Containment Protocol Postmortem
Lessons (probably not) learned. Essay. 1200 words. 6-minute read.
Image: Microsoft Image Creator
Containment Protocol Postmortem
By Ray Tabler
Containment Protocol is my first serialized novel on Substack, and it ought to have taught me a thing or two. Time will tell if the lessons sink in, or sail in one ear and out the other like so much of my education. Never the less, the following is a stab at capturing what seem like important insights as to serializing on Substack.
Full disclosure, there are many more successful writers here on Substack, by any metric you care to apply. They know what they’re doing, and are willing to let you in on the secrets. I’m just making this up as I go along, and don’t always follow to what logic tells me to do. Listen to me at your own peril. That said, here we go.
Size matters – There appears to be a sweet spot in terms of post length on Substack. Rather, there’s at least a couple of preferred lengths, depending on the audience you’re after. The bigger crowd probably won’t even click on a post more than 1,000 words. Blame Twitter, or MTV, or Facebook. Blame whoever you want. Doesn’t change the epidemic of atrophied attention span. Trouble is, I’m wordier than that. I try to keep posts around 2,000 words. Longer and even the hard-core readers start to get antsy. The story doesn’t always cooperate, not providing a logical break in the action at the proper point. Just have to rearrange things to create a pausing point, or grit your teeth and post a long installment.
Size matters, part 2 – Beyond individual post lengths, there seems to be a wide tolerance for serial length on Substack. In truth, your story can be as short or as long as you want, 10,000 words or 10 million. I recently posted an essay about how novel lengths have drifted over the years. These days, novels tend to run 70,000 – 90,000 words, driven by reader preferences, printing economics (and the phase of the moon for all I know). The Substacker is unshackled from all of that. As long as somebody wants to read your tale, you can tell a novelette, novella, or an epic tome which would deforest Washington State if printed out. only electrons are inconvenienced. And they don’t really care. At least none have complained to me.
Get ahead to stay ahead – I’m a discovery writer, and that’s a bit of a high-wire act when serializing a novel or novella. The story talks to me on its own schedule, not mine. I had a vague idea of where Containment Protocol was going from the start. But, the plot veered, and dodged a few times along the way. Characters ended up more important, and less important, than originally intended. Events didn’t go as planned (ambiguous as that plan was). All well and good when nobody sees the book until you’re done. Just go back and edit out the parts you want gone. When you’re posting chapters as your write, the parts you’ve already posted are cast in stone, so to speak. Think of it as being up on that high wire without a safety net. If X did Y to Z, that’s just the way things are. You have to write around that. And, believe me, I had to do some tap dancing along the way. I doubt I’ll be able to write the whole story before I start posting in the future. (A personal failing of mine.) But staying a few chapters ahead helps immensely.
Persistence and consistency – Procrastination is an ever-lurking menace to the writer. The devil on my left shoulder, telling me I can finish this later, is a lot more persuasive than the angel on my right shoulder. Flick that evil, little bugger off, and keep typing. A useful habit to cultivate is a semi-rigid schedule. I endeavor to post fiction on Tuesdays, and essays on Thursdays. This is one of the most helpful pieces of advice an editor ever provided. (Thank you. Walt.) Think of it as going to the mental gym twice a week, a practice that pays dividends. Substack doesn’t care if you stick to a schedule. Substack readers are very forgiving in this regard, as well. So, you will have to discipline yourself. (Of course, that implies that authors are masochists. And maybe we are.)
The copyright menace – Substack is founded upon the principle that what you post here still belongs to you. Many publishers are not on-board with this yet. They are reluctant to print a story which in their (lawyers’) eyes might be deemed to have already been published. I know, I have asked. One small press is at least considering Containment Protocol for publication. (It would be rude to say which.) Just understand that even hybrid publishers are wary of serials published on Substack right now. Maybe they’ll be more comfortable as time goes on. Self-publication is always an option.
Antisocial media – Substack is great, but it is not the entire world. In the mechanics of posting, Substack offers the built-in option to share your work on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I typically take advantage of all of these. Why not? It’s essentially free advertising, placing a link to your post on these platforms. Each has its own idiosyncrasies. LinkedIn has a character limit. Twitter/X has a much, much shorter limit. (Unless you pay them not to.) Instagram is more focused on images than words. Facebook doesn’t have a character limit (that I know of), but I’m not sure if posting your entire work on Facebook voids copyright or not. So, probably don’t do that. The goal is to get people to go to Substack and read your stuff. That said, I don’t even begin to understand the algorithms these platforms use to promote or ignore posts. I just share, and hope for the best. If you know of a better way, i encourage you to employ it.
Feedback is golden – Containment protocol grew out of a 1400-word story I posted on Substack last summer. If done right, Substack is a voracious, content beast, never satisfied. I was desperate, and dashed off what I expected to be a quick little story, too long to be flash fiction and too short for a proper short story. Reader feedback indicated that at least a few people wanted more. If it hadn’t been for that, the tale would never have been told. The moral is two-fold. Writers should listen to the readers, and give them what they want (if practical). Readers should speak up. You have much more power than you realize. You direct the eyeballs upon which we depend. A forum like Substack amplifies that power by providing direct access to the writer(s). Wield it for good, not evil.
Freedom – Writing and posting serialized stories on Substack can be demanding. The silver lining is the freedom the author has. There is no editor or publisher to be convinced and/or placated, beyond yourself. You are the editor and the publisher. And the marketer, and the fulfillment department, and everything else. You are in essence running your own, zine or small press. Stories can be as long or as short as you want, as experimental, as incoherent, or as lurid, and click-baity as you decide. Do what works. Or, do what doesn’t work, in stubborn defiance of the audience. With freedom comes responsibility, as well as the freedom to shirk that responsibility. Ironic, that.
END.
What’s next? – Planets 4 Sale. This essay comes with a double dose of self-promotion, the nasty medicine at the center of the candy coating. Next up (starting Tuesday, 7/8/25) is a serialized science fiction story, Planets 4 Sale. Aliens have landed, and the world is in a panic. All except for McGee, a fast-talking, entrepreneurial hustler, who sees opportunity in every crisis. Before long, McGee is offering Planets 4 Sale.
Shameless Self-Promotion Section:
Check out my novels at Histria Books https://histriabooks.com/product-tag/ray-tabler/
The Diesel-Powered Starship (due for release in September 2025) https://histriabooks.com/product/the-diesel-powered-starship/
A Grand Imperial War (Book 1 of the Grand Imperial series) https://histriabooks.com/product/a-grand-imperial-war-grand-imperial-series-book-1/
A Grand Imperial Heir (Sequel to A Grand Imperial War) https://histriabooks.com/product/a-grand-imperial-heir-grand-imperial-series-book-2/
Fool’s Paradise https://histriabooks.com/product/fools-paradise/
And visit my website https://raytabler.com/ for Science Fiction You Can Enjoy!
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I've got the same challenges — daily
I thoroughly enjoyed the Containment Protocol and would love to see it come back with a follow-on story. Length for each installment worked pretty well. I understand how it would be hard to hit a length and logic target for where the story goes each week.
I find writing on a schedule stressful so my weekly column is always written and scheduled 6 - 8 weeks ahead. That way I have flexibility on when or if I write in any given week. I also like the total ownership of my writing on Substack. Also, since I'll write another column each week I can try different things and see what works. Very different from publishing a book. My first is slowly winding its way through the final edit process.
Keep the stories and columns coming!