From Publishing Perspectives:
The growing popularity of ebooks in Russia is prompting publishers to look at online serialization as an option for distribution and sales, both for complete titles and writers of works in progress.
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Russian-language ebook services are beginning to test a format new to this domestic book market, involving publishing books by chapters. This, according to comments from company representatives and industry observers.
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As Litres’ general director Sergey Anuryev has announced, the new service is known as Chernoviki—the word means “drafts”—and provides an opportunity for authors to publish books in chapters or in other increments, and to discuss the options for the development of the plot with readers.
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According to Litres officials and representatives of other Russian ebook services, online publishing is gaining popularity in Russia.
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Litnet, another Russian ebook service—which also operates in English, Spanish, and Ukrainian—has also expanded into the new format, as confirmed to Publishing Perspectives by company co-founder Sergey Grushko.
He says the first book issued by Litnet in the new format is Swiss: A Better World, written by fiction writer Roman Zlotnikov. It was given a digital-first publication as an ebook on April 23, and hasn’t been published in print until this month.
The spokesman for Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s minister of science and culture, tells Publishing Perspectives that Medinsky sees a growing audience for digital-first publishing in fantasy, adventure literature, women’s novels, and comics.
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One thing Grushko likes about serialization, he says, is that it’s less vulnerable to piracy, presumably since until an entire book’s increments have been published, the work is incomplete online. He says he also thinks that serialization can lead to a big boost for publishers in the first year of sales, as users pay to read sections of the work.
Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives