Writers Life | Writing in series – the whys and hows

When you think of fiction, almost immediately book series come to mind. Whether it was Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books, or  Agatha Christies’ Hercule Poirot detective stories, or Harry Potter. Series grip readers’ minds and are much easier to market.

One of the difficulties nowadays with traditional publishing is that many publishers prefer standalone books. If they are willing to do a series, especially for a debut writer, they are seldom more than trilogies. For example, Carolyn Miller‘s four Regency romance trilogies or Kristen Young‘s, dystopian/sci-fi trilogy.

My journey

I was a reluctant novelist, who intended to write a single novel and then return to writing non-fiction.  I knew nothing about self-publishing and in fact, confused it with vanity publishing.

There was a lot to learn but thankfully, God had things firmly under control. To my initial disappointment, I did not find an agent and thus, the door to traditional publishing closed. This forced me to learn about self-publishing and I am now extremely thankful that I am now free to project-manage all the decisions of editing, cover design, and marketing … it was a HUGE learning curve but once the basics were mastered, I found it wonderfully stimulating. I like having statistics at my fingertips and being able to experiment and learn. Independent publishing also enables me to work to my timetable and take breaks when I need to.

God also had the series concept under control even if I was blissfully ignorant of it. About five months before I planned to publish my first novel, an editor sent me a message saying, “I think this is one and a half books, not a single story.” I was devastated because I knew how hard it would be to cut off the best part of my story. I had no inkling of what to do with all that material and was worried I might not be able to write a second novel. After praying about it, I was convinced that the editor was right. I had to cut off the final third of my novel and rewrite a new ending.

Even before the editor’s comment, I’d had some ideas about a second story but those ideas had to wait until the fifth novel in the series. First, I had to use the extra material I’d removed from book 1 and that ended up in three novels. A fourth novel was then needed to finish the stories started in those first three. The series ended up with six stories. Four are based on one family and the remaining two are about people impacted by the main character from the first book.

Having a series instead of a standalone story was initially a challenge for the cover designer too. Some things were easier (we used the same font for the title and my name) but it was tricky to find all the silhouettes of the main characters in each book. The sixth book was particularly hard.

Having done one series of six and seeing the benefits, I would strongly suggest that all authors write in series if at all possible.

Why do I recommend this?

The advantages of writing a series

• It can cut down research as so much of the world-building, settings, and maybe even characters can be reused. Thus, the research and plotting time can be much reduced and it is easier to get into the swing of a story.
• Readers love their favourite characters having recurring roles in other stories or getting to know the main character much better over a series of books.
• It is hugely helpful in marketing (see below for more on this subject).
• Box sets/collections can be made of your series. This allows yet another way to promote our books and bring them to readers’ attention. This year when I am not publishing a new book it also allows me to put out a collection of books 4-6 and then a few months later, a collection of books 1-6. This final collection will only be available outside Amazon because if we charge more than $9.99 on Amazon, the royalties drop to 35% (rather than 70%). I am hoping that this will help develop my ‘wide’ sales (i.e. outside Amazon). Collections can be marketed separately and buyers receive a discount that encourages them to buy three or six books at once.
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The disadvantages of writing in series

* They often require a lot more juggling. Plotting time is usually longer and you need to be careful to get the timeline correct.

* If you haven’t preplanned the series, then you might have to live with details you’ve revealed for a minor character who becomes a more major character. You can’t easily change details (some of your readers will notice) and it is hard to go back and rewrite sections of earlier novels.

• It takes persistence to finish a series when you might have new ideas for other unrelated books bubbling in your mind. Some prolific authors can work on several series at once.

Ways to do series

There are many ways to do a series. I will try to give an example of each as I list them.

A. Individual authors

I would suggest you brainstorm ideas first and do a little research. Here are some questions you need to consider:

• Will your series be chronological and in a clear order? Most series need the individual books to finish a complete section but some will also have an overarching story as well. Some detective stories have a slight overall arc and some have none at all. In fact, in some earlier series, the detective never seems to age or change. Jeanette O’Hagan has this kind of series.
• Will your series be linked in some other way that allows readers to enter the series at any point? Carol Ashby does this well with her Roman-era stories. Each story is separate and although there is a chronological flow and occasional overlap of characters, the reader can start at any point.
• What will be the thing that makes your series related to each other? Will it be merely a genre? Or setting? (Cecily Paterson’s Kangaroo Valley school; Sheriden Lee – women’s fiction set in a fictional Australian town). Or linked characters? It could also be linked by theme. My series is linked by both the setting (Australia) and the characters. The series is best started at  Book 1 although some people have started with later books in the series.
• Some other examples of series – Phillip Cook – supernatural themes; Steph Penny – non-fiction series on ‘survival’ of various life issues; Chrissy Garwood – Romantic suspense.
• I am beginning to plan a historical (Biblical fiction) series that will be linked by theme. That would allow people to enter the series at any point, even though there will be a chronological flow. I suspect that if I keep writing fiction, I will do more thematic series in the future.
• Many authors have done family-related series whether it is cross-generational or related siblings or cousins (Meredith Resce – License to Meddle series; Jo Dawson family series)

B. Multi-author series

These have become quite common in recent years. A group of authors get together and map out a series. It can simply be a common genre set (Potter House series; Mosaic Collection) with no direct links or set in a similar country, or family (A Tuscan Legacy is a series based on eight Italian grandchildren and their grandmother). Or setting (each book in the series is set in a certain country or town – real or imagined). The Independence Island stories are set on a group of made-up islands off the east coast of the U.S. Six authors have each written one book for each series (at least five series are planned).

For more analysis of this kind of series look at this article.

There are numerous advantages to this kind of series. First, it allows books to be released close together and to be marketed together. It also allows authors to find new readers by harnessing the power of group marketing and group networks.

The advantages of series for marketing/sales

Apart from the advantages with research and plotting, the main reason for writing in series is marketing and it is a BIG advantage.

If your series is well-written with good, genre-specific covers, each one increases the breadth of your reach. They also simply look good on a display shelf or table.

Paid advertising works well with a series (Facebook, Amazon ads …). On Amazon, I only advertise the first in the series and also a box set of the first three books.

For a paid promotion, an author might give away the first in series for free or at 99c. They might not make their money back on the promoted book but the goal is for profit via read-through. On my BookBub Featured Deals, I did eventually cover the cost of the promotion but then made 3-6 times the amount from read-through. In contrast, I had no read-through at all from the standalone non-fiction title.

What ways have you seen series done well?

What are your favourite series and why?