I have at least a half-dozen books on my bookshelves I can’t read. I’d like to read them, but I can’t.
I chose each one on impulse, brought it home, and then discovered it was part of a series. And it wasn’t Book One. Some people can jump right into the middle of a series, then glom the backlist. I have to read a series in order. No exceptions. And those books will languish on the shelves until I find their predecessors. (And please, if you write a series, have a page like Lori Foster’s connecting books page. ) Despite the annoyance, I love a good series. Why?
As a writer, the benefits of a series are clear to me. You build a readership, and you can give your publisher a good reason to keep your backlist active. People don’t just want your next book, they’re eagerly awaiting it! If you write a miniseries for Harlequin or Silhouette, you get a special flash with the series title, and a little more love from marketing. A successful series is probably the closest a single-title romance writer can come to job security.
As a reader, you get to revisit characters you met in the earlier books. If you loved the first book, chances are you’ll love the next one. Whether you follow two main characters through many adventures (J.D. Robb’s In Death series) or you fall in love with many different interconnected characters (Suzanne Brockmann’s SEAL series), you get to know the characters in a way one single title book doesn’t allow.
But I imagine there are drawbacks to writing a series. What if the writer just doesn’t want to write albino psychic were-vamps anymore, but her publisher isn’t about to let the cash-cow wander into another field and breaks out the thumbscrews? What about the writer who doesn’t seem to be aware her series has jumped the shark? (I’m not going to name any names, but I’ve heard of at least 3 major series that have crossed that unfortunate thresh-hold with the most recent release or two.) Can fans of a series become too…proprietorial? An author tries to shake things up with a beloved character and the message board walls tremble. Or imagine an anal-retentive reader like me anxious to catch up with the series finding out I can only get Book One on eBay, and it’ll cost me a car payment.
But there seem to be more and more of them out there. And I see a lot of aspiring writers trying to develop a series with which to impress the editors. So, from your side of the table–writer, reader, reviewer, editor, visitor drinking your morning coffee–how do you feel about series?
No related posts.
Speaking as a reader, I like books that have a slight connection, but don’t require reading the prior books. So, maybe all set in the same world with one visiting character. What I don’t like (personally) is a bunch of time spent filling me in on what all the old characters have been doing. They had their shot–let’s get on with this story.
Confessions of a series slut….
I write series. All the time. The only way I can take a book and NOT make a series out of it is to have the protagonists as the only characters in the book! I swear, give me one secondary character with no more than one line in the entire book and bam! They suddenly call for their own stories.
But I love reading series too. I love staying connected to a time and place and characters and seeing what happens to them.
And hopefully my website gives a clear enough indication of which books are series because we give them series titles and then individual book titles so it’s not confusing for a reader.
Jaci
I never intended to write a series. It just kind of . . .happened. However, I strive to make each book a stand-alone — you could pick up book #3 and there’s really no way to tell it’s part of a series unless you *had* read the earlier books. They are merely linked by a setting and a couple of recurring characters. However, I’m beginning to see with the current WIP that if it were read first, it would doubtless give away the surprise ending to book one. Hmmm. Gotta think through that one.
I love series – both reading and writing them. It’s like seeing familiar friends. I’ve devoured the Pern Dragons, the Outlander series, oh – too many to list. It must have started with The Little House in the Big Woods – I was so thrilled to see that there were more in the series! And the Books of Oz…Well, I can go on and on, lol. But yes, I love series. No question about it!
I love series, both as reader and writer. I get to know all these characters and then I want to see what happens to them next!
But not everybody is cut out to write that way and like anything else, it’s not good to force writing in a direction it doesn’t want to naturally go. And no series goes on forever, although I hope there’s another Travis McGee adventure waiting fo me on the Other Side.
From Harlequin’s standpoint, series are what sell – and in Blaze we’ve been encouraged to write them, whether one author is writing all the books (such as my gIRL-gEAR series) or several authors are collaborating (such as I just finished doing with a series launching in April called Do Not Disturb). The publisher, in fact, is now inventing series premises and inviting authors on board – they’ve done this for a long time in their continuities. It’s all about the bottom line, and in category romance, series sell! But I’ve done it in single title as well as I’ve found that readers love revisiting secondary characters. I do make sure each book is as close to stand-alone as I can make it, but my reader mail is a testament to the power of series! (And I’m a bit like Jaci. I’m such a character writer that once I have one on the page, he (as it’s usually a hero!) demands a story!!)
Series books are great. It’s fun revisiting the world of a a previous loved book. And, I have to read mine in order, too.
The first romance novel I ever purchased was one of Jude Deveraux’s Velvet series. And no, it wasn’t the first one. So I have gotten used to reading out of order (same thing happened with me and Jo Beverley’s Malloren and Company of Rogue series). If I’m going to read a series, I prefer ones that stand alone but exist in the same world as the others. (I actually love this, I like glimpses of past characters) Ones that are interdependent on each other (JD Robb’s for example) sometimes take more time than I’m willing to expend. I tend not to buy them if I know it’s part of the interconnected series. Ever time I look at Outlander, I see the others waiting.
The other problem with interconnected series, if the reader doesn’t care for the first book, she probably will not try the next one, or the one after that.
I love series books and I can read them out of order. That’s how I discovered SB’s Navy SEALs books – I jumped in the middle, then scrambled to read her backlist and catch up. However, I don’t have any problem if I pick up a title that isn’t the first and get spoiled to the previous stories. The only thing I don’t like is if I can’t understand what’s going on because I hadn’t read the prior books. I like a connectedness that isn’t critical to the current story.
As for writing series, for me it is unavoidable. I’m the same as others here who’ve commented that if a story contains any secondary characters at all, they will demand a story of their own. Too, I like having the room of several books in which to allow some characters to develop or grow. Classic example – if a boy is a teenager in book 1, perhaps by book 3 he’s ready for a book of his own.
Excellent post Shan!
I’m with you though…don’t even try to convince me that I should read a series out of order, I’d have to pop a Valium first or something. I’d be continuously convinced I was missing something major.
That’s why I was a little whacked out at the idea of reading Master Nage’s serial Ds World. It’s a subscription and you start with the current issue. I whined, I’ll freely admit it, and got the back issues from Steve, but as he explained to me, the idea of a serial (think soap opera) is that it is ongoing and you don’t need to read every installment to be caught up. But honestly, that Type A part of me probably wouldn’t have allowed me to join and start reading if I couldn’t do it from the beginning. I need to know EVERYTHING
Serial, series, or single title…I want the whole daggone thing!
Great subject, Shannon. As both a reader and an author, I love series, following the characters, letting them be developed over several books, but I want my series to end, too. At some point in time, the world becomes too populated with characters, and it’s cumbersome to keep up. Also, I’m in favor of some secondary characters that don’t get their own books. Some secondary characters just need to be secondary characters. If an author knows they’re not going to be spun off, there’s a lot more fun things that can happen.
I love to read series. I love to write them. But when I do, I try to link them so loosely that the order doesn’t matter, because as a reader I get frustrated when I end up with #2 of a series and then have to go back out and find the first!
My editor regularly sends me series mysteries to review and often I’m coming in mid-series. This is never a problem for me unless the writer includes too many allusions to previous plots that seem only to be there as a wink-wink to those loyal to the series. IMO, if writers want to include information from back plots, they need to have a good reason for it to be in the current story and they need to explain it fully. The best series books are the ones that can be read as stand-alones–they give the series loyalists extra depth but don’t sacrifice clarity or story pacing in the process.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who can’t read them out of order. But it’s great that some of you can jump in anywhere. (Probably not as frustrating for you, either.)
Sandy, that’s an excellent point about the reader not liking the first one! You can lose a lot of readers right off the bat if the first one turns them off.
And it’s funny, and just my humble opinion, but can any book that’s part of a series really stand alone? Probably the closest I’ve seen is Gena Showalter’s The Stone Prince and The Pleasure Slave. The Pleasure Slave does stand entirely on it’s own in the matter of not having to have read The Stone Prince to enjoy it. BUT there are like two little sentences in it that would be spoilers for The Stone Prince if you hadn’t read that one first. (Awesome books–funny and hot, btw.)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, everybody. This subject came to me fairly suddenly (while I was trying to find the correct order of a series I just bought a book in). I’d had an entry written for several weeks, and somebody else did the subject two or three days ago! Scooped!
I’m a series fanatic. And I have to read them from the beginning. I just love to see the way all the stories interweave and develope and play into each.
Very interesting post! I sold a stand-alone ST and my editor wanted me to make it a connected series. So I did. But I think each book can stand on its own (I hope!) The plots are distinctly different, but the nice thing is I get to bring back some of my favorite characters.
Because of this, I’m working on a proposal for another connected series.
I love to read them. Mysteries with the same protagonist (like Linda Fairstein, Janet Evanovich, JD Robb, etc) or “connected” like Suzanne Brockmann or Mariah Stewart. I love good stand alones, too. It all depends on the writer.
I’m like Jaci, I LOVE writing connected books. When I wrote my first vampire book I didn’t intend to write more, but those secondary characters were so strong, they demanded their own stories too. Plus, I enjoy having characters from the first book show up in the second book. I think readers like to revisit old characters and this is a way for them to do that. Personally, I enjoy reading series/connected books, but I really like to read them in order if I can.
I like books in a series. What I don’t like is when characters in one book make walk-on-see-me-I’ve-got-a-book-coming appearances. I like for secondary characters to be a genuine part of the plot, when introduced. They don’t have to be a big part of the story, but I don’t like reading a book where three single brothers suddenly appear in the final chapter, so now we can look forward to their stories.
I think many writers avoid this and write good series.
Alyssa
Oh, I’ve met him! The guy standing in the back waving his arms saying “Hey, look for my book!”
That’s almost as annoying as writing an amazing secondary character I absolutely fall in love with, then NOT writing his story.
I’m another reader/writer who loves a good series. As long as the books are stand-alone, I don’t mind accidentally starting with a book in the middle of the series, but then I go back and collect the rest.