Between 1859-61, Charles Dickens released chapters for his novels A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations in a serialised form through a periodical named All the Year Round. In a world where education was becoming universalised fiction was becoming a lucrative business.
This fiction was being consumed by people on trains on the way to work, and as such the size of the average book needed to be small for ease of transport. This didn't help those who wanted to write expanded fiction (and also enjoyed getting paid by the word).
There are similarities with the current world and the Victorian era in that people these days struggle to consume large fiction (or any other writing style) while keeping up with a busy life of work and social engagements. I know people who are listening to audiobooks while driving to and from jobs )I would not have been able to do well in some of my uni subjects were it not for audiobooking Nietzsche and other such 'difficult to read' books while working).
Now most of Dickens' chapters submitted to All the Year Round were probably averaging around the 5000 word count. In today's age of people reading off screens most struggle to get through a 1000 word article in a sitting. Now Dickens was known for overwriting, and modern writing styles search for brevity so this got me thinking...
From a personal point, I started writing a fantasy fiction novel over 20 years ago and last added to it about 15 years ago. What I have done of it needs loads of work and that task was so daunting it has sat in a bunch of dormant .doc files since. Not only was the size of the task scary, but the investment of time vs. reward seemed intangible. Now for me money isn't necessarily the reward but to know the effort's not falling on deaf ears - or eyes...
I see Steemit as a possible was to get my own brand of serialized fiction moving. I have only been on here a couple of days so I may give it some time to build a follower base before I start publishing but I look forward to restarting this story I but so much heart into as a younger self.