Serialization Of A Novel: Is It Worth It?
Let's Have A Look
A while back, someone wondered if I thought it was worth serializing my work-in-progress I've been dubbing The Maya. My answer was more or less, considering it's unpublished anywhere else but on the STEEM blockchain, unfinished, and that it had a low bar to outdo the two Kindle ebooks that are currently finished and published.
I decided tonight to go back and take a look at what has been paid out to date just so I would know and also to report on it.
Except for the first seven, I've been posting an installment of The Maya every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday since March 5. Installments one through seven were two times a week, with the whole thing starting back on February 6. So far, a total of 53 posts have been paid out (the last three are still pending).
In total the 53 posts were paid $166.96 (that's the creator's portion) in rewards. It's difficult to estimate the SP part of this without doing a little more research, but the SBD split would be roughly 83.48, depending on how much being paid in STEEM has altered that.
Just taking the $166.96 amount, that means the average is $3.15 in creator rewards per post, or 1.575 SBD (plus the corresponding SP). Considering I've been here for nearly six months now, that's not bad, and certainly nothing to sneeze at. So, I'm not. In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that $115.07 of that author rewards comes from two different posts that the curie curation trail picked up. That means the rest of the installments earned $51.89, or just under $1.02 per post.
Relatively speaking, still, not bad.
So, now that I know the numbers, do I still think it's worth it? Yes, in that every little bit helps as far as rewards go. What I don't know is, are people reading it? That's what any author of any serious nature wants, as well—readership. Aside from some hit and miss interaction, I have no idea who has actually read those posts, and I doubt that more than maybe one or two (and that could well be wishful thinking) readers have been following it since the beginning.
I guess then, that my answer is yes, with a caveat. I'm pleasantly surprised that each installment has received anything at all, from $.04 for installment four to $3.92 for installment 49, with the curie votes on top (six and 40). As far as building up a following, though, I really don't know if I've done any of that or not, or to what degree.
Eventually, I have a goal of living off of my writing, in whatever form that takes place. It's a goal I've spent most of my adult life attempting to achieve. This is the closest I've come. It's not quite so close that I can taste it, but I'll say it's almost in smelling range.
Maybe you've had a goal like that, which in my case is now nearly 30 years in the making. If you have, then you have a good idea how I feel. Worth at this point can't be fully measured in what's been, but must also include what will be. And it's that, the future, and what it may bring, that will eventually determine the ultimate worth of The Maya's serialization.
Probably a difficult thing to assess @glenalbrethsen. What does "worth it" really mean?
If the serialization is giving you motivation to follow a regular schedule to get something written and published, what is the "value" of that? If it is helping you build an audience for the finished work-- another ebook, or even a printed book-- what's the "value" of that?
@ericvancewalton is an example of one of the earliest Steemians to serialize and then successfully publish a book through Steemit... of course, he had the benefit of being an "early adapter."
Seems like Steemit is a better option than most!
=^..^=
Worth it is definitely the undefined part of the equation, isn't it? Which is why I felt I should probably try to address that aspect of it, even if it's not conclusive, mainly because I think most of the impact is still future.
The main issue is having a ready audience for the story. If it exists, and it's liked in terms of engagement, upvotes, maybe resteems, then the worth is more immediate and apparent. And so is the exact opposite of all that, meaning the story's audience did not receive it very well. It's problematic when there's not really a readership, and basically the material is meant to ferret the readership out. In that way, I don't know that's been successful, but just getting it out there with the potential of it being seen is better than having it sit on my computer collecting digital dust. :)
I read I think one post of the story, but have not gone back and read the whole thing yet. I have not been doing much reading lately on steemit, or off, I slow down on my reading in the summer months for some reason. One thing to remember though, is that there might be more than one person like me, who finds a story, goes back to the beginning of ot and reads and comments on it, and then drops a wallet payment for the enjoyment. i did that on two books I read that were already paid out, one of them was a work by alxebeyman, and the other were alienbuts first two coffee bean war stories. So even when you finish your book, you may get subsidies from them later on. And I would second themanwithnonames suggestion about michelle.gent. She is currently working on trying to get a trade paper back publications verse a niche one. I guess the big boys sometimes don't like taking works that have been submitted to the little guys for publication.
I don't know if the math works out. I think there's a lot more to it than I even know. I haven't been writing my story for a while now as I lost inspiration for the time being. I would recommend contacting michelle.gent to see what she says. She's an expert in all things books and publishing-related. I didn't tag her as I haven't been active in writer's club for a while and I'm embarrassed about that. Shhhh, don't tell anyone. We'll just keep it between us. :/
Oh, I can't be the only one missing the next installment of The Man With No Name, and horse, and crow and everyone else. You left us all in a real rough spot, too, with No Name shot and bleeding out and all. I reckon, though, we're just gonna have to wait until you've done did been struck with inspiration again.
Are you referring to the reward pool math? I took that off of the payouts you can see at the bottom of each post when you click on the amounts. I could have gone somewhere like steemdb.com and fished it out of there but decided people would understand about the posts amounts before all the conversion process begins. The SP has been all over the place because of STEEM, so anyway.
I'm probably going to be embarrassed about this week's league totals since I've been one day kind of on and one day mostly off all week. This is actually the first day where I've accomplished anything major, and it's hardly made up for the other four days. So, we'll see. It'll either be the week for slacking off, or the week of being left in the dust. :)
I'll have to see if I can get the inspiration to finish another installment. I don't want to leave you hanging. I had one or two of the installments partially written, so I just need to re-read and edit them, I think. I'll doubt-check.
I don't know what numbers I was talking about. Let's just say I was drunk. I hadn't had anything to drink, but I don't know what I was talking about, so it's less embarrassing to say I was drunk. Ha ha.
I think the "is it worth it" is subjective to you. Do you feel it was a good use of time? What were you hoping to accomplish with it? Do you feel like you got out of it what you wanted? What would you have liked to happen that might not have happened? What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?
It's alright if you have an off week. The times that you're not around mean you're doing something else that needs to be done. It's nice that you have the flexibility to do so since you don't have a traditional job. If you have a lower score than normal, I don't think people will blame you. Everyone needs time away.
Too bad there isn't a dustsweeper for that! Ha ha.
re: good use of time
Well, yes. It's been sitting around for the most part already written, so it was probably the most efficient use of my time for posting possible.
re: what were you hoping to accomplish
Mainly to see what it would do. I didn't really have any goals for it other than hoping it would get some upvotes. I think it's a solid story, but it's not necessarily action packed. It's more like a slow cooker that you would have to get into early, and it doesn't necessarily have a readership here yet.
re: got out of it what you wanted
To a degree. As I said, I was hoping for more of a following—but just like anywhere else, people don't really read, and less fiction it would seem, at least something long form as a novel. The way Steemit is set up though doesn't really help either. You can't really have evergreen material.
re: happened didn't happen
I think I already answered that question.
re: do differently
Well, have a following of readers. People interested in what I'm writing. The problem is, everyone's a creator or author. Most people aren't here yet just to read or consume. Those of us who are trying to do more than just create are the novelty.
I feel like I've taken off three or four weeks already, if you look at my comment numbers. I haven't hit 300 comments in what I'm pretty sure is a month. I don't think I'm solely to blame with that, but anyway. This week has been extra weird. I'm not sure what I need, but I need something. :)
I'm sorry it wasn't quite what you hoped for, but overall it seems like it was a positive experience for you. I wonder if it will do better once you finish it and get it published. It seems like it's a longer book, so if someone read it on Amazon Unlimited, you could get paid for a lot of pages. :D
There's only so much that people can keep up with on here, so it's tough. They're all fighting for attention and everything takes time. I think that's one of the reasons I didn't put as much effort into forcing myself to finish the man with no name series. I wasn't sure how many people were actually reading it and it was a lot of work. It's easier to post on silver and I actually enjoy that.
Maybe you just need a cup of sugar. I know you don't drink coffee, but you can have sugar, right?
I can't remember if I posted this clip before, so here you go!
Oh, I can have sugar. I just shouldn't, like everyone else. :)
I think you were getting decent feedback and comments on your stories. I can't remember the upvotes, but anyway, not my deal, and it's totally up to you what you want to do.
I think I will try to come up with ways to do more short story work, stuff that people don't have to follow every day to keep up with or stay in context. I'll also probably start introducing stuff about my MISSES comic book series I've had under development. See if I can drum up enough interest there. I'm coming close to the end of what I have written for The Maya so I'll need something creative to replace it with three days a week. I have another novel, the first one I ever wrote, but I'm not sure if I want to put that up here or not. :)
Heh, isn't that the truth? I know I eat more than I should, but I've cut down quite a bit. I miss getting to eat a bunch of cookies and ice cream.
Yeah, I got decent feedback, I just felt like was a lot of work. It was a struggle to get the posts out and I stressed about them more than I do with my regular posts. I think that might have been one of the reasons I didn't post as much at the time. Since I've switched to posting about silver, I haven't been as concerned. I can just post. I'm still going to try to get back to it at some point though. Thanks for the encouragement again.
I know that I have trouble keeping up with stuff that has to be followed sequentially. I am not on all the time and I tend to miss stuff, which leads me to feeling left out. One of the reasons I've been drawn to the silver posts is that the're normally shorter, but they still give me inspiration for new acquisitions.
That's right, you have the MISSES series and two books that you've already written that you can post. Do you think you're going to do another serial with one of those?
Please Upvote➜https://steemit.com/christianity/@bible.com/verse-of-the-day-revelation-21-8-niv