Blog by Toby Welch

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A Publisher’s View on Writers Doing a Book Series

Pat Rediger, the publisher of Benchmark Press, publishes series books and has some advice for authors, “Try the initial book in the series and if it sells well then you can consider the next book. Sometimes authors are predisposed to create the series before they know the initial book will sell, and while we encourage them to be optimistic, they need to be realistic and assess the market before embarking on more books. This usually means creating the initial book as a stand-alone. If it sells well, then the author can better assess the marketplace, determine where the books are selling, who is buying them, and then consider that information before doing more.”

Heather Nickel, the publisher of Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing, shares her thoughts, “I consider books in a series in the same manner I do individual titles; each book must stand on its own, though if it’s part of a series, there must be an overall story arc driving the plot forward and giving depth to the characters beyond that which is told in each book. This means that a series must be considered as a whole and the author needs to have a solid idea of how the overall story might unfold, though there is always room for change as the books are written.”