Support for Indie Authors discussion

I'm hoping to get some feedback on an idea. First, let me define what I mean by serialized.

This is not the serialize of releasing one chapter a week in a magazine or blog. Rather, it's the serialize of telling a single story through a series of (usually shorter) books. I've heard on the Writing Excuses Podcast (hosted by Brandon Sanderson and others) that serialized Novella are popular in the e-book market because people want lots of cheap, fast e-books. I think this is true. My first book clocked in at over 130K words and my second is headed to a similar length. Here 's the idea:

I was planning three larger books (all over 120K), but now I'm considering cutting the 2nd and 3rd installments in half making it a pentalogy. The first book is longer, but the other four will be more in the 50-80k length. Technically too long to be a novella, but they are shorter novels.

I like this idea because,
1 - I can release books much faster
2 - I can get more sales out of the same story I was planning to tell, all the while savoring those sweet, sweet royalty pennies.
3 - It seems to follow the market trend.

I'm unsure about the idea because,
1 - Now I have to come up with 2 more interesting book titles and covers...
2 - I'm not 100% sure how much work it will take to break up book three into two books. I feel like book two has a big climax in the middle already so it could be a natural break.
3 - Is this a good fit for my genre? (Epic Fantasy & Steampunk)

I think am leaning towards having five shorter books rather than 3 longer ones. I'd love to hear from people that have attempted (or are attempting) this. Or even just hearing about preferences on what shapes (?) of series you like to read would be helpful.

Personally, since you already have a long book one, I'd keep the trilogy idea and have the books be uniform in length. Epic fantasy is typically longer, with 130k being a solid average for novel length. If you want to try serialization, you might want to wait for a different story idea.

Besides, with longer books, you don't really have to worry about royalty pennies. You can charge a but more as is the standard within the genre (I see most longer epics at anywhere from $3.99 to 6.99). Serialized stories tend to be offered at 99¢ per 'episode' so you would have to sell more to make up the difference.

Usually, if your first few books are of a certain length, people will expect similar lengths in the sequels. Consistency and uniformity is important in a series. Because you already got readers who enjoy reading your 100k+ content, they are probably expecting similar lengths in future books.

Of course, you can try and experiment. There's nothing wrong with that. But since you're expecting sales from your content, it's probably best if you tailor your work based on your audience's preference. Unless you're willing to take the risk and try it out. :)

I think Christina is right here since you've already released one, that it will be harder to convert the other books into novellas. Breaking up an existing story can also be hard because you disrupt the natural flow, especially if it's already written. Readers can tell when a story doesn't do what it's "supposed" to even if they don't know what is wrong.

However, I do like your idea, and especially if you are a new writer, getting more books out quickly is helpful for sales. I'm trying out a format where I write two novellas, then one novel, and repeat, where the novellas fill out other parts of the universe.

One idea could be: If you do manage to get the story length and beats right and break up the other novels, you could go back to your first and re-release to make it match the later books. You could either pull the first book and change to the new format, or offer a "new" format with the price differences Christina outlines above. If nothing else, it would be an interesting experiment and you could see which sells more. I'm thinking about doing the opposite and bundling my novellas in to a novel format when I get sufficient mass.

Good luck! And Yay for Epic Fantasy and Steampunk! Those are my genres too!

Hey John--I have some massive epic fantasy novels that I broke up into parts as you're describing, just like The Lord of the Rings is broken into three smaller novels. I did it mainly because the books are too large to print conveniently as single volumes. I am happy enough with it, but it can get a bit awkward and some readers either refuse to read books that are in parts, or get angry about it once they've read it. Many readers are fine with it and epic fantasy certainly has a long tradition of it, but you should be aware that there is a cohort of readers who only read stand-alone books and/or hates cliffhanger endings.

You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the great responses.

For a little context, I just published my first book for $.99 last October. I'm working on marketing and seeing some new readers come in. Especially during an amazon sale (free) during Christmas week. (Got up to #7 in steampunk for a while.)

Book two is only half written and there's quite a large climax there which is half of why I'm considering the idea. Book three is only partially outlined.

I do see the point of readers expecting longer books, especially in my genres. It might be weird to have one long and four short. But I do like the idea of publishing my second book by summer. ;) even if it's half as long.

Because I'm only a first-time (working on second time) author I feel like there's not a huge precedent set. Maybe I have room to experiment. Maybe I should outline book three some more and see if there's room for a break in the middle.

I'm still a bit undecided but now leaning towards long books. All your thoughts are very helpful! Thanks so much!

I published shorter novels (42K to 48K each) in a 7-book series series which is not typical for my genre (historical fiction). The response has been great so far. Imo, now is a prime time to hop on the shorter books/faster release bandwagon if you are inclined.

When I was writing my first book, I really struggled with whether to make it one longer book or two shorter books. I didn't know it would become a full series later. I'm glad I went with the shorter lengths. There was a distinct story line that got resolved at the end of each book, yet I kept a few things ambiguous until the very end of the series (not so much that any book ended on a cliffhanger). The timelines were the trickiest since the saga covers a 5 year period.

The beauty of self-publishing is you can start and end your books where you'd like. I personally think there is room to experiment, but be aware that readers won't be shy about speaking their minds if they feel a series is "unnecessarily" dragged out for profit.

Is there a natural break somewhere in your first book where it could be divided into two? That's the first thing I would look at if it were me. It's not the end of the world imo for a first book to be longer with shorter sequels, but I think it's important to be extremely clear to your readers that the subsequent novels are half the size, and maybe have a lower price to reflect that.

Yupp. Being a first time author gives you a lot of room to experiment. So don't worry much about it. :) Find out what works for you and your audience, do some research and it will definitely take you somewhere!

John,

I'm reading Echowake right now (and enjoying it- about 35% through it). I think keeping the same length will work fine, even if the action ramps up sooner in book 2. In a first or standalone story, it's good to have a slow build as you work through worldbuilding, setting up the characters and the conflicts, resolving them, etc. In a sequel, I think it's better to pick up the pace earlier in the novel because you already laid the foundation in the first one.

If anything, I think chopping it up into shorter elements after you set the precedent with the first one would be more disruptive.

I like the idea of having three or four full novels, which develops a full story and is essentially plot driven, and then creating smaller novellas for characters and sub plots. This idea is similar to how J.R. Tolkien and Rowling developed their works. They followed one character, essentially, and then added smaller works which accented the original story.