Paul Whybrow
Full Member
I came across an interesting article today, which has given me something to think about. Apparently there's been a rise in e-publishers releasing fiction and non-fiction writing in easily consumed digital chunks. These are often read by people on their smart-phones, when they have a few minutes to kill. I referred to this trend in another thread titled 'The Rise of Phone Reading.'
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2015/08/19/interstitial-publishing/
'Interstitial' means something that fills a gap, such as between two body organs or an imperfection in layers of rocks or crystals. An interstice can also be a short period of time, a lull in activity. In modern technology, an interstitial web page can be one that appears before the expected searched-for content page, such as one requesting that the user is old enough to view the information.
I've wondered about serialising my too-long-for-a début-novel, as I sent it to my beta reader in sections that were several chapters long. She appreciated this way of reading, and as the breaks came at suitably climactic points in the story, made her eager for more.
I've noticed that some of the newsletters, that I subscribe to, have introduced advice on how long an article should take to read. A good examples is The Pool, whose Today In Three daily bulletin has a minute guide: http://us10.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2dc901b5b9da68d3bf441725f&id=ca6a892030&e=1273b667cd
Maptia do the same thing with their weekly newsletter. I can't recommend this site enough, as it contains absorbing writing with fantastic photographs - truly mind-expanding.
I was a bit dubious about these time guidelines at first, for I can speed-read quite well, but then I found myself using them to decide what to read. I can see that a reader with an iPhone might well be drawn towards content that took only ten minutes to read, should they be waiting for a train, for example. Someone who would be off the idea of reading a book that was 400 pages long, might well tackle it if it was divided into forty ten page sections that took fifteen minutes each to read.
As the writer of the article Joseph Esposito says, it would be awkward to divide some writers' books into easy sections, but what do the Colonists think of this idea?
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2015/08/19/interstitial-publishing/
'Interstitial' means something that fills a gap, such as between two body organs or an imperfection in layers of rocks or crystals. An interstice can also be a short period of time, a lull in activity. In modern technology, an interstitial web page can be one that appears before the expected searched-for content page, such as one requesting that the user is old enough to view the information.
I've wondered about serialising my too-long-for-a début-novel, as I sent it to my beta reader in sections that were several chapters long. She appreciated this way of reading, and as the breaks came at suitably climactic points in the story, made her eager for more.
I've noticed that some of the newsletters, that I subscribe to, have introduced advice on how long an article should take to read. A good examples is The Pool, whose Today In Three daily bulletin has a minute guide: http://us10.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2dc901b5b9da68d3bf441725f&id=ca6a892030&e=1273b667cd
Maptia do the same thing with their weekly newsletter. I can't recommend this site enough, as it contains absorbing writing with fantastic photographs - truly mind-expanding.
I was a bit dubious about these time guidelines at first, for I can speed-read quite well, but then I found myself using them to decide what to read. I can see that a reader with an iPhone might well be drawn towards content that took only ten minutes to read, should they be waiting for a train, for example. Someone who would be off the idea of reading a book that was 400 pages long, might well tackle it if it was divided into forty ten page sections that took fifteen minutes each to read.
As the writer of the article Joseph Esposito says, it would be awkward to divide some writers' books into easy sections, but what do the Colonists think of this idea?
