Young Writers Society

Let me start this off by saying this: I love Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Not the BBC's Sherlock or CBS's Elementary but the original Doyle short stories. One thing they have in common though, is that they are all serials. When I had first discovered the stories, all with their own plot lines, yet using the same characters, just different adventures, this is what happened: my eyes went wide and I thought, You can do that?!?
Well, no. Video killed the literary star. With the emergence of TV programs,the popularity of serial short stories declined. Which brings me to my question: do you think they could make a come back?

A lot of fiction writers who go down the self-publishing route will also create fiction serials on their blogs. It's a great way to gain readership and recognition for your work and could lead to big things. They've technically made a come-back in that light. Claude Bouchard, for example, who wrote Vigilante in 2005, was a serial fiction author before and it was due to those blog uploads that his Vigilante novel was the success it was in the highly competitive crime fiction market.

If you haven't got a blog, I highly recommend getting one.

Yes. Definitely.

The internet in particular is very well-suited for serial stories, and if you look, you'll see they've taken root in various internet corners.

I'm actually working on a serial-story-related project myself, so I definitely think they could make a comeback.

Manga is a serial in Japan, and, technically, so are comic books in the West.

See, the question is what the most popular form of entertainment is at the time. In the 1800s, magazines publishing stories from various authors, either chapter by chapter or one short story at a time, were the form of entertainment. Many classic novels were written as chapter-by-chapter by serials.

In Japan, literature is still one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Therefore, magazines dedicated to chapters of various stories are a good business venture. Comic books work on a similar principle of releasing self contained arcs one book at a time.

And, as Ben said, blogs can work on a serial format.

Dig around for magazines that publish serials (I am pretty sure they exist) and start supporting the medium. In order for them to make a big comeback here, there needs to be proof that they're a viable way to make money.

Some magazines still publish serials... but they are rare and relatively unknown. The interenet is really the standard for short fiction, however, the scope of text offered and available is so vast, it would be hard for your individual work to recieve acclaim.

But, there is another route.... paperbacks. Short, 150 pages, maybe. These books, as you've seen them, often form series found in the kid's sections in the libraries. They remind me of dime novels. Publishing a series of short novels (novellettes) might be another way to go.

Aslo, there are books that collect short stories for publishing, but I don't believe any of them are serials. One could possibly cheat the stystem though and call them "Part One..." "Part Two..." (But then, it would all be part of the same story... so that won't help )

I'd publish online. If your really serious though, look around for a magazine that would be open to publishing a serial.

With the emergence of ereaders, serials are making a big comeback. Just look on Amazon, they have a whole section for Kindle Serials.

There are also a lot of publishing houses jumping on the serial ebook bandwagon, and are creating depatments/imprints specifically for acquiring ebooks (and quite often serial ebooks, because hey more books more money). It's a lot easier to take risks on serials when there are minimal production costs (hardly costs anything to make an ebook, especially compared to a physical book).

I'm not sure how quickly it's catching on in mainstream readership, but it's definitely making a comeback and ereaders/ebooks are really helping to facilitate that.

I had a substitute in English once who spoke of flash fiction. He described it as being very short stories simply because in this day and age, people may not have the time they'd like to sit down and read a full novel. Because of this, flash fiction is becoming more and more popular. I suppose this may be a way for serials to make a comeback. It would be interesting to see what happens.