Serialization

How we publish long texts

Hubert von Herkomer, John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1914

Admiral Fisher liked to say that “the best scale for an experiment is twelve inches to the foot.” In keeping with that maxim, Tactical Notebook is attempting to use Substack, which was designed as a platform for blogs, as a venue for the serialization of complete books. The first of these is my doctoral dissertation, parts of which have appeared under such titles as British Army Corps and German Infantry Divisions. The second is a manuscript on the evolution of American infantry in the twentieth century. Written by the co-founder of the original Tactical Notebook, the late John Sayen, this is being published under it’s working title of Battalion: An Organizational Study of United States Infantry.

As you might imagine, this enterprise requires more than the division of a manuscript into a series of short sections. In particular, the switch from one format to another requires that I find titles and illustrations, as well as mechanisms that allow readers to connect component posts into a coherent whole. It also demands a considerable bit of rewriting, not merely to make the texts more accessible in the new format, but also to correct errors of both style and substance.

The first casualty of this experiment is consistency of form, fit, and function. Thus, readers will discover that the titles, illustrations, and links in earlier portions of serialized books differ from those of more recently published parts. Readers will also notice that the appearance of installments is not as regular as they might like. (This results from the fact that some posts require more in the way of rewriting, illustration, or fact-checking than others.)