Web Fiction - Business

Business

Webserials are cheaper to run than webcomics for the most part, although the returns are not much better, if at all. Most authors must pay for the costs out of their own pockets, though the significantly lower bandwidth strain of text instead of pictures may help lower the expenses. Hosting and advertisement costs are still just as much a concern for webserial authors as webcomic artists.

The advent of free blogging platforms such as the WordPress free host and Blogger have freed some serial writers from financial concerns, as well as any requirement for technical knowledge. However, these free hosts provide less flexibility and also may not be as scalable as a pay host.

Donations and 'tip jars' are a common way of getting money for webserials, often using services such as PayPal, but one of the main means of monetizing WebLit serials is the advertising service Project Wonderful, a "new paradigm" agency which allows the writers to both host banners and purchase them on other sites and blogs at auction pricing. These are sometimes sufficient to cover the basic costs for hosting, and some of the more popular webserials can succeed with their entire budget made from donations or revenue of this type.

Another financing method is what WebLit author MCM refers to as "Serial+": readers are shown a schedule for how long it would take them to read the whole story at the rate of posting new installments, and offered the option of buying the entire story on the spot.

A few webserial authors have taken to collecting their work and releasing in a book format for easy consumption offline. Self-publishing is key in this field, and services such as CafePress and Lulu.com are often used for distribution and sales of these anthologies. The advent and acceptance of the ebook has freed writers to become quite prolific with "bound collections" offered as downloads in formats such as pdf, Smashwords, and Mobipocket.

On-demand merchandising sites like CafePress and Zazzle are also sources of income from sales of T-shirts, mugs, calendars, mousepads and other fan items.

There was a trend that had commercial publishers email webserials to subscribers. One of the first sites to do this was Keep It Coming (KIC), which operated from October 2003 through November 2005. The success of this venture has led to the creation of other portals such as Readers Retreat and Virtual Tales. This is no longer much of a factor in the overall picture of webserials, largely due to RSS feed subscriptions becoming ubiquitous. However, some webserials provide an email subscription service separate from RSS in the form of a newsletter or through services such as Google Groups.

Some publishers have started using serials on their sites as "eye bait" and proving grounds for novels, for example Cyberwizard Productions and Tor Books. Similarly, writers with established series have been able to continue writing those series after being dropped by conventional publishers, as Lawrence Watt-Evans has done with his Ethshar novels.