In his day, Charles Dickens published much of his written work in a serialized novel format. Stories would be sent to subscribers chapter by chapter until they had collected the entire work. It wasn’t until later that classics such as Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities were published in full book form.

Fast-forward to the present and the serialized novel is making a comeback.

New York Times Best Selling fantasy author Tracy Hickman is creating a serialized fantasy novel, titled Eventide. He writes with his wife Laura Hickman, and they plan to release one chapter online per week for a period of five months. The first chapter of Eventide is set to be released on June 5, 2010; Eventide is the first novel of a planned trilogy.

What makes this process unique is that the Hickmans have an entire website community with reserved access for subscribers only. Once Eventide is complete—that is, each chapter has been released, one week at a time, until the entire novel has been published online—each subscriber will receive a hardbound, signed and numbered copy of the finished book at no additional charge. Book printing will be limited to subscribers only, so it is like receiving a jewel that you were able to see cut and honed to brilliance.

Tracy Hickman has created not only an array of fantasy worlds in his novels, but also a very real online community for fans of his writing. Subscribers will have access to lots of bonus materials, such as maps of the locations in the Eventide chapters, forums to talk about topics of the novel, and the ability to download the chapters, and all of this though a single website. Dragon’s Bard (http://www.dragonsbard.com/about/) is a straight-forward Word Press website that will be the hub for all things in this fantasy world.

Other businesses can set up similar, though likely simpler, online communities to engage their base of customers, and yes, fans. Facebook offers group pages where fans can come and converse about your company, you can set up a Twitter feed about topics that would interest your clients, and you can even set up a discussion board on your company’s website for in-depth interaction with buyers. Engaged buyers are more likely to be repeat buyers because they will feel like they have created a relationship with your business.

Tracy and Laura Hickman have brought the serialized novel into the 21^st century by allowing subscribers to download content, converse online, and to follow this fantasy world as it develops. I subscribed not only because I am a fan of Tracy Hickman’s work, but also because I hope to see how a novel like Eventide comes together one week at a time. Dragon’s Bard should also be a great case study about how an internet fan base can be mobilized into a new digital media of ideas that used to be reserved only for the print medium.