Hi! I am new to Substack as well, and intend to write serial fiction here. I was wondering about the following: the idea is to post the first draft as serial. And then have it professionally edited / proofread / cover created with the intention of publishing it as an ebook through the ebook stores (using Amazon and Draft2Digital's services). Is it necessary at that point to remove the serial story so that the great Zon won't punish my story somehow? Or is it enough it is behind a paywall / for paid subscribers?
Oh, and another question: has anyone published their already published books as serials to paid subscribers here?
If you are self-publishing your book on Amazon, it doesn't matter. I wrote my second novella live on Substack as a serial and then self-published it on Amazon. I did not remove it from Substack. Amazon just wants their cut of any sales. They don't care about anything else.
Amazon does have a serial fiction branch called Vella. They do have an exclusivity clause. But I tried Vella and my serial bombed. Almost no readers. Most Vella authors I know had the same experience.
If you are looking to get a book deal and be traditionally published, then you are better off not putting it on Substack first. But the odds of getting a traditional book deal are very small.
I don't know about the last question. Probably. I put my first novel on Substack after it was published. But I made it free.
Thank you for you reply :) I have self-published several books already, and am also traditionally published (three children's books I wrote and illustrated). Not looking for trad deals, though. (Not that I wouldn't listen if offered, as it happened before) I'm a happy camper when it comes to publishing my books on my own.
Vella is not available to authors where I live... And the reviews of it haven't exactly been glowing. Much like your experience, really. And that is actually the reason I ended up in Substack. It seems easy enough platform to handle, and I'm sure they will develop it into a smoother writing experience in the future.
Sometimes it can happen that a serial story makes it to fame. I think The Martian was one such book...
Yes, serials have a long history. Substack is getting better for fiction, and the number of fiction writer on it are growing. You really have nothing to lose by trying Substack. Best wishes.
Hello Mark. Sharron here from LEAVES. This process of setting up a separate section just for a serialized novel sounds quite complicated for the likes of me, even though you have broken it down nicely into discrete steps. Will you clarify one thing for me? (I know this may be a dumb question, but I am willing to risk it.) I already have 13 chapters published on substack of my book. If I set up a special section for it now, will I be able to move all these previously published chapters into the new section? Thanks for any help you can offer me. Sharron
Hi Sharron. Yes. It is easy. You just edit each previously published story and there is a menu near the top to select what section to place the story in. Select the section you want and click on the Update button.
Thank you, Mark, for taking the time to help me. You make it sound so easy! I will give it a try as soon as I can convince myself I am competent and capable enough to succeed! Ha Ha. Sharron at LEAVES
Sections were confusing to me at first. Until I thought of them as containers for newsletters. Each with its own index and newsletter. All under a banner newsletter.
It is good to visit a lot of newsletters with sections and see what they have done. Then they will make more sense.
The Substack Settings section is intimidating also. But Substack has instructions for setting up sections.
The continuing saga: I got one section created and managed to get all thirteen previously posted chapters into it in chronological order and it looks great. Easy peasey! So THANK YOU! May I ask one more question? I see that the chapters are now in the new section, but they are also still remain in the main newsletter, LEAVES. Must the chapters remain in the "parent" publication? If I were to delete them in LEAVES, would they also disappear from the special section. I am too nervous to see what would happen. Thanks Mark..
Don’t delete anything! The section newsletters show up in the “main” newsletter and the sections, but only on the website. They are not mailed twice. If you delete either of them, you will delete them both. Some people have requested that Substack/sections not work this way, but so far Substack has not changed it.
I personally like it that way. I have most of my content in sections, so my primary newsletter website is more of a sampler or portfolio of my sections (all of my content.) And the newest posts always show at the top of my main newsletter website. Sections act sort of like filters to narrow down the content.
I don’t think it is a deterrent to anyone reading your newsletters. It is just the way Substack works at the moment.
Excellent, Mark! You have told me exactly what I wanted to know and explained it perfectly. I thank you so much for taking the time to help me. It looks like I have it set up exact right, now. And on each chapter posted, I have added a link to the special section to make it easy for the reader. I appreciate your generosity so much! Best regards, Sharron at 🍁Leaves
this is great! if i may offer my small variation...
instead of chapter 1, i've pinned a table of contents with all of my available chapters to the top of my section, so that readers can also pick up where they left off instead of having to scroll through the entire archive to find the last chapter they read if they're just catching up. this has been my #1 frustration when reading serialized works on substack!
That is another option, but since each Sections creates its own "table of contents" automatically, (although in newest to oldest order) I would rather avoid the work of duplicating it in oldest to newest order and having to keep updating it. I let Substack do that chore. 🤓
Either way a reader will have to scroll if they are looking for an older chapter. But your text-only links are a quicker scroll.
Hopefully, Substack will eventually allow user to toggle the order of the Section list between newest to oldest and oldest to newest. 🙂
Also true. Funny how we all have our own particular preferences when it comes to using the site :-) My book will eventually be 50 chapters, so I’m preempting some of the scrolling… The important thing is finding what works best for us (and our readers!)
Super helpful! Being new to Substack, I keep putting off these design changes that would make my page more appealing and organized. I'm always afraid of messing something up, so I'm reluctant to play around with these features. More motivated and confident now. Thank you!
Your suggestions were very helpful in setting up a separate section for my serialized novel. I had no trouble creating the section and moving all the previously posted chapters into it in order. It looks terrific. May I ask one more question? I see that even though I moved the novel to its own section, it still remains in the main body of my publication as well. Does it have to stay in both places? I mean, if I deleted the novel from the main newsletter ( LEAVES.) would it also delete from the section as well? I am to cowardly to try it... Sharron
Okay...so I wondered this as well because even after I set up the sections, my Homepage still looked cluttered. I hope that's what you mean by the main body of your publication. I made my homepage look a little better by "pinning to my homepage" the four posts I most wanted front and center. While I didn't delete any posts, I did un-publish a few and they don't show up on either the homepage or in their sections (so I wouldn't recommend that). I think once they're published, they just appear in both places, but I'm just basing this on trial and error.
Helllo - Sharron from LEAVES here. I feel exactly as you do, SRS! Every thing is going so well and looks so pretty with my formatting, I couldn't be happier and, as you, I am afraid of messing up what I already have, so I do nothing. But I DO need to separate my serialized novel from the other posts. Did you find it tricky to set up a section?? Anything you learned that would be helpful to me and give me courage? Thank you! Sharron
Is it bad that I've since gotten so busy that I've barely been able to keep up with my weekly writing, let alone any meaningful design changes? Thanks for the comment, as I needed the reminder that I was once motivated and confident to give it a try! I will make some changes to it this weekend and let you know how it turns out. I also subscribed to LEAVES and really enjoyed your work!
With ‘first chapter’, ‘previous chapter’, ‘next chapter’ and ‘last chapter’ as options, obviously last chapter does nothing at the moment but when I’m writing the chapters I set up the ‘next chapter’ link in advance by altering the url to say ‘chapter x’ and because I know I’ll follow that naming convention when I write the next chapter it will automatically use that url when I post it.
Yes. This is a good method if you want to have several options side by side. Buttons, currently can only be stacked vertically. I hope they allow us to do multiple buttons side by side eventually, as I like the look of buttons far better than text links for navigation.
Yep. I would have preferred using buttons like Mark, or even images, but since you can't align either of those on one line, I figured I'd go with plain text. Only way you can have a decent looking navigation bar. Still hoping Substack gives us better tools someday, though.
Thanks for the advice, Mark. At some point, I hope we have the option of arranging our posts in ascending or descending order. In the meantime, this is very helpful.
Thanks, Julie. I think if enough people request it, it could happen. A toggle button the user could use to switch from newest chronological to oldest chronological would be even better, I think. 🙂
Thanks, Kristal. Serial fiction was obviously not a consideration when Substack was designed. Hopefully, features geared for serials will eventually make it into Substack. 🙂
Thank you, Mark! This was great for a newbie! Awesome info on using sections for serializations.
My pleasure, Zoe. 🤓
Hi! I am new to Substack as well, and intend to write serial fiction here. I was wondering about the following: the idea is to post the first draft as serial. And then have it professionally edited / proofread / cover created with the intention of publishing it as an ebook through the ebook stores (using Amazon and Draft2Digital's services). Is it necessary at that point to remove the serial story so that the great Zon won't punish my story somehow? Or is it enough it is behind a paywall / for paid subscribers?
Oh, and another question: has anyone published their already published books as serials to paid subscribers here?
If you are self-publishing your book on Amazon, it doesn't matter. I wrote my second novella live on Substack as a serial and then self-published it on Amazon. I did not remove it from Substack. Amazon just wants their cut of any sales. They don't care about anything else.
Amazon does have a serial fiction branch called Vella. They do have an exclusivity clause. But I tried Vella and my serial bombed. Almost no readers. Most Vella authors I know had the same experience.
If you are looking to get a book deal and be traditionally published, then you are better off not putting it on Substack first. But the odds of getting a traditional book deal are very small.
I don't know about the last question. Probably. I put my first novel on Substack after it was published. But I made it free.
Thank you for you reply :) I have self-published several books already, and am also traditionally published (three children's books I wrote and illustrated). Not looking for trad deals, though. (Not that I wouldn't listen if offered, as it happened before) I'm a happy camper when it comes to publishing my books on my own.
Vella is not available to authors where I live... And the reviews of it haven't exactly been glowing. Much like your experience, really. And that is actually the reason I ended up in Substack. It seems easy enough platform to handle, and I'm sure they will develop it into a smoother writing experience in the future.
Sometimes it can happen that a serial story makes it to fame. I think The Martian was one such book...
Yes, serials have a long history. Substack is getting better for fiction, and the number of fiction writer on it are growing. You really have nothing to lose by trying Substack. Best wishes.
Hello Mark. Sharron here from LEAVES. This process of setting up a separate section just for a serialized novel sounds quite complicated for the likes of me, even though you have broken it down nicely into discrete steps. Will you clarify one thing for me? (I know this may be a dumb question, but I am willing to risk it.) I already have 13 chapters published on substack of my book. If I set up a special section for it now, will I be able to move all these previously published chapters into the new section? Thanks for any help you can offer me. Sharron
Hi Sharron. Yes. It is easy. You just edit each previously published story and there is a menu near the top to select what section to place the story in. Select the section you want and click on the Update button.
Thank you, Mark, for taking the time to help me. You make it sound so easy! I will give it a try as soon as I can convince myself I am competent and capable enough to succeed! Ha Ha. Sharron at LEAVES
Sections were confusing to me at first. Until I thought of them as containers for newsletters. Each with its own index and newsletter. All under a banner newsletter.
It is good to visit a lot of newsletters with sections and see what they have done. Then they will make more sense.
The Substack Settings section is intimidating also. But Substack has instructions for setting up sections.
https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-publication-sections
The continuing saga: I got one section created and managed to get all thirteen previously posted chapters into it in chronological order and it looks great. Easy peasey! So THANK YOU! May I ask one more question? I see that the chapters are now in the new section, but they are also still remain in the main newsletter, LEAVES. Must the chapters remain in the "parent" publication? If I were to delete them in LEAVES, would they also disappear from the special section. I am too nervous to see what would happen. Thanks Mark..
Don’t delete anything! The section newsletters show up in the “main” newsletter and the sections, but only on the website. They are not mailed twice. If you delete either of them, you will delete them both. Some people have requested that Substack/sections not work this way, but so far Substack has not changed it.
I personally like it that way. I have most of my content in sections, so my primary newsletter website is more of a sampler or portfolio of my sections (all of my content.) And the newest posts always show at the top of my main newsletter website. Sections act sort of like filters to narrow down the content.
I don’t think it is a deterrent to anyone reading your newsletters. It is just the way Substack works at the moment.
Excellent, Mark! You have told me exactly what I wanted to know and explained it perfectly. I thank you so much for taking the time to help me. It looks like I have it set up exact right, now. And on each chapter posted, I have added a link to the special section to make it easy for the reader. I appreciate your generosity so much! Best regards, Sharron at 🍁Leaves
Again, thanks so much, Mark, for your generosity here. I needed help and you gave it.
You’re welcome. 🤓
Thanks for this, just added my first serialised story to a section. It does make things a lot more logical.
You’re welcome. I thinks sections work well for serials. 🙂
Thank you, Mark. Very helpful.
You’re welcome, Ethan. 🤓
Really nice and helpful article thank you.
Thanks, Sam. 🤓
Thank you so much for this!
My pleasure. 🙂
this is great! if i may offer my small variation...
instead of chapter 1, i've pinned a table of contents with all of my available chapters to the top of my section, so that readers can also pick up where they left off instead of having to scroll through the entire archive to find the last chapter they read if they're just catching up. this has been my #1 frustration when reading serialized works on substack!
you can see how it works here: https://jmelliott.substack.com/p/table-of-contents?s=r
Thanks, J.M.
That is another option, but since each Sections creates its own "table of contents" automatically, (although in newest to oldest order) I would rather avoid the work of duplicating it in oldest to newest order and having to keep updating it. I let Substack do that chore. 🤓
Either way a reader will have to scroll if they are looking for an older chapter. But your text-only links are a quicker scroll.
Hopefully, Substack will eventually allow user to toggle the order of the Section list between newest to oldest and oldest to newest. 🙂
Also true. Funny how we all have our own particular preferences when it comes to using the site :-) My book will eventually be 50 chapters, so I’m preempting some of the scrolling… The important thing is finding what works best for us (and our readers!)
True.
Thanks so much for this - fits perfectly into my plans for this summer's focus.
Great. I am glad it was useful.
Super helpful! Being new to Substack, I keep putting off these design changes that would make my page more appealing and organized. I'm always afraid of messing something up, so I'm reluctant to play around with these features. More motivated and confident now. Thank you!
Your suggestions were very helpful in setting up a separate section for my serialized novel. I had no trouble creating the section and moving all the previously posted chapters into it in order. It looks terrific. May I ask one more question? I see that even though I moved the novel to its own section, it still remains in the main body of my publication as well. Does it have to stay in both places? I mean, if I deleted the novel from the main newsletter ( LEAVES.) would it also delete from the section as well? I am to cowardly to try it... Sharron
Okay...so I wondered this as well because even after I set up the sections, my Homepage still looked cluttered. I hope that's what you mean by the main body of your publication. I made my homepage look a little better by "pinning to my homepage" the four posts I most wanted front and center. While I didn't delete any posts, I did un-publish a few and they don't show up on either the homepage or in their sections (so I wouldn't recommend that). I think once they're published, they just appear in both places, but I'm just basing this on trial and error.
Okay! Thanks! Good to know. I will fool around a little and let you know if I discover anything else. S.
Helllo - Sharron from LEAVES here. I feel exactly as you do, SRS! Every thing is going so well and looks so pretty with my formatting, I couldn't be happier and, as you, I am afraid of messing up what I already have, so I do nothing. But I DO need to separate my serialized novel from the other posts. Did you find it tricky to set up a section?? Anything you learned that would be helpful to me and give me courage? Thank you! Sharron
Is it bad that I've since gotten so busy that I've barely been able to keep up with my weekly writing, let alone any meaningful design changes? Thanks for the comment, as I needed the reminder that I was once motivated and confident to give it a try! I will make some changes to it this weekend and let you know how it turns out. I also subscribed to LEAVES and really enjoyed your work!
Thanks. I am glad I could help. 🤓
This was helpful! I plan on using the "section" feature to serialize for my longer works. I'm still new to Substack, so I'm still figuring things out.
Thanks, Cyndi. Sections can be confusing at first. I think of them as "containers" for related newsletters. Each with its own index and newsletter.
It’s also easy to make a simple navbar for previous and next chapters because the url pattern for Substack is consistent.
On Misadventure Adventure we have a navbar under the video each chapter: https://misadventure.substack.com/p/chapter-7?s=w
With ‘first chapter’, ‘previous chapter’, ‘next chapter’ and ‘last chapter’ as options, obviously last chapter does nothing at the moment but when I’m writing the chapters I set up the ‘next chapter’ link in advance by altering the url to say ‘chapter x’ and because I know I’ll follow that naming convention when I write the next chapter it will automatically use that url when I post it.
Yes. This is a good method if you want to have several options side by side. Buttons, currently can only be stacked vertically. I hope they allow us to do multiple buttons side by side eventually, as I like the look of buttons far better than text links for navigation.
Yep. I use something VERY similar on my serialized novel:
https://xenin.substack.com/p/fox03?utm_source=cfic
It's good to give readers as many options as possible, I think.
Just linked text put in a line?
Yep. I would have preferred using buttons like Mark, or even images, but since you can't align either of those on one line, I figured I'd go with plain text. Only way you can have a decent looking navigation bar. Still hoping Substack gives us better tools someday, though.
I like yours more. I don’t really know why I thought ‘last chapter’ would be important. I might change it one of these days
Yes, I agree.
Thanks for the advice, Mark. At some point, I hope we have the option of arranging our posts in ascending or descending order. In the meantime, this is very helpful.
Thanks, Julie. I think if enough people request it, it could happen. A toggle button the user could use to switch from newest chronological to oldest chronological would be even better, I think. 🙂
Thanks, Kristal. Serial fiction was obviously not a consideration when Substack was designed. Hopefully, features geared for serials will eventually make it into Substack. 🙂