped me through some dark times. Having lots of characters helped keep it fresh and varied (and kept me company), and I learned a lot about both writing and myself in the process: it's strange how creativity draws on one's subconscious in ways that only become apparent afterwards (especially with the help of readers like Mati!).

I wrote the first 8 parts before posting them two at a time over about 3 weeks, attracting a number of readers who stayed with it for the next 30 parts, which I wrote at a rate of one a week. It took 8 months in all, and some readers did occasionally bemoan the wait between episodes, but mostly the feedback was incredibly encouraging and the whole venture an exciting journey.

Since January 2011, a handful of readers have ploughed through it all and expressed their relief that they hadn't had to wait for new parts, but I think the Library is well served by having a mixture of shorter and longer term reading commitments - especially for members who've found a home here and just enjoy browsing and exploring different kinds of spanking literature.

Not only hard but serials are challenging, they take a great deal of planning and character development. I agree with all of you. The first part gets between 15 to 25 hits and the readers drop from there, but truly I find putting together a 10 to 15 part serial very satisfying; more so that a stand alone or a two parter. If I write, I want it read, so I know I should consider how likely is it my 15 part series will be read. The first part is devoured but the numbers drop sharply after that. On the other hand, over time, once it is all posted; the numbers improve. In the long run, the stats seem to round off to 15 to 20 or so hits in terms of comments for each episode. There are hundreds more of views. That's worth the time. Since I do not want to spend time getting my work published, posting here gets my work read and I thoroughly enjoy getting reviews.
But, at this point I've started a series that can exist as a stand alone and I will continue to write series that do not exceed 8- 12 parts. I'm torn, I like sharing my work, but hate the suspense, will it be liked? criticized? Is it all a crap shoot? on some days I wonder.
islandcarol

Oh IC!!! You know you always have a fan club of at least one with me.

As one IslandCarol has been known to say, just " get your keyboard out, Darlin' and start tappin'."

You can safely make that two. IC is among my favorites.

Is there a secret handshake I'll need to learn for the fan club? I'm terrible at secret handshakes. I was originally planning to be gay, but never could get the secret handshake right. Worse, I kept putting my earring on the wrong ear. Those damn mirrors!

I was!


Not me!


Exactly!

As a reader, I prefer a series to a stand alone story. And so long as the content is there, I will keep reading so long as the writer keeps writing.

Aside from this genre, I never read short stories. I read novels. I like to get to know the characters, time to really dig in and enjoy the story.

I think my all time favorite series was quite long- Seasons with Audrey and Vinnie by Canadian Girl/Pagan.