Episode 62: The Best Advice on how to roll out a series
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Hello, my beautiful cinnabar moths or any kind of moth you’d like to be. Welcome to the writers triangle, a podcast about publishing and all things books. And today we’re going to be talking about book series. I love book series, almost all of our authors are series writers, because I absolutely love book series, I’m obsessed with them. And that’s because I feel like when I, I invest so much into every character and connecting with them, I just want more of their story. And I love all of our authors. And I absolutely love the writing styles. So I’m like, can I please get more of this story. So about half the half of the books that came out this year, have a book two coming in. So this is being recorded and aired in 2022. So half the books that came out in 2022 have a book coming out in 2023, Book Two, and somehow books three, four, and some, I think the R series with the most books in it have different characters that they’re focused on in the series. And I think it’s six books, I want to say, I could be wrong about that. And I’m not going to tell you which one, because that’s part of the advice that I’m giving. And when it comes to writing a series is, okay, what information do you share? And what information do you keep to yourself when you’re so excited?
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You’re like, Oh, my God, this really amazing series. And I’ve written two or three books. And I want to talk about all the books, how do I handle that. So today, I’m going to cover everything from like how to how to write a good series to how to publish and promote a good series. And I’ll talk about some books that break the rules that I’m going to share because some of our books deal. And we do have specifically I want to talk about the Fallen home Chronicles, I want to talk about book one and Book Two, because there’s a lot of Hullabaloo, I’m sort of popping ahead with this, but there is a lot of a lot of hullabaloo because next from Book One did not have as much of a starring role in book two. But Book Two was as amazing as book one. And so next is a beloved character and book one, which is relatively normal secrets, and then doesn’t have as much of a starring role. And Book T, which is the secret benefits of invisibility. And that is because I think from from my perspective, the kids have a higher focus, it’s a it’s a middle grade adventure portal mystery, that’s just really fun. If you haven’t checked them out, go ahead and visit cinnabar moth.com. And be sure to pick up a copy of each books or you can go on Amazon or Barnes and Noble Walmart or your local indie bookstore and pick up a copy. They’re sold absolutely everywhere. Fantastic series. And the reason I think that CW was able to break that rule, and not one of the rules I have is if you have a beloved character, and Book One, make sure they have as big of a role and book two or throughout the series. And if you’re going to kill them, make sure they’re that makes sense. And that third that isn’t just for shock value. And the debt isn’t just to make people cry. And that ties in to where I want us to start the conversation and how to map out. And I think it starts with mapping out a series. So say you write a book, and you didn’t know it was going to be a series. But by the time we finished it, you felt like you had a couple more books and you about in this world or about these characters, I say it’s worthwhile to map it out. And I’m not big on on mapping out books. I don’t think everybody has to do us a book map. And I just am not real strict about it. But I find what series there needs to be some kind of of mapping going on, just so that you have like what big event is going to happen in each book. And each book needs to be a standalone series in the series because we’ve had people using the secret benefits of invisibility as an example. And I think it’s a great example of this, in that it is a standalone. And if you look at the reviews for it, almost everybody mentioned the fact that it’s a second book in the series, but that they were able to completely get in the story in that there weren’t too many callbacks. There are some, but that there weren’t too many callbacks and the callbacks that do exist and the book are really explained well so that the reader doesn’t feel lost. But there are enough to entice people into reading book one. We’re very very pleased that that everyone who discovered books You have gone back and read book one for the most part. And that’s been really exciting and gratifying. And that’s what you want book to to be right? You want book to be so exciting. And so well written, that it inspires people to read book one, not because they feel lost because you don’t want people to stop in the middle of reading book, one you want. I mean, Book Two, rather, you want everybody to read from beginning to end of book to have a great time, love the characters buy in and want to go back and say, Okay, what happened in book one, because I love these stories, and I want to know more about it. And that’s so important to deliver to have a really strong series.
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And for me, that’s what I look at when buying series, does each book stand on its own, does each book read as a one off, and while still connecting to the series, which is, is hard to do, and that’s where mapping out, I think comes in handy. Make sure that you have a middle beginning and end for each book that you’re planning and make sure that the ending is not a To be continued. Don’t leave any of the books with a cliffhanger, if you’re going to publish with the exception of if you’re publishing and you’re, if you’re a publisher, or if you’re self publishing, and you’re gonna put out a series all at once cliffhangers completely okay. Because all of the books are accessible and ready. But we put out one book a year, so people are having to wait a year for book two. That’s quite a long time. And I feel like we had a we only had like a nine month and between book one and Book Two for everything, relatively normal secrets and the secret benefits of invisibility. And that was because we changed the publication date because we had a request from teachers with middle grade book requests from teachers and librarians that were like, Hey, can we get this right before the summer break? And when you have teachers and librarians writing to like, Hey, can get us Book Two before the summer break, I just like, yes, we will do our best. And I am so grateful to CW Allen for writing that book at lightning speed, Book Two and wonderful, beautiful book, wonderfully written, no shortcuts, lots of great graphics and things introduced that are that are value added. And I really, really enjoy a super shout out to CW for that, and just tons of gratitude. So that kind of thing is really exciting. What happens when you write a really great book, one in a series, and then the audience gives you feedback and says, Hey, can you get us book too sooner than the year from now? That really lets you know, okay, the audience is connecting with this book. And we’re doing something right in the way that we’re delivering our our series and that series specifically, we have evidence of that, this year, with the exception of the secret benefits of invisibility all of our books that are series that you won’t know their series yet. Our book one in the series, we have a couple of book one. And even if book one ends, happily or with tragedy, there has to be room for more story. And to be honest with yourself, is there really more story to tell? Or am I done, we have an an author who was going to write a series and then decided that they really felt like they had taken the characters and the world to a natural resting place. And they felt done. They felt done. And they’re not writing a book too. And for me, I would rather that than an author write a forced book, too, that doesn’t feel as authentic and that their heart’s not in and doesn’t have the same feel and the same passion and the same balance as book one. And that is okay to do if you’re an author, and you thought that you were writing a series and then it turns out that you’re writing a one off, give yourself permission to write that one off. I still love our author that that wrote one book that was supposed to be a series and they decided for it should not be a series. That is another reason why book one really needs to be a standalone and why Book One needs to be written and promoted. And even in your interviews, where you don’t talk about book too. And I think that’s one of the hardest things to do or authors are so excited and you want to tell people about your book right? Do you love the story that you read that you wrote you love, hopefully you love the story that you wrote, you love the characters, you love the world, and you want to let people there’s more coming, you know, let people know and get the hype going. But it really is best to give room for Book One to breathe, and develop a fan base. So even if we have Book Two in hand, and we know it’s actually going to be a series, we only promote books as a one off. And we have enough of a mix of one offs in series that you can’t really tell which books are going to be series in which books are not even if I tell you 75% of our books, which is not that high. We’re about 5050, you still wouldn’t be able to tell unless you already know that the book is unless Book Three has been announced.
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So Book One, there’s no announcement of or talk about in the interviews of Book Two. And you kind of when they asked you do you think you might write any more you have to say, Well, I have to wait and see what what inspiration does, or I have to wait and see what my muse says. And there are some exceptions to the rule. And again, that’s if they’re, they’re coming out close at hand. And if it’s a specific pointed question, and you don’t want to line you don’t feel comfortable going around it, I would say okay, but don’t do the majority of your promotions of book one as a series. And like when you put it up on the review sites like BookBub, Net Galley, and Luke Simons, to name a few, I would say don’t say that it’s a book one in a series, I would say do it as a one off, I find that we get more reads when a book is listed as a one off, and people go into it fresh for book one. And that sort of gives a series a chance to hook readers in and have them really connect with the story in the world before they have to commit because for me, personally, I’m guilty of this too. When I go into a book, if it’s a series, and I know it’s a series and it’s book one, I immediately look to see if Book Two is available. If Book Two is not available, then I tend to hold off and wait to read the series until at least book one and two are available for me to read. I’m sorry, I know that makes me a horrible audience member and a bad reader. I feel so guilty about it. Because as a as a publisher, I’m like, No, go ahead and read book one. It’s worth that I promised you. And I really so for me, I just I don’t know, I just want to err on the side of caution with that and be really conservative and not, not push, you know, people to feel like they have to commit. And I think that for me, that’s like I don’t know if I want to commit but if I do, I want to make sure that there’s there’s plenty for me to commit to if that makes sense. So we’re done with book one. It’s a standalone, it’s great. Everybody’s loving it. What do we do when we launch book too. And I say for book to go ham, talk about how many books are going to be in the series, talk about what the flow is going to be really let your audience know what to expect. So that way, they’re keeping an eye out for Book Three, if there’s going to be beyond book two. And if they’ve read book one, hooking that audience back in and saying, Hey, there’s more story to tell. So book two is when I say go home, and let everybody know how many are going to be in the series, what the arc is going to be like what the flow is going to be like. And we really do make sure everybody knows that book. Two is part of a series.
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With that said, be prepared for the mixed reviews and mixed response for a book to book two is always going to be compared to book one. And Book One has a huge advantage over book two and that is new, everything and it’s new, nobody knows what to expect. They don’t have any expectations of the characters they haven’t fixated on any characters are connected with any characters. And sometimes the characters that are in book one, really change over the course from Book One to book two. Sometimes there’s a passage of time, sometimes book two picks up right, right where book one left off, like almost can be the next sentence type of thing. And for me, no matter where book two stars, that comparison is I’m aware that that comparison is going to happen. People are going to have that point of view, that point of reference and that point of comparison. So familiarity breeds a lot of comparison I think and As an an author, be open to whatever people are saying. So some people might say that they felt like they need a book one to enjoy Book Two, even though Book Two is an amazing standalone, just breathe through that type of review, right? And be aware of it for Book Three, like what specific things? Are they saying that they needed book one for? And does it ring true to you. And if it does ring true to you then make those slight types of adjustments. And Book Three, when you get to Book Three, something really cool happened, Book Three, you have a lot of leeway. And you can sort of break a lot of rules and, and really have fun. Because in Book Three, some people choose for Book Three to be a prequel to the whole series. And that’s always really fun. And interesting. Book Three can wrap up a story, or book three can set the stage for the rest of the series. So if you have, you have to know how many books are going to be in the series. If it’s going to be your forever series, and you have no idea and you’re thinking there may be seven books. That’s still a thought, right? That’s still an idea of how many because you need to know what book three is, is Book Three, wrapping up the series is Book Three, the halfway mark, is Book Three a third of the way, where are you at in the story? And how far are you going to take it? And if you’re aging your characters, there’s a lot of middle grade series that do a wonderful thing of of aging with their characters, right and moving through the world with their characters, knowing from what age to what age and then making sure Book Three, is that that check in for yourself? Am I where I thought I was going to be? Is this going where I thought it was going to go? And how do I reflect the most authentic version of where the story’s at because book three is, the expectation is that you’re either wrapping things up, or you’re setting things up. It’s sort of like a book one again, it’s sort of like the wrap up of the series on setup of the rest of the series type of thing. But most readers have high hopes for for Book Three and really high expectations of what it’s going to deliver. And knowing that that book either has to be a bookend or a starting off point or a prequel understanding that happens in the mapping elements. Right? If you’re writing seven buckshot, the halfway point, if you’re writing 12 books, if you’re writing 15, no matter how many you’re writing, three, we do everything in a sort of cryptic world. And when we look at how the human brain processes, numbers, there really is a special connection with the number three in the human brain and the expectation. So when you’re writing a series, most people expect a series to be three books, we have some series that are two, but most people expect the series to be three books. And so that kind of makes it where they, they want it to be the last book in a series. So with that in mind, if you’re going to titillate and tempt them on to further books, make sure that you have consistent quality and that the writing is up to par. And that you’re giving all of the characters room to breathe. And respecting yourself as an author and respecting the world and checking in and really understanding. So looking at book three and beyond the need to continue with the standalone stories, they do need to be standalones. And each book needs to be as great as the book that came before it and exciting about starting excitement for the book that comes after it. Looking at series, something I find really interesting about series is that there are specific book awards that are just for series. And you can Google to find the various awards and all of those awards that are quite to put a series through we are putting our series fourth series awards. And we are putting them forth for those specific awards that do just recognize a series. They are expensive. When you’re doing a series it is so important to set a budget What are you going to spend on the series because with consistency, you have to have consistent editing. So if you go to a top tier editing service or you publish with a specific publisher, that first book sets the standards for editing, it sets the standard For level of cover art.
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So ask yourself, what is the budget? When you’re mapping out? What can I afford to spend on cover art? What can I afford to spend on editing? And am I going to do? What am I going to do when it comes to award, there are a lot of free awards out there that you can put a single book forward for. I haven’t found any free awards for a series, all of the series awards that we found, really do require that you pay for each individual title to be viewed, but then you mark it when you’re doing the category that these three books go together in a series. And there are benefits for that, because that’s how you get the phrase award winning series rather, because when one book when an award, do you have that book stand alone, but when all three books win an award, or if all three books when individual Book Awards are all 17 books whenever you have, if you have more than one book, when an award in the series, you can say an award winning series, because the books have won individually. But I find that it feels more authentic to me when the books have won a series award. So you’re looking at triple the fees, whatever that award is, and awards go from free to, you know, 1000s of dollars, when you’re looking at submitting each one, and cover artists start from I don’t know any that do it for free, you might have a friend that’s that’s willing to do it for free, that go all the way up to you know, the 10s of 1000s of dollars. And I would say that it’s worth it if you’re doing an entire series and you know, the artists personally negotiating with them and saying, Hey, I have this many covers that I know I want to work with you on. And this would be the schedule for the covers. What kind of deal for pricing? This is the budget I have, can I pay this amount? And they have the right to say yes or no. But I come from a culture of a closed mouth don’t get fed and I’m hungry, right talk and communicate with the the editors and the typesetter. And you know, the cover artists and talk to all of them and say, Hey, I’m doing a series, this is my budget, because beston believe that’s what all presses do. And it’s what we do, we set our budget for the year. So when we sign a contract with all of the people that work on our books, we sign a series contract with them, for our contractors for how many books up they’re going to do. And we have a mix of contractors and house employees, the in house employees, we don’t sign a contract with them, right, we sign an employment contract. But beyond that, they’re working on all our books. So that’s it, and that’s all. But as an author, you have the ability to negotiate. And I think that you should, because putting out a series of books can feel really disheartening. And I think that I want to make it I know that I want to make it as as happy and experience as I can for every author. So when it comes to book series, another thing that we do is we factor in how many books we’re going to have to mail to reviewers. And it cost us because we track the books, it costs us between 25 and 45. United States dollars USD to send one book to a reviewer or 15 books to a reviewer. So luckily for for us, that’s about the the cost that we have. And when you have a series and they discover Book Two, then you reach out to them if they discover any of your books in a series, if they review any book in the series, that’s when you can reach out to a viewer and say, Hey, thank you for the review of this book. Would you be interested in reading book one? Or would you be interested in reading book seven, whatever book they haven’t reviewed yet, or they haven’t read, and also put them on the PR list for when you start promotion of the next book. And that’s something that you have to decide, are you going to send review copies? Are you going to have advance reader copies? Or are you just going to have press release date, and that’s the date the book goes out no advance copies, because as I’ve talked about on other episodes of the cast, we don’t publish our books the day that they’re ready, we have an arc period because that allows us to send them to reviewers. And the same thing goes for magazines you can as an independent author, send your book to magazines if they’re in the right genre. And I say Google literary magazines, whatever genre you’re in and send books to them.
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If you can’t afford it, it is something to think about. Which magazines are you going to send books to? Because the thing was 70 bucks to magazines is it is ghost town you don’t or anything. And I was really surprised that are several similar books have been written up in magazines. And they didn’t tell us. They even notify us, I found out that they were written up through a Google search. And I was like, that is really strange. Like, I would think that they would want us to know, but I don’t know, I don’t know what what their, their process is. So that’s another thing that you have to think of, can I afford to send this copy and not hear anything back? And am I okay with that. And when you’re sending to reviewers, and developing your own PR list for your series, I would say, think about what it is you want for that book, what would be value added to you. And you can always offer a ePub with, you know, a PDF of the book or a Kindle copy, and, you know, send them a JPEG of the book cover, that’s a great way to save money, we find that most reviewers want a physical copy of a book. And you know, it’d be great if everybody wanted the EPUB, those are completely free for us to send. But most people they want a physical copy of a book, because they have their set way that they do their reviews and the way that they’re promoting their self, because they’re in the business of writing reviews, it is a business for them. So their presentation is really important. And that’s why they want that, that physical copy so that they they can promote it in the way that that is consistent to their brand and also comfort for the reading, how do they like to read books, and a lot of people like the holding a physical book, rather than than looking at a Kindle. So just to sort of recap, when when doing a series, I say map it out, figure out how many books are going to be in it. And make sure that each one is its own standalone. Make sure that beloved characters are in every book, if you can, if it makes sense. If they’re not, the book really has to be phenomenal. And it has to have a great reason for why that beloved character is not in the next book, or doesn’t have as big of a role in in the next book, so that it makes sense for the reader. If you’re going to kill off beloved characters, if you’re going to break people’s heart, make sure that it makes sense for the story. And make sure that when they read book two, because I’ve had the experience that in book one, a character gets killed off and my heart is broken. And I’m so sad. And it makes sense for that book.
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And then and reading book two, I’ve actually felt joy that that character was killed off in book one because I didn’t see how book two would happen. If that character hadn’t been killed off, it’s been my experience in reading a variety of series that kill off beloved characters in in book one. So make sure it makes sense. And make sure that when the reader is reading the second book, that they’re not missing, that other character that’s either playing a smaller role, or has been killed off. Make sure that you know where the the middle part of your series is that it makes sense for the flow. Understand what you want to do in terms of reviews and getting your books submitted for awards? And what sort of fighters group do you want to belong to? And how are you going to handle reviewers? What is your expectation? What brings you value added when you’re communicating with reviewers? And have a plan for your press releases and your interviews and reach out to people? If you’re an author, an indie author, hit us up? Let us know like, you know, give us a like and you can put it down in the comment section or you can hit us up at Media at cinnabar moth.com. And let us know that you’d like to be interviewed. We get a lot of indie authors that reach out to us. And we always say yes, we’ve never turned down any requests for an interview. We love promoting authors. And this podcast is really just a love letter to authors, and all about supporting authors. So if you’re an author, reach out if you’ve ever written a short story, or if you have long form, whatever or a series, let us know and we will absolutely set up an interview because we love authors. So yeah, that’s my 50 cents on how to roll out a book series on how to create a really great experience for the reader and how to get a press attention and have the people at the press excited about each and every book in your series. I want to thank all of our beautiful cinnabar moths for listening or any kind of moth you’d like to be or you can even be a butterfly but I’m not Mariah Carrie and I’m not trying to bite her rhyme. Talk to you soon. Bye