Our “Dear Rene” video….
Today’s question comes from Rene Volpi (Offbeat Chronicles)
“Some writers are proposing writing their unpublished book through chapters on Substack. If I were to do that, how would I go about it, and should we promote said chapters on Notes?”
Dear Rene,
Before I get into it I want to clarify: are you asking if you should write the book straight into chapters on Substack, or do you mean to serialise a finished, unpublished work? If it’s the former, be aware that this is not for the feint-hearted. The serialisation road is littered with the bodies of those who’ve fallen foul of the first and last rule of writing, that first drafts are messy and shouldn’t really be shown to anyone. There are exceptions, SJ Watson is doing it successfully as The Experiment, but take note that he’s explicitly calling it an experiment in publishing a first draft, and inviting comments as he goes along. He also has a great deal of experience to back it up. If you’re new to fiction, however, I would advise you to finish the damn book before you launch into publishing it chapter by chapter.
Given that, let’s move onto how to go about it. This is exactly what I’m doing with In Judgement Of Others, and is a subject close to my heart.
Get a 30,000 foot view of your book, its structure and theme; do you know where it’s going, are you happy with it, have you already divided it into evenly spaced chapters with headings that let the reader know what’s coming. Serialisation has the effect of rooting out problems, and because each chapter needs to both stand alone and serve the whole, you’ll need to check that the theme, the what’s it about, is served in some way at every episode. This doesn’t mean you can’t have sub plots that tell their own story, but if it’s about a child searching for its mother, and the theme is loss, your chapters will feel stronger if we can feel the atmosphere of that theme no matter whether we’re reading about their dog or veering off on a subplot about cooking. Serialisation is a matter of trust; without the book to hold in our hands, we’re relying even more than usual on the writer to not let us fall, so subtle or not so subtle reassurances such as these, a constant theme around which we orbit, will help us to trust you.
I’ve found 2000 words to be the sweet spot; a little less, a little more but I keep that as my bench mark for each chapter.
Getting people on board is a big ask, so make your opening chapter go off with a bang. That doesn’t mean loud, but it does mean strong. We need to know where we are and where we’re going within the first 500 words. You need to convince me that this ride is worth it, so don’t hold back. The original version of In Judgement Of Others began with what is now chapter 3, but because this novel is about illness and our relationship to it, and Tessa is our central character, I realised it was imperative we start in the maelstrom of hers. As soon as I swapped them, it felt right. And you’ll do the same, break open those chapters as they exist now, and find the one that sets us on fire. You’ll know when you’ve found it. Be brave.
The end of chapter cliff hanger, yes, you’ve got to leave us wanting more, but that doesn’t mean that your characters have to be in high stakes every time we leave them. Learn to leave a thread hanging, something missing, a question in the air. That’s enough. And every so often, if your story demands it, hang them off an actual cliff.
I built a document based on the classic three act structure known as the transformational arc for this novel, and divided the chapters up so that I could see them, their headings, laid out in one document. This was another useful exercise in getting a 30,000 foot view. It showed me areas where it lagged, where the reader would be wanting more, and it allows me to see where I’m going. It’s a road map which I’ve tinkered with as chapters have gone live.
Serialising a novel is like standing in rising water. To begin with, it’s only up to your ankles, you’ve hardly committed to anything, you’ve said her blonde hair but you haven’t said where she lives. By the midway point it’s up to your waist and you’re wishing you hadn’t made the dog a terrier because that doesn’t work with what’s coming, and by the time the end’s in sight you’re breathing through a straw hoping to Christ all the decisions you made early on have stacked up because it’s too late now. So plan as much as you can. Look ahead, don’t begin until you’ve at least ten chapters in the chamber because continuity and consistency are everything, and once you press go there is no going back.
Except there is, of course, because this is Substack, and you can free range, delete and unpublish to your heart’s content. Unless you’re like me, an adrenaline junkie, who doesn’t want to, who loves the too late now of seeing a post appear and is laying down tracks only just ahead of the train that hurtles across the page. I love the thrill of it. I did all those things I’m advising you to do, yet I’m still rewriting as I go, editing, refining, making the text better; as I’ve said, the form reveals what whole book publishing doesn’t, and you may find that what looks like nailed it on launch day reveals itself at the midway point to demand a whole other ending. I wrote the original draft of In Judgement Of Others four years ago, yet serialisation is forcing a better version, and I’m only ever about four chapters ahead of the game. As I said, adrenaline junkie.
Create a new section for the book before you start posting and add links to the chapters preceding and proceeding on each post so that those playing catch up can easily read through from the start. And use the same masthead image every time, it makes it easier for readers to spot your work.
Be prepared for the experience of readers commenting in real time on the story -not an experience you’ll have with any other form of publishing. You’ll have to learn to sit on your hands and not give the game away, even when they’re asking, and when they set off down a path that you’ve intentionally laid, knowing it’s a misdirection that serves the plot, you’ll have to zip your mouth AND sit on your hands.
I think that’s enough to be getting on with, don’t you? If you’d like me to dive deeper into any of those points, let me know. Meanwhile I’ll move on to the simpler, last part of your question: should you promote each chapter on Notes. Yes! Absolutely. If you’re not cheering for your book, no one else will. We have to hear about it to read it, so don’t hold back. Get out that trumpet and blow it.
Good luck!
It’s a wild ride,
Love
Eleanor
If you’ve a question about writing, we’d love to hear from you. You can leave a comment here, or tag us both in Notes.
Here’s a link to Mary’s answer….
And here’s a link to our launch post in case you missed it…
Thanks for this - very helpful! The 2000 words thing is agree tip!
I started publishing my memoir on Substack on December 7. I spread the word on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I didn’t use Notes because I didn’t really understand it, though sometimes I do mention something on Notes these days and perhaps i should do it more frequently. By the end of December I had 300 subscribers. It took two months to get to 400 (and in the last couple of days I’ve lost a few, so I may dip below that soon, wahhhhh). I haven’t been promoting myself on social media much lately because I’m not confident it’s going to get me more readers and I don’t want to exhaust people and make them sick of me. I just wanted people to read the memoir, and I’m getting more than 400 views for each new chapter, and that makes me happy. I introduced a paywall six weeks in, and I now have 70 paid subscribers. (I kept my yearly rate low—$35 US, the cost of a pricey hardcover…) I guess my advice to you is, if you want readers and don’t want to wait for the gatekeeper of a publishing company, Substack seems like a good option to me. But I’d offer the chapters free at first, to give people a sense of what they’re getting. If they like it, if they’re hooked, then they’ll pay for it. Good luck!