![]() Once a serial of four self-published novellas, they were later put together and released as a single novel. ![]() Luke Jennings did a similar thing with his novel, Codename Villanelle (which was adapted for television under the name Killing Eve). More fool me – one could argue that I’ve actually published one extra-long book in three parts! Even though I have three books in a trilogy with ‘Volumes 1, 2 and 3’ in their titles, I just assumed it was a series. The ‘traditional’ serial format has somewhat grown out of fashion now that publishing in smaller instalments is no longer necessary… but that doesn’t mean people aren’t still writing in it, often without realising. And with self-publishing, there are certainly fewer barriers to getting one’s book out there. Nowadays, it’s a lot more fashionable (and often profitable) to write books that share a fictional world, or characters, or some sort of overarching story. This also meant that an author only had to write the story one part at a time, and could write the next ‘episode’ according to their readers’ reactions to the story.Ĭharles Dickens famously published some of his books in this manner, and a long time later Stephen King revived the format for his novel, The Green Mile. Instead, they’d publish the book bit by bit – in serial format. ![]() Stories began to be published in magazines and newspapers but for obvious reasons, it wasn’t realistic to include a full novel in every issue. Serials first became popular in the nineteenth century, as printing costs grew more affordable and reading developed into a more popular pastime. ![]() Put simply: a series is a collection of books that all belong to the same “franchise” but can be read in any order (because they’re each a different, self-contained story – even if they connect with one another), whereas a serial is an ongoing narrative which the audience has to read in the correct order so as to follow the plot (so a different kind of series). It’s just that sometimes the lines between the two get blurred. There were standalone books, and there were books that shared a universe – whether those books could be read on their own or had to be consumed in the correct order.īut of course there’s a difference between a series and a serial. I’ve seen the same question pop up on our YouTube channel and Facebook groups quite a bit recently: what’s the difference between a series and a serial? I hadn’t really given it much thought before. ![]()
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