You’re a new writer, unpublished. You’ve got some great ideas for a story, but you quickly realize that it’s too much idea for one novel. Do you serialize it? You talk to other writers, and opinions are all over the place – serials will sell, serials won’t sell. What to do?
The choice is yours, but it’s not between just standalone or series. Nope, there are more choices than that, my friend and wannabe published author.
Let’s take a look…
Stand-alone
A standalone is a story that stands by itself, complete, and needing no prequel or follow-up to tie up loose ends.
Example: Enchantment by Orson Scott Card.
Serial
Stories which share characters and settings, but each book has no bearing on any other.
Example: Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple stories.
Serialized Series
All books in the series need to be read in order to really understand what’s happened. There are two sub-types, Closed and Open.
Example: Harry Potter series.
Closed Series
A story which is really more like a larger novel that’s been split into two or more volumes, none which can stand by themselves as a complete story.
Example: The Lord of the Rings series (Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King) by J R R Tolkein.
Open Series
It’s a closed series that isn’t done yet.
Example: Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.
Linked Series
Each story is self-contained, but together, they form a larger, more whole picture, a bigger story, if you will. They share characters, settings, perhaps even plotlines, but at the end of reading any one of them, the story will feel complete.
Example: the many many Darkover books (Sword of Chaos, The World Wreckers, Free Amazons of Darkover, The Shadow Matrix, Darkover Landfall, Exile’s Song) by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Harry Potter books by J K Rowling. Ender & Ender’s Shadow series by Orson Scott Card.
Formula Series
Each story has a structure that we recognized and expect with characters that are predictable. Reading in order is not important to understand the story.
Example: The Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Even though your comment is another spam, I’m leaving it up, for now at any rate. I’ve given my response to your comment spam in another post, which you can find at http://www.lmashton.com/2006/08/547
I really, sincerely hope that you learn what spam is so that you’ll stop sending it.
Hi LM,
So sorry for the so called \”spam\” that you received from FAQQLY.
I stumbled upon your post on a writers forum. I can assure you we aren\’t spammers, but one of our interns thought it would be a good idea to contact writers and see how our site could help their readers build an interactive community around them and their books. So off she went contacting as many authors as possible and as were interesting for (and seemed like a match with) our site.
Sorry about that LM, hope you\’d still give us a shot!
-Dave
http://www . faqqly . com / dave
(Edited to confuzzle links – I don\’t support spammers.)