View source for Serial

{{Short description|Publishing format}}
{{Distinguish|Serial (publishing)}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2022}}
[[File:Publicité pour Great Expectations dans All the Year Round.jpeg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Advertisement for [[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[Great Expectations]]'', serialised weekly in the literary magazine ''[[All the Year Round]]'' from December 1860 to August 1861]]
{{Literature}}

In [[literature]], a '''serial''' is a printing or publishing format by which a single larger [[Creative work|work]], often a work of [[Narrative|narrative fiction]], is published in smaller, sequential installments. The installments are also known as ''numbers'', ''parts'', '''''fascicules''''' or '''''fascicles'''''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA; 'Fascicle (book)' redirects here-->, and may be released either as separate [[publication]]s or within sequential issues of a [[periodical publication]], such as a magazine or newspaper.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Law |first=Graham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVrUTUelE6YC |title=Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism |publisher=Academia Press |year=2009 |isbn=9789038213408 |editor-last=Brake |editor-first=Laurel |location=London |page=567 |chapter=Serials and the Nineteenth-Century Publishing Industry |editor-last2=Demoor |editor-first2=Marysa |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVrUTUelE6YC&pg=PA567}}</ref>

Serialisation can also begin with a single short story that is subsequently turned into a series.  Historically, such series have been published in periodicals. Popular short-story series are often published together in book form as collections.

== Early history ==
The growth of moveable type in the 17th century prompted episodic and often disconnected narratives such as ''[[L'Astrée]]'' and ''[[Artamène|Le Grand Cyrus]]''. At that time, books remained a premium item, so to reduce the price and expand the market, publishers produced large works in lower-cost [[Hire purchase|installments]] called fascicles.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hagedorn |first=Roger |year=1988 |title=Technology and Economic Exploitation: The Serial as a Form of Narrative Presentation |journal=Wide Angle: A Film Quarterly of Theory, Criticism and Practice |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=4–12}}</ref>  These had the added attraction of allowing a publisher to gauge the popularity of a work without incurring the expense of a substantial print run of bound volumes: if the work was not a success, no bound volumes needed to be prepared.  If, on the other hand, the serialised book sold well, it was a good bet that bound volumes would sell well, too.

== 19th and early 20th centuries ==
Serialised fiction surged in popularity during Britain's [[Victorian era]], due to a combination of the rise of literacy, technological advances in printing, and improved economics of distribution.<ref name="Law">{{Cite book |last=Law |first=Graham |url=https://archive.org/details/serializingficti0000lawg |title=Serializing Fiction in the Victorian Press |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-312-23574-1 |location=New York & Hampshire, UK |page=[https://archive.org/details/serializingficti0000lawg/page/3 3] |access-date=October 23, 2011 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|34}} Most [[Victorian novel]]s first appeared as installments in monthly or weekly periodicals.<ref name=Law/>{{rp|13}} The wild success of [[Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]'', first published in 1836, is widely considered to have established the viability and appeal of the serialised format within periodical literature.  During that era, the line between "quality" and "commercial" literature was not distinct.<ref name=Law/>{{rp|31}} Other famous writers who wrote serial literature for popular magazines were [[Wilkie Collins]], inventor of the [[detective fiction|detective novel]] with ''[[The Moonstone]]''; [[Anthony Trollope]], many of whose novels were published in serial form in ''Cornhill'' magazine;  and Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], who created the [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories originally for serialisation in ''[[Strand Magazine|The Strand]]'' magazine.

While American periodicals first syndicated British writers, over time they drew from a growing base of domestic authors. The rise of the periodicals like ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's]]'' and the ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'' grew in symbiotic tandem with American literary talent. The magazines nurtured and provided economic sustainability for writers, while the writers helped grow the periodicals' circulation base. During the late 19th century, those that were considered the best American writers first published their work in serial form and then only later in a completed volume format.<ref name="Lund">{{Cite book |last=Lund |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxNE1jpaQz8C |title=America's Continuing Story: An Introduction to Serial Fiction, 1850–1900 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-8143-2401-0 |location=Detroit |access-date=October 23, 2011}}</ref>{{rp|51}}

As a piece in ''[[Scribner's Monthly]]'' explained in 1878, "Now it is the second or third rate novelist who cannot get publication in a magazine, and is obliged to publish in a volume, and it is in the magazine that the best novelist always appears first."<ref name=Lund/>{{rp|52}} Among the American writers who wrote in serial form were [[Henry James]] and [[Herman Melville]]. A large part of the appeal for writers at the time was the broad audiences that serialisation could reach, which would then grow their following for published works. One of the first significant American works to be released in serial format is ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'', by [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]], which was published over a 40-week period by ''[[The National Era]]'', an abolitionist periodical, starting with the June 5, 1851 issue.

Serialisation was so standard in American literature that authors from that era often built installment structure into their creative process. James, for example, often had his works divided into multi-part segments of similar length.<ref name=Lund/>{{rp|30}} The consumption of fiction during that time was different than in the 20th century. Instead of being read in a single volume, a novel would often be consumed by readers in installments over a period as long as a year, with the authors and periodicals often responding to audience reaction.<ref name=Lund/>

In France, [[Alexandre Dumas]] and [[Eugène Sue]] were masters of the serialised genre. ''[[The Three Musketeers]]'' and ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' each appeared as a ''[[feuilleton]]''. ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' was stretched out to 139 installments. Eugène Sue's serial novel {{Lang|fr|Le Juif errant}} increased circulation of {{Lang|fr|Le Constitutionnel}} from 3,600 to 25,000. Production in book form soon followed and serialisation was one of the main reasons that nineteenth-century novels were so long. Authors and publishers kept the story going if it was successful since authors were paid by line and by episode. [[Gustave Flaubert]]'s ''[[Madame Bovary]]'' was serialised in {{Lang|fr|[[La Revue de Paris]]}} in 1856.

Some writers were prolific. Alexandre Dumas wrote at an incredible pace, oftentimes writing with his partner twelve to fourteen hours a day, working on several novels for serialised publication at once. However, not every writer could keep up with the serial writing pace. [[Wilkie Collins]], for instance, was never more than a week before publication. The difference in writing pace and output in large part determined the author's success, as audience appetite created a demand for further installments.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lyons |first=Martyn |title=Books: A Living History |publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum |year=2011 |isbn=9781606060834 |location=Los Angeles |pages=153–155}}</ref>

In the [[German-speaking countries]], the serialised novel was widely popularised by the weekly family magazine {{Lang|de|[[Die Gartenlaube]]}}, which reached a circulation of 382,000 by 1875.<ref name="Belgum1">{{Cite book |last=Belgum |first=Kirsten |title=Feminist studies in German literature & culture |date=1994 |publisher=University of Nebraska |others=Jeanette Clausen, Sara Friedrichsmeyer |isbn=0803297548 |location=Lincoln |pages=92–93 |chapter=Domesticating the Reader: Women and Die Gartenlaube" |oclc=1280738191}}</ref> In Russia, ''[[The Russian Messenger]]'' serialised [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s ''[[Anna Karenina]]'' from 1873 to 1877 and [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'' from 1879 to 1880. In Poland, [[Bolesław Prus]] wrote several serialised novels: ''[[The Outpost (Prus novel)|The Outpost]]'' (1885–1886), ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'' (1887–1889), ''[[The New Woman]]'' (1890–1893), and his sole [[historical novel]], ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (the latter, exceptionally, written entire over a year's time in 1894–1895 and serialised only after completion, in 1895–1896).

In addition, works in late [[Qing dynasty]] China had been serialised. ''[[The Nine-tailed Turtle]]'' was serialised from 1906 to 1910.<ref name="WangDeweip181">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=David Der-wei |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ng6YRePhbRMC&pg=PA81 |title=Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849–1911 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0804728454 |page=81 |author-link=David Der-wei Wang}}</ref> ''[[Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed over Two Decades]]'' was serialised in ''Xin Xiaoshuo'' ({{Lang-zh|s=新小说|t=新小說|tp=Xīn Xiǎoshuō|w=Hsin Hsiao-shuo}}; "New Fiction"), a magazine by [[Liang Qichao]].<ref name="Chineseuniversityinsidecover">{{Cite book |last1=Wu |first1=Chien-jen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ia4qmgxy2HEC&pg=PP4 |title=二十年目睹之怪现状 |last2=Wu |first2=Wo-yao |last3=Wu |first3=Jianren |date=January 1, 1975 |publisher=[[Chinese University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8047-2845-4 |page=4 |translator-last=Liu |translator-first=Shishun |trans-title=Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed over Two Decades}}</ref> The first half of ''[[Officialdom Unmasked]]'' appeared in installments of ''[[Shanghai Shijie Fanhua Bao]]'',<ref name="Holochp76">{{Cite book |last=Holoch |first=Donald |title=The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century |date=January 1, 1980 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0802054739 |editor-last=Doleželová-Velingerová |editor-first=Milena |editor-link=Milena Doleželová-Velingerová |page=76 |chapter=A Novel of Setting: ''The Bureaucrats''}}</ref> serialised there from April 1903 to June 1905.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Doleželová-Velingerová |first=Milena |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n2DfEmr2g0YC&pg=PA724 |title=The Columbia History of Chinese Literature |date=August 13, 2013 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-52851-1 |editor-last=Mair |editor-first=Victor H. |page=724 |chapter=Chapter 38: Fiction from the End of the Empire to the Beginning of the Republic (1897-1916)}}</ref>

== Late 20th and early 21st centuries ==
With the rise of broadcast—both radio and [[television series]]—in the first half of the 20th century, printed periodical fiction began a slow decline as newspapers and magazines shifted their focus from entertainment to information and news. However, some serialisation of novels in periodicals continued, with mixed success.

The first several books in the ''[[Tales of the City]]'' series by [[Armistead Maupin]] appeared from 1978 as regular installments in San Francisco newspapers. Similar serial novels ran in other city newspapers, such as ''[[The Serial]]''<ref>{{Cite web |title=That '70s book |url=http://www.pacificsun.com/marin_a_and_e/book_reviews/article_3f9b2c1e-65b4-11e2-9dd9-001a4bcf6878.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130411165940/http://www.pacificsun.com/marin_a_and_e/book_reviews/article_3f9b2c1e-65b4-11e2-9dd9-001a4bcf6878.html |archive-date=2013-04-11 |access-date=2017-10-03 |publisher=Pacific Sun}}</ref> (1976; [[Marin County]]), ''Tangled Lives'' (Boston), ''Bagtime'' (Chicago), and ''Federal Triangle'' (Washington, D.C.).<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 8, 1977 |title=The Press: Soap Operas Come to Print |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915212,00.html |url-status=dead |access-date=February 27, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215120542/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915212,00.html |archive-date=December 15, 2008}}</ref> Starting in 1984, [[Tom Wolfe]]'s ''[[The Bonfire of the Vanities]]'', about contemporary New York City, ran in 27 parts in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', partially inspired by the model of Dickens. The magazine paid $200,000 for his work, but Wolfe heavily revised the work before publication as a standalone novel.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ragen |first=Brian Abel |title=Tom Wolfe: A Critical Companion |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-313-31383-0 |location=Westport, CT}}</ref> [[Alexander McCall Smith]], author of ''[[The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency]]'' series, experimented in 2004 with publishing his novel ''[[44 Scotland Street]]'' in installments every weekday in ''[[The Scotsman]]''. [[Michael Chabon]] serialised ''[[Gentlemen of the Road]]'' in ''[[The New York Times Magazine]]'' in 2007.

The emergence of the [[World Wide Web]] prompted some authors to revise a serial format. [[Stephen King]] experimented with ''[[The Green Mile (novel)|The Green Mile]]'' (1996) and, less successfully, with the uncompleted ''[[The Plant (novel)|The Plant]]'' in 2000. [[Michel Faber]] allowed ''The Guardian'' to serialise his novel ''[[The Crimson Petal and the White]]''. In 2005, [[Orson Scott Card]] serialised his out-of-print novel ''[[Hot Sleep]]'' in the first issue of his online magazine, ''[[InterGalactic Medicine Show]]''. In 2008 McCall Smith wrote a serialised online novel ''[[Corduroy Mansions]]'', with the audio edition read by [[Andrew Sachs]] made available at the same pace as the daily publication. In 2011, [[pseudonym]]ous author Wildbow published ''[[Worm (web serial)|Worm]]'', which remains one of the most popular web serials of all time.<ref name="Beacon-Villager">{{Cite web |last=Collings |first=Jesse |title=Adam Sherman of Maynard publishes web serial |url=http://maynard.wickedlocal.com/article/20150702/NEWS/150709367 |publisher=Wicked Local}}</ref><ref name="The Star">{{Cite web |date=20 February 2014 |title=Discipline and determination pay off for webserial writer |url=http://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/online-exclusive/reading-revolution/2014/02/20/discipline-and-determiniation/ |website=[[The Star (Malaysia)|The Star]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Wildbow is creating Web serials |url=https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow |publisher=[[Patreon]]}}</ref>

Conversely, graphic novels became more popular in this period containing stories that were originally published in a serial format, for example, [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Watchmen]]''. Japanese [[manga]], especially [[shōnen manga]], have achieved great success with long-term serialised works, mostly published in [[manga magazines]] like ''[[Weekly Shōnen Jump]]''. One notable example, [[Eiichiro Oda]]'s ''[[One Piece]]'', has released more than 1133 chapters since its debut in 1997, making it one of the most popular and long running manga series of all time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Anna |date=2024-12-06 |title=One Piece Shares Incredible Milestone for Its Manga in Its Latest Update |url=https://comicbook.com/anime/news/one-piece-milestone-manga-ten-thousand-days/ |access-date=2025-06-06 |website=ComicBook.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

The rise of [[fan fiction]] on the internet also follows a serial fiction style of publication, as seen on websites such as [[FanFiction.Net]] and [[Archive of Our Own|Archive of Our Own (AO3)]]. Aspiring authors have also used the web to publish free-to-read works in serialised format on their own websites as well as web-based communities such as [[LiveJournal]], Fictionpress.com,<ref>{{Cite web |title=FictionPress |url=https://www.fictionpress.com/ |access-date=May 10, 2020 |website=www.fictionpress.com}}</ref> fictionhub,<ref>{{Cite web |title=fictionhub |url=http://fictionhub.io |website=fictionhub}}</ref> Kindle Vella<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kindle Vella |url=https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella |access-date=2022-01-07 |website=www.amazon.com |language=en-us}}</ref> and [[Wattpad]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wattpad – Where stories live |url=https://www.wattpad.com/ |access-date=Jun 20, 2020 |website=www.wattpad.com}}</ref> Many of these books receive as many readers as successful novels; some have received the same number of readers as ''New York Times'' best-sellers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Many Books Do You Need To Sell To Become A Bestseller? |url=http://www.bookpromotionhub.com/6103/how-many-books-do-you-need-to-sell-to-become-a-bestseller/ |access-date=24 February 2015 |website=book promotion hub |publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=26 June 2013 |title=Thoughts: A Reflection on growth over two years |url=https://wildbow.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/monthly-views-june.jpg |access-date=24 February 2015 |website=wildbow.wordpress.com}}</ref>

In addition, the prevalence of mobile devices made the serial format even more popular with the likes of JukePop Serials,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jukepopserials.com |url=http://www.jukepopserials.com/ |website=Jukepopserials.com}}</ref> and Serial Box,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Meet a new kind of book, designed for the age of Peak TV |work=Vox |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/8/6/16849756/serial-box-serialized-books-peak-tv |access-date=2018-09-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Serial Box is the Newest Medium for Series Drama |url=https://www.serialbox.com/ |access-date=2018-09-05 |website=www.serialbox.com |language=en}}</ref> with iOS<ref>{{Cite web |title=JukePop Serials (iOS) |website = [[iTunes]]|url=https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-serial-stories-jukepop/id579377848?mt=8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026195014/https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-serial-stories-jukepop/id579377848?mt=8|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 26, 2013}}</ref> and Android<ref>{{Cite web |title=JukePop Serials (Android) |url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jukepop&hl=en}}</ref> apps that focus entirely on curating and promoting serialised novels.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Novels}}
* [[Book series]]
* [[Feuilleton]]
* [[Light novel]]
* [[Literary cycle]]
* [[Partwork]]
* [[Series fiction]]
* [[Web serial]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commonscat|Literary series}}
*[http://www.authoralerts.com AuthorAlerts.com]
*[http://www.fantasticfiction.com FantasticFiction.com]
*[http://www.fictfact.com FictFact.com]
*[http://www.fictiondb.com FictionDB.com]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060928165841/http://www.series-books.com/ Vintage Series Books for Girls ... and a Few for Boys]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serial (Literature)}}
[[Category:Novels first published in serial form|*]]
[[Category:Penny papers]]
[[Category:Literary series]]
[[Category:Literary theory]]