When I first got started with this whole writing thing I was mainly doing one-off erotic shorts, quick little short stories that gave the reader a steamy sex scene with some pretty bare-bones plotting and characterisation to back it up. Then one day I started writing sequels to one of my shorts, which quickly became a serial, and then finally my first full novel. When I moved on to my second eRom serial I basically kept on doing the exact same thing I'd always done -- individual chapters of a few thousand words priced at $2.99. I tried to make the chapters a bit longer, since this one had more of a focus on the plot and romance than the sex scenes, but it still basically followed the same model.
Now I'm writing Broken Moon, and even though I've made sure the chapters are consistently longer again, I feel like the price-per-word-count is a bit high given the content of the serial. This time I'm writing straight up romance. Half of the chapters don't even contain any sex, which I know is a big draw for people who are into steamy serials like my previous two. Nine 10-15k word chapters at 2.99 apiece feels pretty steep for a romance serial, and it's probably something I should've considered before starting on this one.
So! I've decided that I can probably afford to double up on Broken Moon's existing chapters and make them roughly twice their current length, bringing the whole series down to five parts rather than nine, with the first being free. It'll be a little awkward to reorganise everything on Amazon and my other retailers, but the current plan is to merge chapters 1-2 together, 3-4, 5-6, etc.
It'll mean slightly slower releases (though I'm going to do my best to pick up the pace!), but twice as much to read, and hopefully a much more financially agreeable pricing point to read through the whole serial once it's done!
I'm planning to merge the chapters and get everything uploaded over the next couple of days or so. Chapter 7 (as it currently stands) is essentially finished, but with this new structuring it'll end up being merged with some of the content of chapter 8 before I publish. So the current parts 7-8 will be released as the new part 4 some time later this month. Hopefully it's not all too confusing!
Depending on how this new model works out (both financially and in terms of reader reception) it'll probably be what I go with for my next serial romance. If I do more erotica serials they might be shorter in general and more focused around lots of sex in every chapter, but when it comes to the slower, more story-based burn of romance, I think lengthier chapters is probably the best option for everyone.
