Sunday, September 21, 2014

Writing a Series -- What I Learned

Good Morning. I have been brewing over the fact that my current work-in-progress is the final novel of my series. I'll miss these characters. They've been with me for quite some time. However, I have new characters, and new story-lines for a whole new series.  (I'm looking forward to starting that in the fall of 2015.)

That being said, writing a series is a BIG undertaking. I didn't know that was what was going to happen five years ago when I put my pen to paper. But here I sit with with five novels and six novellas under my belt.

Five years ago, I wrote three stories in quick succession. THE LADY'S MASQUERADE, THE LADY'S FATE, and THE DUKE'S DIVORCE. I also had 45,000 words on THE CAPTAIN'S COINCIDENCE, but we moved and I
lost them.

My intent was to acquire an agent, and sell the series to a New York Publisher. That didn't happen. I also hadn't planned to write novellas either. My work was piling up and I wanted readers. I decided to self-publish. It was a steep learning curve. But here I sit with five novels and six novellas under my belt, (as well as other published works under my Robynne Rand pen name).

I am a working writer.

A professor told me once, that when we achieve a pinnacle, or a certain level of success, we must write about how we did it. Share it with the world and discuss it. Someone else might gain something that will help them achieve their own pinnacle.

Over the course of the next few Sunday's, I'm going to outline what I learned from writing a series. I will try to incorporate many aspects of the publishing industry as well. Here is a list of topics I will attempt to cover.


Introduction to Writing a Series
    Commitment, Construction, Clarity
Internal Controls
     Character/Setting/Plot > Structure, Plot devices, Spin-off series
Formulaic/Genre Writing
Marketing
     Novella/Short Story
     Business Plan
Publishing Structure
     Timeline > Pricing > Free?
Marketing Part 2
     Branding > Social Media >Web Presence > Spam
External Controls
     Surviving the Crash > Writing as a Job
Complete


I hope you'll stop by.

Anne Gallagher (c) 2014


  itunes/US   Nook   Kindle  Kobo  Smashwords

















1 comment:

  1. Success? That is something that has eluded me. But perseverance is what makes champions, right?

    Best of luck with your series. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Due to the high amount of spam, anonymous comments will no longer be accepted.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.