Publishing platform delivers novels in serial form through app

A publishing provider has developed an app that blends the the production of television and e-books to bring readers a new form of serial storytelling.

Serial Box aims to be the “HBO for readers,” and its serial books are written just like TV shows. It releases book ‘episodes’, via an app, over a 10 to 16-week ‘season’. Each story has three or four supporting writers and its own ‘showrunner’ – in television, this is the person who has overall creative authority and responsibility for the show. Rather than chopping up existing novels and sending them out in small chunks, writing teams specially-write stories to fit into the format. This is similar to the way a TV series is created.

According to Serial Box founders Julian Yap and Molly Barton, there is a lot of evidence that people are reading more than ever. However, now they are reading in much shorter bursts. Many people have trouble fitting a complete novel into busy lives. For this reason, Serial Box have designed each episode to take around 40 minutes to read. Similar to the time it takes to watch a TV show.

Many authors who write serial fiction find that most of their money actually comes from selling the completed work as a bundle. But the founders of Serial Box are banking on the appeal of serialised fiction that is packaged more like television. The company have just launched a new programme – micro-fiction Mondays. Every Monday they will release a new 150-character-or less story. The company hopes these micro stories will provide a very quick get-away for users of the service. This is not the first app we have covered that is aimed at readers. We have also recently seen an outdoor library that encourages the love of books and an app that adds custom images and music to books. Will Serial Box’s model encourage more people to read?