Slashdot Mirror
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?"
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.