Caveat

Work on the series is progressing. Slowly, in fits and starts, but I’m getting there. Pity I’m writing Book 3. Ideally, when you write a series, you start with Book 1 and then write the sequels in order, building the world/plot as you go. That’s how most people go about writing a series, but I’m a pantser, so all bets are off. Don’t try this at home.

To recap: I’ve loosely plotted out my storyline and figured I need at least eight books. I came up with a ninth, but that was an accident. Pantsers have those a lot. I’m also writing the books out of order. My plan is to amass a backlog of at least four books before I market the first. Exceedingly slow writer, remember? It’s single books but one connected story, so I’d like to release a book a month to avoid huge gaps between episodes. Writing a couple of volumes in advance will give me a cushion in case I hit problems down the road.

That right there is a grave mistake. It proceeds from the assumption that I’ll be able to place Book 1 with a publisher, and that Book 1 will sell enough copies to warrant a Book 2. If neither of those happens, I’m dead in the water without ever leaving the harbor.

If you want to write a series, fine. Knock yourself out. Fill up notebooks and flash drives with your notes, plot points, character sketches and manuscripts. But if you want to sell a series, especially to a traditional publisher, all you need to write—all you should write, at this point—is Book 1. Don’t write it as a series book, either. Your Book 1 should be as stand-alone as possible. You can leave loose threads dangling, but nothing major. There should be a beginning, a middle, and end to the story you tell in Book 1, just in case the publisher decides they’re not interested in Book 2. You’ll save yourself a lot of time, trouble and heartache that way.

Think of this in terms of TV series. Book 1 is your pilot episode. You produce the pilot as a marketing tool to attract a buyer. This is my premise, these are the characters, here are the types of stories I’ll be telling over the course of a season. Nobody in their right mind would film thirteen episodes and then try to market the entire thing, not unless their name was Steven Spielberg. Maybe not even then; the last TV show he produced didn’t do so well. Most pilots don’t even get filmed unless there’s interest (and money) to begin with. Even with interest, most filmed pilots don’t get picked up. You write your Book 1, your pilot episode, and then you shop it around…but not as a series. Although it’s okay to tell the publisher or agent, “This could have series potential.”

Because TV series do get cancelled. Some never make it to the end of their first-season run. Ratings are bad so the network pulls the plug and the story ends in the middle, never to be finished. This happens with books as well. Sales could drop off after Book 3 and the publisher could nix a Book 4. Or Book 1 could sell poorly. Or never sell at all. I once wrote a stand-alone book that triggered ideas for sequels set in the same milieu. I was standing by, all set to write them should there be a demand. Sales of that first book showed me there wasn’t, so I moved on to other things. You need to be prepared to do the same.

Think about Harry Potter. It’s hard not to, I know. Rowling may have conceived and plotted out an entire series, but what she wrote and took to market was a single book, with the characters defined and the premise, including the bad guy and conflict, clearly laid out. It told a single story, too, although there was clearly plenty of room for expansion in the world she’d created. It was the opening chapter in a much larger tale, while at the same time being a complete episode on its own. Had there never been a Harry Potter Book 2, readers of Book 1 would still have come away with a satisfying reading experience.

There are exceptions and extenuating circumstances, of course. If you’re going to self-publish, you can write and upload as many books as you want, for as long as you want. In my case, I have to go through an e-publisher first, because my series is a spinoff of books I published through them. I’m using concepts and characters they still own publishing rights to, so they get right of first refusal. If they don’t want Book 1, or decide to drop the series in the middle, I’ll be free to self-pub the remainder.

It all depends on your contract. There are tales of writers who signed multibook deals only to have publishers pull the plug while still retaining rights to the books already published, meaning the writer couldn’t continue or even finish the series. If you’re going to go the traditional route, get an agent or a lawyer and read the goddamn contract. Every version. After all, the point is to get your story out there. All of it. Correct?

It all begins with Book 1. Which I’m not writing at the moment. I’m working on Book 3 because Book 1 is stalled. I should go write some standalones and work on the series on the side. I haven’t even written the first book yet, so all of this is moot. Maybe I’ll just go read Harry Potter again.