It’s official. Storm Moon Press has now opened its doors to serialized fiction. This approach to fiction is definitely different and has been met with a lot of controversy in the genre. For a lot of people the thought of serial fiction might make them hesitant. After all, most publishers who offer the serial fiction charge so much per installment that you end up paying three times as much for the amount of fiction you get in the end. Why would you want to do that?
The answer, in short, is that you don’t want to do that. And the lovely thing is that Storm Moon Press is going to have a better approach that will mean paying a fair price for the fiction, with only a bit more of a charge if you purchase each installment of the story separately. Let me break it down a little for you, so you won’t be afraid of trying out our serial fiction when it debuts in 2013!
Paying Per Episode – The first and most straight-forward method of getting these pieces of fiction is to pay for each episode of a season individually. At Storm Moon Press, the first episode of a season will always be just $0.99, so you can try out a story for cheap, and then either pass on the rest if it isn’t a good fit for you, or continue getting the episodes individually after that. Each episode after the first will be priced based on length, so you don’t have to worry about overpaying. However, if you plan to be in it for the long haul, you might consider the next option…
The Season Pass – A season pass is exactly what it says: a one time payment that grants you access to the entire season of episodic fiction (either 6 or 12 episodes in a season, depending on the story). When new episodes become available, they will automatically appear in your bookshelf! In addition to the discount of buying a season pass rather than paying for each individual episode, you’ll also get exclusive access to extras from the authors, be it character interviews, sketches, or deleted/extended scenes! This is definitely the most bang for your buck.
The Final E-book – If you’re really not into the serialized format for fiction, don’t worry! We have you covered as well! If you hate waiting for new episodes to appear, then you have the option of waiting until a season completes. Once the fiction’s season is over, you will be able to purchase the entire season in a single e-book. Think of this like a boxset of a season of your favorite television show. You get every episode all in one go and don’t have to wait for updates. In the long run, this e-book will be cheaper than the purchasing the season pass, but you don’t get the extras, just the episodes.
With all these choices, we hope that readers will give our serial fiction a try! We already have some interest from veteran authors with the press such as Cari Z, Gryvon, and the writing duo S.L. Armstrong & K. Piet. If you’re an author looking for a place to publish your serial fiction or wanting to learn more about how Storm Moon Press approaches this particular kind of fiction, please feel free to learn more by heading to the serials section of the Storm Moon Press website! We’re always on the lookout for new talent, and we’d love to hear from you!
K. Piet is the Marketing Director for Storm Moon Press and the author of Catalyst and her upcoming illustrated novel, Making Ends Meet, both co-authored with S.L. Armstrong. She can be found on her website or Twitter.
*applause* I love your transparency! We’ve found that people usually want the book about 1/2 way through a serial – something to think about since you’re serializing. Good luck with it!
Of course I read your comment a second time and realized you might have meant something completely different. *chuckles* If you meant that readers tend to want the rest of the book all at once when they reach that half way point, then that’s a slightly different story.
The options then would be to purchase the episodes individually up to that halfway point, and then wait to buy the full e-book at the end of the season’s run. They would still have to wait for the full e-book, though, since making it available halfway through the serialization would negate the serial fiction’s second half of episodes.
We are trying to cater to those who want it all at once, though, which is why we have that option of simply waiting and buying the e-book when it’s completed and the serial run is all finished. For them, it would be like knowing the release date a good deal ahead of time… but with the added tease that they know bits and pieces are being released each week.
Like I said, though, the season pass is definitely the best bang for the buck, and people who sign up for that get the completed e-book once the season is complete. So, for some people, buying a season pass could be like pre-ordering, though at a slightly higher price because the option is there for them to read it as it comes out (and get the extras). It all depends on how the individual reader weighs the balance between perks, price point, and their desire to read the story straight through. We’re hoping that our structure allows for a lot more people along the spectrum of preferences there.
Thanks again for your comment!
~K. Piet
Oh, we’ve even covered that base, Claudia! The lovely thing is that you can buy a season pass at any point during the season and it applies retroactively. If you take a look at a season that’s halfway through (or wait up until that point on purpose) and find you really want to read it? You can buy that season pass and get everything that’s currently available up to that point, and then the rest will be released on it’s once or twice a month schedule (depending on the story).
I’m glad you like the transparency. We’ve struggled with the idea of serials for a while now because we wanted to adopt a model that would be fair to the consumer, not just profitable to the press and author. We hope this is the right balance of both to make it worth it for everyone involved!
I hope you’ll keep an eye on the press until then! We have a newsletter you can subscribe to (only gets sent out once a month, so it never spams your inbox ^_-), so that’s the easiest way to get all the news on Storm Moon Press without making a huge effort.
Thanks so much for commenting!
~K. Piet