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Monthly Serial Novel Magazines?
DeeryQueen asks: "I enjoy reading both regular/text novels and Japanese graphic novels (manga), but while there are a few magazines serializing manga (a few hundred pages each month, consisting of a chapter each from many different graphic novels) with which I am familiar (such as Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat), I don't know where to start looking for US magazines which serialize text novels using this formula. I read all genres. Any recommendations?"
Yes! Try masturbating.
Oh, you mean reading recommendations.
I enjoy doing some creative writing from time to time, and have done a little of this in the past (an old e-zine that only ran a few issues). I often thought there would be other aspiring authors that might like to contribute to something like this if for no other reason then to get some experience writing and have a already interested audience. The tough thing I thought, would be to differentiate it from a blog, which gives the wrong idea.
Invent a time machine and go back to the 19th century.
When you get to hell -- tell 'em Itchy sent ya!
I'm partial to the classics from O'Reilly...
Well, what are you really looking for? Do you like the serial form because it makes you slow down when reading an entire novel, or cuts it up into bite-sized chunks?
You could always just take a regular novel, slice it up, put each chapter in an envelope, and get a friend to mail them to you one at a time.
Seriously, this just isn't done much anymore. I know one example -- Dave Eggers was publishing a serial novel on Salon.com (subscription or sommething probably required)... it got up to episode 35 and kind of stopped (was that the end? I don't know) last summer. I'm guessing they abandoned the idea... and frankly, I wasn't reading it anymore, anyway. Serial novels are a form that seems very hard to do well -- the author doesn't get a chance to *revise* when he's painted himself into a corner, plotwise, or when he realizes he's running out of good material; he just has to keep on going, ignoring the inconsistencies and poor story arc and so on.
I'd say you're better off with a good book. Or... you could do some digging in a good library (ask the reference librarian for help) in finding what you want in old magazines; one of those old serials packed with spies and women on railroad tracks, with a cliff-hanger at the end of every segment could be fun to read.
Try Reader's Digest
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Why do you want to read series in a monthly fashion ??
If you want to read anything then start with Star Trek books, according to my sources there are over 100 books, assume you read one a month, thats enough to keep you happy for 10 years, assuming that there will be 20books released within the next 10 years (not unplausible postulate).
Alternativelly, pickup books that have extremely short chapters, say, Dan Brown's Digital Fortress (have not read his other works yet so cannot comment if all his exhibit chapters only 2 paragraphs long).
Alternativelly, why read long things, not just short stories? Some of the best fiction is hidden in short stories. Ender's Game? that was a short story first (there are now 6, if not more, prequel short stories with an anthology planned soon). Johnny Mnemonic? also a short story. There is the Analog, Isaac's Sci Fi, and many others to pick up, some with own quirks.
Alternativelly, since you mention also stories in drawn art form, I highly recommend going after European comic book scene, especially the French and Belgian comics. Anything by Van Hamme is a must, especially the Thorgal saga, although XIII might be easier to find (which is akin to Bourne), and then there is the Yans saga.
Analog Science Fiction & Fact runs 3 to 4 part serials pretty regularly. I don't know whether the sum of the parts would be the length of a full-blown novel, but it's something. It's a pretty effective gimmick to keep me subscribing, especially when they run a really good serial, like "Shootout at the Nokai Corral" by Rajnar Vajra.
Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but Analog and Asimov magazines feature short stories, but once or twice per year will serialize a novel. If you prefer mysteries, I imagine similar offerings are available for Ellery Queen and Hitchcock magazines.
There is a Fantasy magazine in the same format, but the name escapes me.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
http://www.literotica.com/
I serialized a 16-chapter novel of mine online at: http://losangelesnow.blogspot.com/, if you want to try it. Mind you, it's not science fiction, if that's what you're looking for.
Sun and Fun
Factsheet5 used to be good for finding things like this, but they went "tits up".
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
As others have mentioned novel serialization is pretty rare these days. There's no dearth of excellent writing magazines such as Granta, which feature fiction and non-fiction short stories, etc.
http://www.granta.com/
m.
"Sebastian you're in a mess. They called you King of all the Hipsters, is it true or are you still the Queen?" -- B
Google for "In the Ghetto" and "Vlad".
Keep It Coming has serialized novels in several different genres available by subscriptions. Not free, but relatively low-priced.
Analog is probably the best speculative fiction mag out there, though that really says little in itself. Some of their stuff is too esoteric for most readers (including myself--and I read a lot of sf). That serial by Vajra is a prime example. Many Analog writers seem to be trying to outweird each other.
Next, use a split command to make your e-book into 4 KiB chunks. On Unix/Linux this is simple enough, do #man split# for details. On Windows there is a bunch of splitting applications left over from the days when files needed to be 1.44 MB for floppy disks. You'll want files to be labelled consistently with short titles incrementing logically. So, to chop up A Scanner Darkly, you'd make:
ASD-001
......
ASD-002
ASD-003
ASD-998
ASD-999
Then export the files in a folder to your iPod in hard drive mode. Put them in the Notes folder.
Turn on your iPod, go to Notes, and start reading your 4,096 Byte text files on the move. Not exactly serialisation, but a handy way to keep whatever you are reading with you when you are going somewhere and can make bus journeys a lot easier than having nothing to read.
Any character after the 4,096th byte will not display on an iPod. And if you label them simply "ASD-1", "ASD-2", etc. You will have the usual problem of the files being ordered 1, 10, 11.... 2, 20, 21..., 998, 999. So be sure to leave the leading zeroes in there so you can read it in order. Making the titles longer than, at a guess, 15 characters, means you may not be able to see the end of the filename on an iPod's screen, so you won't know what number you are on, or what number to read next.
I can vouch for this method and have read Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep and Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather on my iPod's screen. Once you are used to it, it is a no-brainer to make the files the correct format.