How to Increase Sales with Serial Fiction

Angela Booth reports:

"In essence, a serial is a part-work. Instead of writing a novel of 100,000 words, you publish your novel as 'episodes'. You choose the number of episodes. You could write ten episodes of 10,000 words, for example. The big benefit of serial publication is this: [I]t keeps you writing...I love writing novels, but I know that I’ll lose motivation. Not simply because I risk getting bored, but also...no matter how much you love it, [it] can be a slog. You can also make more money from serial publication. However, that’s rarely your primary reason for writing serials. Your primary reason is that you publish faster, and you publish more regularly. These days, the more often you can appear in Amazon’s New Releases listings, the better. You’ll get a sales bump for all your fiction each time you publish...[A] novel has a structure. It has a beginning, middle and end, to put it simply. A serial[,] on the other hand, has elements which motivate readers to keep reading...If you replace 'chapter' with 'episode', you’ll get an idea of how serial fiction works. You need to motivate readers to look for, and buy, the next episode of the serial...You can use serial fiction in another way, too. You can use it to market your ebooks...You may write a serial for any number of reasons. Some authors use them for marketing. I’ve ghostwritten short serials, of just five 12,000[-]word episodes. In one instance, the client wanted to boost sales of his two-novel series. In another, the client wanted to establish himself in a new genre. He hired me to write a quick five-episode serial. He published the serial, while he completed his first novel in his new genre. You can do the same, if you want to get established quickly in a new genre."