On June 10, 2023, Kasie and Rex welcomed Catherine Peace back into the studio and the three of them talked about the advantage of series-writing. Here are the show notes:

Theme for the day

Writing a Full Series with Special Guest Catherine Peace

Agenda

• Re-Introduce Catherine Peace
• What makes a series?
• Why writers should consider writing a series
• How to write a series

Link to the podcast.

Segment 1

We had Catherine Peace in the studio twice back in 2021. In our first interview with her, Rex tried to understand what she and I were talking about with the romance genre thing (Episode 159). Then Rex left town so I had Catherine back with Ella Shawn to talk all about romance and erotica (Episode 160). That was a fun episode.

So what has Catherine Peace been up to since 2021? If you take a look at her website you’ll see a countdown clock for the release of the final installment in the Solstice Quartet. So we brought her on to talk about writing a series.

Tell us about the Solstice Quartet, it begins with Ember’s Secret. Who are these people? What is this world? Did you know it would be a quartet when it started?

Do you read series? Why or why not? Here’s a list of 44 complete series in case you’re reluctant to start one that isn’t yet finished.

Segment 2/3

Why should authors invest in a series? Because the readers will, of course. 

Writing a series will make you more money. It’s true. Joanna Penn says so right here. Here are her highlighted points:

• Binge culture – people want to immerse themselves
• More money per customer – businesses know it’s cheaper to sell more to existing customers than to earn new ones; existing customers (readers) want more of the same, so leverage that desire and sell the same readers new stories in the same world
• Marketing opportunities – market a series with the first one as a freebie – I see this on Kindle Unlimited where the first one or two titles will be part of Kindle Unlimited but the rest are pay-per-book
• Brand recognition – cover designs that demonstrate connectivity are a great way to build brand recognition; two successful series writers we know (Raegan Teller and Dana Ridenour) both did this with their crime novel series.
• Write faster – you’ve built the world and the characters so the story should just come, right? Right?

Another article from Tom Ashford on Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula offers these reasons:

• Brand – like Penn, Ashford remarks that writers can build a brand through a series and that brand can pay dividends; David Coe, a writer we met at the SCWA Conference in 2016 has a couple of different series and the branding on each one is different, but they’re all David, so you know you’re getting a quality product.
• Backlist – this was what happened to Colleen Hoover – a good backlist means when you’re finally “discovered” there’s a trove of binge-worthy books for your new fans to consume.
• Boxsets – you can sell the series as one $8 or $9 purchase instead of the $3.99 each opportunity they’ll have to reconsider each time they click “purchase.”

Segment 4

Wondering what you need to do or do not when writing a series? Check out this Writer’s Digest contribution with these 5 tips:

• Genre – pick a genre that can sustain your characters over several books; uniquely suited for series – romance, fantasy, science fiction
• Characters – you’ll need quite a few to sustain the series, but don’t think you have to introduce them all at once; they need to be compelling, and when it’s not this character’s story but they show up anyway, make them interesting enough that the reader will be curious and want to read their story
• Conflict – ramp up the conflict for a series. It should be everywhere, affecting everyone. No conflict, no story, no story, no series. You need short term conflict – resolved in this book – and long-term conflict – sustained over all the books in the series.
• Setting – this can be what sets the series apart, so consider the setting a seriously functional part of the story. You’ll be spending a lot of time there, so you will want to pick a place you can get some real mileage from.
• Plan – you should plan the series so you know what will happen when and where; pantser? That might work for the first one and if you’ve left enough in the tank (link writer’s words, not mine) then you might stumble into a series. But it’s better to plan the series and hit the prescribed beats.