What is fiction by post?

Fiction by post is exactly what it sounds like: a story that arrives in the mail, in pieces, over time. Instead of a book you read at your own pace, you receive one installment at a time and wait for the next one.

The two traditions it comes from

Serialised fiction is the older idea. Dickens published most of his novels in monthly parts, and readers queued at the docks for the next one. The wait was part of the reading.

Epistolary fiction is the story told through documents: letters, diaries, telegrams, clippings. Dracula is the famous example. The reader assembles the story from the evidence, which makes them a detective whether they like it or not.

Fiction by post puts the two together. You get the documents, one envelope at a time, and you get the wait.

Why paper changes the reading

A letter you hold is a letter someone could have held in the story. When a page is creased, or a photograph is tucked into the fold, the object is doing some of the storytelling. That is hard to fake on a screen, and it is the reason we bother with stamps.

What The Keeper does with the form

The Keeper is an Irish speculative folk-horror story told entirely through letters. Six envelopes, one a month. Here is how the club works.