How to Write A Series: Genre Fiction How To, #2

By Sara Rosett

Struggling to structure your book series?

Learn how to make a series work for you:  increase reader engagement and take advantage of the built-in marketing potential a series gives you.

Are you unsure which series structure is best for you?  Or are you several books into a series, but you're stuck? Do you want to expand your literary universe but aren't sure how to do it? Perhaps you have a series languishing in your backlist, and you need ideas on how to market it. 

Get the knowledge you need to make smart decisions about your series with How to Write a Series. 

You'll learn: 
    •    The three basic types of series
    •    The benefits and drawbacks of writing each type of series
    •    Tips for extending your series beyond your original plan
    •    Ideas for creating spinoffs and expanding your literary universe
    •    How to know when it's time to end a series
    •    How to save time writing your series and how to keep track of details
    •    How to deal with the problems that result from being locked into a story world 
    •    How to refresh your interest in a series if you've grown bored
    •    Creative ways to market your series
    
I've been writing for fifteen years as both a hybrid and independent author. I've published over twenty-five fiction books in four different series. Everything I've learned about writing a series has been through trial and error. I hope my lessons-learned will give you a shortcut when it comes to writing your series plus tips for troubleshooting problems and ideas for promoting your series.

Unlock the power of a series in your author career with How To Write a Series. 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sara Rosett
• Release date: Jan 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393158387

Sara Rosett

A native Texan, Sara is the author of the Ellie Avery mystery series and the On The Run suspense series. As a military spouse, Sara has moved around the country (frequently!) and traveled internationally, which inspired her latest suspense novels. Publishers Weekly called Sara’s books, "satisfying," "well-executed," and "sparkling." Sara loves all things bookish, considers dark chocolate a daily requirement, and is on a quest for the best bruschetta. Connect with Sara at www.SaraRosett.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Goodreads.  

Book preview

How to Write a Series

A Guide to Series Types and Structure plus Troubleshooting Tips and Marketing Tactics

Sara Rosett

HOW TO WRITE A SERIES

A Guide to Series Types and Structure plus Troubleshooting Tips and Marketing Tactics

Book Two in the Genre Fiction How To series

Published by McGuffin Ink

Copyright © 2020 by Sara Rosett

Cover Design: Inspired Cover Design

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All rights are reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this work may be used, stored, transmitted, or reproduced in any manner or form whatsoever without express written permission from the author and publisher.

Vellum flower icon Created with Vellum

To my IRL writer friends,

Jami and Danielle, who have been there with me as I completed two series and began another.

Here’s to many more for all of us!

Contents

About How to Write a Series

Introduction

Why Write a Series?

Types of Series

Multi-protagonist Series

Single Protagonist Series

Protagonist with a Flat Character Arc

Protagonist with a Robust Character Arc

Crafting Your Series

Character Arcs and Subplots

Series Patterns

Cliffhangers and Read-through Hooks

Ending a Series

Connecting Series: Spinoffs and Literary Universes

Extending a series

Practicalities

Batch Writing

Troubleshooting

Marketing

Serious Series Overwhelm

Notes

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Also by Sara Rosett

About the Author

Contents

About How to Write a Series

Introduction

Why Write a Series?

Types of Series

Multi-protagonist Series

Single Protagonist Series

Protagonist with a Flat Character Arc

Protagonist with a Robust Character Arc

Crafting Your Series

Character Arcs and Subplots

Series Patterns

Cliffhangers and Read-through Hooks

Ending a Series

Connecting Series: Spinoffs and Literary Universes

Extending a series

Practicalities

Batch Writing

Troubleshooting

Marketing

Serious Series Overwhelm

Notes

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Also by Sara Rosett

About the Author

About How to Write a Series

Struggling to structure your book series?

Learn how to make a series work for you: increase reader engagement and take advantage of the built-in marketing potential a series gives you.

Are you unsure which series structure is best for you? Or are you several books into a series, but you’re stuck? Do you want to expand your literary universe but aren’t sure how to do it? Perhaps you have a series languishing in your backlist, and you need ideas on how to market it.

Get the knowledge you need to make smart decisions about your series with How to Write a Series.

What you’ll discover:

The three basic types of series

The benefits and drawbacks of writing each type of series

Tips for extending your series beyond your original plan

Ideas for creating spinoffs and expanding your literary universe

How to know when it’s time to end a series

How to save time writing your series and how to keep track of details

How to deal with the problems that result from being locked into a story world

How to refresh your interest in a series if you’ve grown bored

Creative ways to market your series

I’ve been writing for fifteen years as both a hybrid and independent author. I’ve published over twenty-five fiction books in four different series. Everything I’ve learned about writing a series has been through trial and error.

I hope my lessons-learned will give you a shortcut when it comes to writing your series, plus tips for troubleshooting problems, and ideas for promoting your series.

Introduction

Write what you know.

—often attributed to Mark Twain

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Write a series is a piece of advice that new writers hear over and over again. It’s an often-quoted mantra like read in your genre and write what you know. Veteran authors point to these basic premises as keys to success in publishing.

Read in your genre and write what you know are pretty self-explanatory, and at first glance the advice to write a series might seem to be obvious—write books linked through a protagonist or another element like a setting.

But I discovered writing a series is a deep and complex topic, yet there’s little guidance for authors on how to put individual books together in a way that’s satisfying for readers. Most writing advice focuses on how to produce a single book. Few writing craft resources discuss the nuts and bolts of series writing.

My Experience

When I sat down to write my first book I felt pretty confident about a few things. I was a cozy reader. Know your genre: check! My protagonist was a military spouse. I was a military spouse. Write what you know: check! My confidence faltered a bit at the advice to write a series.

I had no idea what I was doing when it came to writing a series, and I only found a few blog posts on the topic. But I knew the book I was writing would be Book One of a series because it was a cozy mystery. A stand-alone cozy is rare, practically non-existent!

I decided to focus on the task at hand and get Book One written. I worked my way through a multitude of drafts and revisions until I had a book. The concept of that book as part of a series remained a shadowy idea, barely on my radar.

What’s Next?

When I finished editing and revising my first mystery I had rough concepts for the next books. I had ideas for the mystery plots in the upcoming books, but the only plan I had for the series element was that the main character, who was a military spouse, would move every few books, which would help the series avoid Cabot Cove syndrome.

If you’re familiar with Murder, She Wrote, you know that the small town where Jessica Fletcher lived, Cabot Cove, was plagued by an unusually high murder rate, a situation that strains believability after a few murderous incidents. I figured with my protagonist’s built-in ability to move around, I’d solved one problem with writing a series.

I didn’t think about other elements of

Reviews for How to Write A Series

[AnIncrediblyGinormousBookaholic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was a good overview of how to set up a basic series. I am taking Holly Lisle’s class on it, and there are some similarities.