Haiden Hibbert
If you’ve been interested in a writing career for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard (or experienced first-hand!) just how challenging the publishing industry can be. Fortunately, traditional publishing is not necessary for writers to make money anymore, and alternative methods like selling serial fiction online might be a better—and more lucrative—option for you.
Serial fiction is essentially writing and publishing your novel or story in installments over time, instead of all at once. Readers can subscribe to gain access to each new chapter or portion of the story. This format has become increasingly popular, as it allows writers to build suspense, engage with readers, and even earn money from their writing.
In this post, we’ll walk through five easy steps on how/where to publish your serial fiction using MemberSpace. Let’s get started!
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Step 1: Set up your author website
If you’re wondering where to publish serial fiction, you’ve probably seen some of the third-party platforms that allow you to do so. However, using your own website ensures you control what happens to your writing and how much you want to charge for it. Don’t worry – it’s quick and easy to set up.
First, you’ll need a simple one-page website to serve as your home base for publishing. This site should include a description of your book, information about you as the author, and eventually links to each chapter. You can easily create a beautiful website in minutes using a drag-and-drop site builder like Squarespace.
Once your site is up and running, you’ll have a professional platform to start publishing your serial fiction.
Step 2: Create a dedicated page for each new chapter
On your website, create a new page for each chapter or installment of your story. That way, you’ll be able to publish and gate access to them one by one.
You can draft all your installments upfront or write and add new pages week by week. Just make sure the pages have a clear naming structure, like www.yourwebsite.com/chapter1, www.yourwebsite.com/chapter2 and so on.
Step 3: Restrict access to chapter pages
This is where MemberSpace comes in – it’s a tool made specifically for creatives to easily accept payments and gate website content. You can use it to easily restrict access to certain pages on your site, like your serial fiction chapters.
Simply grab the URL for each chapter page and add it to MemberSpace. This will require readers to create an account and pay in order to view that content.
You can also create multiple tiers, so free members might get access to just one chapter while paid subscribers can read them all. This brings us to…
Step 4: Drip out chapters with MemberSpace
Once your chapters are uploaded and restricted, use MemberSpace to create your subscription tiers.
There are two ways you can approach this:
- A payment plan, where readers get access to new chapters overtime. You would set the plan to expire after the reader has received all chapters.
- Lifetime access, where readers get to keep access to your stories forever after they have received all your chapters.
✨ Writing Tip: If you’re writing as you go, try a monthly subscription. Add chapters in real-time for a “living novel” feel. Then start the next book!
Step 5: Notify your readers when a new chapter launches
To keep your readers engaged and excited about your book, make sure to notify them every time they get access to a new chapter. You can easily automate this process by connecting your email marketing tool with MemberSpace via Zapier. Then, once someone signs up, they’ll get an email about the first chapter, another one after seven days (or however many you decide) for the second chapter, and so on.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve ever wanted to publish your stories directly for readers without dealing with traditional book publishing, serial fiction could be perfect for you.
With just a basic website and MemberSpace to handle subscriptions and access to your chapters, it has never been more straightforward to release your novel or story piece-by-piece.
MemberSpace makes it easy to:
- Create subscriber-only access to your chapters
- Automatically release new chapters over time
- Get paid by readers right on your site
Regularly releasing new chapters, emailing readers, and promoting your website will quickly build dedicated fans of your unfolding tale. To get started, try MemberSpace free today!
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