Serials in the 21st Century

The 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?

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.