Nineteenth-century authors such as Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, and Leo Tolstoy understood the appeal and value of publishing installments of classic novels like The Pickwick Papers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and even War and Peace in the pages of popular magazines. After all, Dickens’s hit title Great Expectations could also describe the emotions of devoted fans eagerly awaiting new chapters of his latest book. And that kind of literary engagement is worth its weight in pages produced.
Now, a similar serialized publication model comes to the web courtesy of Bookscription, a service of the site Booknet. As CEO Sergiy Grushko says, “A Bookscription is a one-time fee for a book that is still in the process of being created by an author. The reader gets access to the chapters and episodes as they’re being written and released, as well as to an author blog. That allows the author’s fans, in essence, to become paying followers of a book.”
The model allows authors to monetize books from the very start, giving readers paid access to books during the writing process. And after books are sold via Bookscription—99% of completed titles sell at a common price—they can be published in printed or audio form—and even sold on Amazon.
One of the many benefits of Booknet is that authors have a landing page containing their books, blogs, and subscribers. The author blog is also where readers can engage in lively discussions about plot development. “We encourage readers to comment a lot, and authors to respond to readers' comments,” says Grushko. “The writers ask readers’ opinions on book covers, what characters should be added, and clarify the readers’ opinions on story points.” This increases the Bookscribers’ emotional investment in the work—and their connection to the author. Readers receive notifications from Booknet, alerting them when their favorite authors release a blog, add a new chapter, plan a new book, and more. This socialization of the first publication—with readers interacting with the author and each other—is another perk exclusive to Bookscription.
Grushko also points out that Booknet, unlike Amazon, can have significantly more reader comments listed on the site, often numbering in the hundreds or even thousands. “For example,” he says, “Queen, by one of our Spanish-speaking authors Eva Muñoz, has garnered over 76,000 comments from readers.”
The author remains in control of the process, setting their own Bookscription prices. On the English-language portion of the site, Grushko says books are sold in the range of $1.50 to $3.50. Authors choose the length of their serialized segments, often based on the writer’s convenience. “The main thing we advise authors is to publish new chapters regularly,” Grushko says. “People who like to read books that are ‘in the process of being written’ want to receive updates to the book regularly, and preferably often, even if it’s in small portions.” And once the book is finished, it can be sold on Booknet in its completed form.
This year, Booknet, a Ukrainian company, sold its most successful division, Litnet—a Russian-language service that sold more than 16 million e-books in 2021. The company is currently focused on development of its Latin American and Ukrainian markets and its venture into the English-language arena.
As to what genres are attracting readers to the Bookscription model, Grushko says “our Spanish-language list is the largest one and is mostly romance novels. Romance is also in the lead for the English-speaking market, but we’re hoping to begin to focus on fantasy, perhaps including young adult and science fiction.”
For this purpose, Booknet offers a robust FAQ page for authors, produces instructional videos, and sponsors writing competitions, many along with publishers and some with cash prizes. “There are also contests run by literary fan groups,” Grushko says. “Some of the contests are organized by our authors themselves; for example, last year in December our authors independently organized the Christmas Story Contest.” Other contests include hot themes like “Forbidden Love,” “Bound by the Moon” or werewolf stories, “Campus Love,” and “Small Towns, Big Stories.”
Grushko says that when it comes down to it, Booknet is like a literary YouTube. “YouTube provides a video upload platform and tools for creators to understand how their video is engaging with viewers,” he says. “But everything depends on the makers themselves, how much interesting content they can produce. It is the same with Booknet. We can explain how some tools of our platform work, but the main thing is the ability of an author to write interesting books.” And the payoff stands to be worth the effort.
