Help us! Everybody! Gotta stop this idiocy before it starts. Unless you think that the absolutely worst thing about television belongs in publishing now?
STARTUP WANTS TO BE THE HBO FOR READERS
by Calvin Reid
Serial Box is a new digital publishing venture looking to attract readers with serialized genre fiction that is produced very much like TV shows. The startup offers original fiction in e-book and audiobook formats that is delivered directly to consumers on a weekly basis. Readers can choose which medium they want, or use the Serial Box app to access both and even toggle between them.
In addition to emulating TV’s episodic presentation, Serial Box is also adopting the TV writing model, employing a team of writers to produce each season-long series with material that will run for 13–16 episodes. Currently in beta, Serial Box launched to the public on September 16 withBookBurners, a paranormal crime story written by Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery. In late October, the company will release Tremontaine, a swashbuckling 13-episode love and adventure series written by Ellen Kushner, Joel Derfner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Racheline Maltese, and Patty Bryant.