Web Serial Fiction discussion

I think we all agree, when writing a web-fiction, you want the exact text of every installment to be 100% finalized *before* the publication date of that installment --- and there to be no changes whatsoever after that date. We all know that we are to go to great pains to *avoid* a scenario of *having* to make any change at all.

However ---- is there *any* advice what to do if all this effort is in vain? If a few weeks into the run of your web-serial, you realize that you need to change the name of a coffee-shop appearing in episode one?

Making a change like this can have multiple consequences. (1) You can no longer say that the version on the web is 100% the original version. (2) If someone re-reads the post later, they will see something different from what they recall. (3) If someone who previously reads episode 1 *before* the revision then reads a reference to that *same* place in episode 8 (which wasn't released until after the revision) they might not know that the coffee-house referenced in episode 8 is the same as the one referenced in episode 1 ---- because the name changed.

Now ---- consequence #1, I suppose the way I'd handle it is by just keeping for myself a solid *record* of any such revision I was forced to make --- so that even if I can no longer say the on-web version is 100% the same as it originally was, I *can* say that it *almost* is, and that I know *exactly* what the very-few changes I made were.

However ------ what can be done to mitigate consequences #2 and #3?

Thanks,
Sophia

I think it depends on the details of the contract you feel bound to between you and your readers. Personally, I believe the purpose of writing is to present as polished a piece to my readers as possible, but I'm only human. I make mistakes and I have to correct them. If this happens, I post a comment where I make the revision (the later location where the name is changed, in your example) that notifies readers. But people who show up later - potentially a much larger group - will get the more polished experience of reading everything straight through in its final form.
However, I tend to move on and publish the finished work as a book. This process involves considerably more editing than you've discussed here. I do not go back and make those same revisions to the web fiction online. If my readers want the final product, they'll have to go to the book.

I tend to come at this from a perspective more similar to Robert's.

I have no problem with fixing sentences to make them clearer, adding missing words and fixing typos.

On rare occasion (once in seven years of writing a serial) I will even rewrite, adding and expanding a post because it almost, but didn't quite, work. On that occasion, it was the most recent post, and I made a note for my readers saying that there would be no post on Monday because I was changing the post from Thursday.

I haven't done this yet, but if I felt I needed to make more substantial revisions--change location, change a character's name, rewrite some important plot element whatever--I'd make the changes, and then make an author's note of what I'd done in the comments of at the most recent post as well as the posts where I made the change.

That takes care of the regular readers. The new readers will never know the difference. Granted, there are people who are reading through the archives, and are past where the changes were made. There, I've got to admit that there's a hole. My thought is that those readers will eventually hit the post where I explain what changed. In the meantime, it won't affect them much.

If I have to make changes to more than two or three posts, I'm not going to make the change in the serial. I'll make it in revising the final print/ebook version.

I regard that as the final version--not the serial.

EDIT: For the record, given that you currently only have two posts up, I don't think readers will find it a jarring event. Personally, I've had a couple different coffeehouses appear in my serial, and I doubt readers would care very much if I changed the name. Now, if it were a character, that might annoy people (but I'd only do it if the character were unimportant), and probably only for the published print/ebook version.

You both have both made excellent points! I find your advice very helpful --- both of you.

Interesting question and reading!
I agree with what's been made. If I spot a typo, I have no qualms going back to fix it (only qualms with it being there in the first place), and I wouldn't mind doing small changes (like a coffeehouse changing name if it's not pivotal to the plot). But I wouldn't retcon bit plot points, change the name of a main character, add or delete several chapters in the middle or something like that. - That would be reserved for future edits (for publication elsewhere).

M. wrote: "Interesting question and reading!
I agree with what's been made. If I spot a typo, I have no qualms going back to fix it (only qualms with it being there in the first place), and I wouldn't mind do..."

I agree. I ALWAYS go back and fix typos, clarify, nip and tuck. Big-time rewrites are for e-book publication (someday).

Thank you very much!!

By the way --- I just learned on TV Tropes that there's a *name* for what I'm concerned about ---- called the "Orwellian Retcon": http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...

Great points all around. I am in the fix typos camp and make major revisions when you publish as ebook/print, but then most of my serials are destined for eventually collection into an ebook. Some people only write for the web format. In that case, they might go back and change, archive original stuff maybe? Or even make a "bloopers or deleted scenes" page.
The nice thing about the webserial format is one, you can talk to your readers and see if they mind, and two, you can get really creative. I think deleted scenes could potentially be a draw if the serial was popular enough, or commentaries, notes, whatever.
It's been selling the same bloody DVD over and over and over for years now. :D

I consider my web serial a living document that's subject to changes. I don't really keep track of the changes, but I've never had to change anything major. I suspect most readers are canny enough that on a reread they'll pick up any nuances and get what you're going for even if you switched up a few things, unless you're writing something really complicated.

What an excellent question -- and great responses! As someone who is just now dipping her toe into the world of web serials (to see if piranhas attack, or if the water is fine), I am thrilled to find people willing to share their viewpoints and expertise. Thanks!

I wonder how many people have ever received blowback from readers over this practice. Sadly, I suspect that most of our concern is over a theoretical issue, because there aren't any readers to speak up about the practice. Maybe I'm being overly cynical...

It depends on who you are. If you've heard of the serial Worm, you might be interested to know he had 60,000 page views one day near the end of the serial (not to mention millions over the course of its two year run).

The writer (Wildbow) lives off the income generated by his serials. He's written three so far, and still gets one time donations for Worm, Pact and Twig in addition to his Patreon account which gives him a more consistent monthly income.

Personally, I've only had at most 4000 page views on an update day (around 800,000 over the course of last year and 2.5 million pageviews over the serial's life). Readers donated more than $3000 to my Kickstarter for turning the serial into ebooks.

It took more than seven years of regular updates to get to that point for me (which incidentally makes the 2.5 million pageviews less impressive. 2 million or so are from roughly the past 2 years, however).

Most people give up within a few months, and as a result don't stay in the game long enough for it to pay off.

I just thought I'd respond to Frances' statement that I somehow missed earlier.

"Some people only write for the web format. In that case, they might go back and change, archive original stuff maybe? Or even make a "bloopers or deleted scenes" page."

Personally, my experience is that that web serial audience and the Kindle audience are different groups. The web serial group is much smaller, but more dedicated to your work. They'll go buy the ebook version in many cases. By contrast the ebook readers are less likely to go read your serial.

That said, I know for a fact that Drew Hayes serial Superpowereds grew considerably after he released volume one on Kindle (he gets thousands of page views per day). They went and read his serial. I've had some of that too.

With that context in mind, I'll mention what I'm not planning to do. I'm not planning to take the serial off the web after publishing it as an ebook. I'm also not planning to remove the unedited version. I've seen people do both of these, and in my opinion, it's a mistake.

People often discover the web serial and go buy the book. They also buy the book and go read the web serial.

I plan to highlight the deleted scenes between the serial and ebook (heck, there are whole deleted *chapters*) because that is something that I think people will enjoy. The thing that's stopping me from doing that right now is that it's part of a large scale web project that I don't have time to do.

The nice thing about web serials is that they sprawl and because they sprawl, you have to delete a lot before you turn it into an ebook. That creates a good reason for readers that liked the book to check out your site.

For my readers, there's an even better reason to check out my site. The novels are currently four novels further along on the web site than they are as ebooks.

Jim wrote: "It depends on who you are. If you've heard of the serial Worm, you might be interested to know he had 60,000 page views one day near the end of the serial (not to mention millions over the course o..."

And the tin-eared response of the day goes to...

Yes, I imagine if we all got a bazillion hits a day on our serials, we'd have other issues to deal with. I don't know, but I suspect that this would be far down in the noise because -- wait for it -- we'd already have worked it out with the loyal fanbase.

Sheesh.

Michael wrote: "I wonder how many people have ever received blowback from readers over this practice. Sadly, I suspect that most of our concern is over a theoretical issue, because there aren't any readers to speak up about the practice."

To me, it sounded as though you were saying that serials had practically no readers, making the issue irrelevant.

I thought I'd make it clear that there are readers out there, making the issue very relevant. My reply was too focused on making it clear that some serials have readers and not nearly enough on how revising a serial really did hurt it.

In any case, I can think of three different serials off the top of my head where revision damaged the serial's readership for a period or permanently (Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom, Tales of MU, and Require Cookie). All of them had a fairly decent readership, and for various reasons didn't work it out adequately with those readers--in a couple cases going down thousands of pageviews per day.

As such, I'd say it's worth a thought.