YA Readers in the Age of Social Networking: A CBC Forum
This Publisher Weekly piece isn’t per se about serials/online novels but about teen readers. Using some data /information provided from Wattpad, Teenreads, and Tumblr, the panelists draw some conclusions about how teens read, when it’s best to engage them with new works, and offer other ideas. This forum appears to have been discussed fairly widely. Additional article here.
For those who don’t care about the teen audience, some randomly interesting information from the first article:
- Wattpad has 15 million active readers, half under the age of 25
- 80% of traffic is through mobile devices
I haven’t quite brought up the issue of designing websites to be mobile device friendly, but it does beg the question – what does your serial look like on the mobile web?
Chinese Military Fantasy web novels – a unique subset of literature that could not exist anywhere except online
I was forwarded an article on China and its digital habits that pointed a foreign policy article that discusses the phenomena of Chinese military novels. Per that article the author asserts that are thousands of Chinese war fantasy novels on the Internet that have really no other place to exist because of their content. I’m always fascinated by the online writing/reading habits in East Asia, but isn’t it something to realize that writing online sometimes is the only method of expression available to a writer? (Please note that you may have to register to see the second article. It is free.)
Serial novels reveal how we’re willing to wait for a good story
This piece from the Minnesota Star Tribune provides a general background on what serials were historically and tries to wrap up with how ebooks seem to be generating interest in the format. There are actual references to Webfiction Guide, Eat your cereal (publisher) and Denver Cereal (a specific serial) although the author has mislabeled these as “publishers.”
Other Stories:
- Another Kindle Serial author confessional: http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-serial-novel-is-it-right-for-you.html
- A WordPress serial author asks those out there for advice on continuing her serial: http://siabrha.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/as-those-of-you-waiting-for-the-next/
- Micropublishing news: http://pandodaily.com/2013/06/03/the-micropublishing-explosion-has-begun/
- Bookexpo news – Wattpad and Harlequin hook up (huhuhu): http://www.techvibes.com/blog/wattpad-harlequin-bookexpo-2013-05-29
Online Novel Blog 