We received an inquiry from a serial writer this week and we decided to turn the question back to our serial community. Our writer, let’s call him Wallace the Writer, inquires:
“I am wondering what the advantages are to using an online serial service like Wattpad and JukePop Serials. Why publish with one of them when you can post your serial on your own site?”
Sites such as Wattpad, JukePop Serials, Curiosity Quills and others are all friends of Tuesday Serial. We are posting this question to our community not to pit one site against another but to recognize that all of them have pros and cons and they also have pros and cons versus posting a serial on your own site.
Typically the advantage for these sites is that they can allow you to have access to a broader readership than you would otherwise have on your own. Depending on the site, they may also provide editing and coaching assistance. One of Wallace’s concerns, however, is determining whether those sites would be targeting an audience that would be interested in his serial. Another concern that Wallace has is whether there is enough benefit to partnering with a site to make it worth signing an exclusivity clause, as some sites require.
Have you hooked up with a site to host your serial? Did you decide to “go it alone”? How did it work out? What factors should writers consider when deciding which approach to take? We also invite folks from Wattpad, JukePop Serials, Curiosity Quills, and any other sites to stop by and share their perspectives. So, please share your thoughts for Wallace and, above all, let’s keep the conversation civil and recognize that there is no “one size fits all” solution for each writer. Any flame comments will not be approved.
I am actually posting my serial on both Wattpad and my own website. I do feel like Wattpad gives me more visibility and I can really track reads. I am still very green though, so I can’t say whether there is a difference between the two at the moment.
Wattpad does not require exclusivity. You can post on Wattpad and remove as needed while running your own site. Pretty much I saw it as a bonus to what I was doing and an opportunity to find fairly active readers.
My overall site has had more readers (because I can promote the site via other mechanisms), but I definitely believe that Wattpad readers were far more engaged and anxious to keep track of updates. The platform itself has a lot of features that really draw the reader back in. I found (Wattpad readers were often immediately returning to the story once they were notified of an update. (I'm very happy with my experience at Wattpad in terms of numbers of looks at the first chapter and a decent retention rate some 32 chapters later.)
I had heard about exclusivity for JP for six months meaning you can't post /host our work outside when you're starting. Sort of makes sense to me given that there's a compensation model involved with JP. If you really want to host our own content, you need to realize that you need to hold off until your six months is up.
I've talked a lot about my experiences with Wattpad and my traffic at my blog about webfiction: http://online-novel.com .
I should have included this post from TE Waters who talks numbers (Wattpad, her blog, Fictionpress):
http://online-novel-blog.blogspot.com/2013/01/wor…
I put a lot of time into creating an experience for my first serial site The Cathari Treasure and am not sure the effort paid off. The wordpress.org site has a customized theme that views like a book and displays unique backgrounds and featured images for each post. For all of the effort I am not sure the experience was an added draw with one exception, "podcast". I always record my writing for self edit and my friend convinced me to podcast. My serials now have more podcast subscribers than readers. The podcast have also garnered more attention for my serial as a webserial. So far other serial sites have not provided that benefit.
Learning from my first, my new serial The Potter's Daughter is a much simpler approach with minimal artwork and due to the genre I recently followed SGL's recommendation from the “How to Rock Wattpad for Your Serial Fiction” article earlier this year and have seen some great numbers so far.
Since I originally started my serial to solicit attention from agents and publishers I am not sure if I will continue alone. Including analytics in agent queries and directing them to a beautiful site has not seemed to have a short-term result.
I definitely will be keeping a pulse on the collective platforms to see what type of publishing success blooms.
I'm quite happy that I have published my serial, Secrets of the Conclave, on the JukePop Serials website. As a new writer, participating with JukePop has helped me develop an audience for my work–not only because of the website's efforts, but also because JukePop authors are quite supportive of each other and want each other to succeed. For example, I can count on my fellow "JukePoppers" to help get the word out when I publish new chapters of my serial, so it's almost like I have a built-in marketing team.
While I do post 100-200 word excerpts of each chapter on my blog and on Goodreads for marketing purposes, full chapters are exclusive to JukePop for six months, and non-exclusive thereafter. This doesn't bother me because my personal goals allow for the time gap (i.e., I'll spend those six months re-editing the story as a whole). It also seems fair given that JukePop compensated me for the first chapter and that I've received further compensation each month (so far).
That said, one possible downside is that because JukePop can continue to publish the story on a non-exclusive basis after six months, future publishing options might be limited. However, I think that concern is diminished by the fact that it presumes a lot that may never happen (first and foremost being that any other publisher is even interested). Thus, I'm happy to take advantage of the opportunities JukePop allows for me now, and I'll worry about the rest later!
Like Beth, I am also an author at JukePop where I publish my serial, The Sixth Seal. I definitely agree with her statement that all of our fellow authors there are very supportive. I myself read, vote for and tweet some of my favorite stories on the site.
As Beth pointed out, I'm not too worried about exclusivity as I will also take that time to re-edit and polish my serial into a complete work. My plan is to then use it as a giveaway once the second story in the series is complete. So as far as that goes, I don't really mind how long JukePop hosts my serial on their site. The readers that they have connected me with make it all worthwhile. I don't think I would be able to have such a broad reach on my own.
I also get the feeling that JukePop is constantly seeking out new opportunities for their authors. I can see a time when they might be able to offer multiple publishing options and extended support. They are also highly supportive. I can email them about anything and get a prompt, courteous and helpful response.
I don't have any experience with any other serial sites, but I can certainly highly recommend JukePop. There again, everyone's needs are different, so you need to think through all of the in and outs of each platform. If you're not keen on giving exclusivity, then JukePop may not be for you. However, I would think that any platform would help to give you greater exposure than you could achieve on your own. Not that it isn't possible, it just might be a lot of work.
This thread reminded me to start posting on Wattpad again! Daron's Guitar Chronicles is getting close to 400 posts now. I put up the first 15 posts or so on Wattpad a few years ago and then never got back to continuing it!
This is the first I'd heard of Juke Pop. Seems like a few folks have tried to start a central home for serials before but it's difficult to keep the tech running. Dreamfantastic.com seems like they were only active for a few short months, and I'm not sure what's up with Digital Novelists these days. Setting up my own wordpress site for DGC was kind of a pain and ultimately I'm glad I did it that way, but if I'd had a viable alternative for a well-trafficked home back in 2009, I might have planted it somewhere else.