Tag Archives: digital

Serials in the 21st Century

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Keep Your Eye on AmandaThe first serial I wrote was Keep Your Eye on Amanda. Chapter 1 appeared in the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph on October 3, 1996. Readers loved it. Authors found new readers. (I recall riding a NY subway, watching an old man read a chapter of The Secret School in the NY Post.) Other newspapers joined in. Readers clamored for it. Teachers used it in classes, grandparents shared it with distant grandchildren. 

Though I remained the nominal head of the company, Linda Wright took it over, transforming it into a unique publishing venture. The name Breakfast Serials was introduced. Other authors joined in. Katherine Paterson. Linda Sue Park. Joseph Bruchac, among others. Illustrators Brian Floca, Emily Arnold McCully, Timothy Bush. 

Under Ms. Wright, the growth of Breakfast Serials was extraordinary, eventually reaching a circulation figure of thirty-three million! It probably became—in terms of readers—the biggest publisher in the world. All, as it were, beneath the radar. But just as Breakfast Serials expanded around the world, the US press—under the internet onslaught—virtually tanked. What to do?

Instant Serials

Ms. Wright regrouped and has now invented a way to make serialization available online, as Instant Serials. Here, terrific stories and great art are available in serialized form, along with a means of chatting (online, with no smack talk) about the stories. The reader (parent, grandparent, and teacher) sets the release dates of successive chapters. Which means readers will still have to laugh, cry, and wait … a little. Quite amazing.

Long-distance author visits

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Avi Skype visitThe first time I visited with my readers in schools was in 1970. I actually can remember that time in Roosevelt, New Jersey. My first book had just come out, Things that Sometimes Happen.

Since then I’ve visited hundreds of schools. While I still do such visits from time to time (a bunch last week) and enjoy them greatly, more often I’ve been doing Skype visits. Not the smallest reason for these electronic visits has to do with money and time. It’s expensive to bring and pay an author to visit, and these days’ schools don’t have a lot of money for such events. Moreover, even a one-day visit morphs into a three-day stint when you include the travel. In contrast, a Skype visit costs very little, and no travel time is involved. Indeed, I can go to places I never could go, such as a one-room school house (three students!) on an island off the coast of Alaska, a small mining community in Idaho, or a school in Honduras.

But what really makes a Skype visit work is the class-room teacher. Teachers who set these up are enthusiastic, focused, and eager to get their students—all students—involved. Yes, there are things to learn, the basic technology, working with a video camera, dealing with technical glitches (which now and again occur). 

At their best, these visits are relaxed, fun for students and fun for me. But now you’ll have to excuse me. I have to speak to some readers in Mississippi.