Series Strategy ...

[Ray McCarthy]

Mark Coker ("Mr Smashwords) says all at once!

I'd been thinking 3 to 5 months spacing ...

Applies only to Series.

Thoughts?

from this free book
The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success, an Ebook by Mark Coker

This one is interesting too:
Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, an Ebook by Mark Coker


If you already understand eBook creation and MS Word Doc Formatting needed then this is superfluous:
Smashwords Style Guide, an Ebook by Mark Coker
I only had to read one page, my Amazon upload was fine, but Smashwords didn't like my TOC formatting (I'd used MS Word to make one with only links and no page numbers), so I took advice in that guide and manually created a TOC (I knew how, but was surprised that Smashwords didn't like the "quick" way, which Calibre and Amazon were happy with) .

All those free books are worth downloading. I don't agree with him about using Pinterest, but what he says about Twitter & Facebook is reasonable (Engage, don't spam). Probably I should put the science articles that I find that interest me.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

I'd been thinking 3 to 5 months spacing ...

I can't speak to the wisdom of it, but I did notice when I first got a kindle that a lot of series seemed to come out with each volume released a day apart. Some of those could be series already published, I suppose, but I quite like the idea of not having to wait a year or so for the rest of a series I'm reading.

One consideration could be whether the series is complete or not? If, for example, you've got one more book to finish but 6 ready to go then you could stagger them with regular intervals until the final one comes out.

Perhaps one of the Chrons' marketing gurus can jump in though?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

One consideration could be whether the series is complete or not? If, for example, you've got one more book to finish but 6 ready to go then you could stagger them with regular intervals until the final one comes out.

For Talents Series: I've 3 just needing proofing, two needing editing, one needing a lot more work ("The Mission's Talent"). I'd not planned on any gap more than 4 to 5 months. I may delay "The Mission's Talent" till 2018 and do one or two in between.
I can write 8 to 12 hours a day, 7 days a week if I want to, have the energy etc. Usually I only intensively write during creation of 1st & 2nd drafts, then take 1 to 3 month gap and come to it fresh to edit. Then another gap before proof.

My plan is professional final polish/proof if the books make the money to pay it. Including books already published. My concept of crowd funed books is you buy my book and if I can afford it, I pay for professional polish (content priority over cover) and you get free upgrade.

Mark Coker says if it's a choice between spending money on editing or marketing, choose content. He thinks it's possible to get decent cover under $100. But right now I can't afford a cover artist. He says never borrow for a book project or go short of food and shelter.

 

[Steve Wilson]

Thanks for this great info Ray!

I've been planning for a while to get a few things published, I'll no doubt hang around here to find out the best practices (got to geek up a bit )!

 

[Ray McCarthy]

planning for a while to get a few things published

I've very little good advice to offer on writing or marketing.
@Jo Zebedee here is one of the more expert marketing people, managing to get in local papers etc.
Loads of experts and established published Authors here in actual writing and self publishing as well as dealing with Agents, Publishers (large and small) etc.

Browse around.

 

[Steve Wilson]

Thanks again Ray. Will check out Jo and look around then!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thanks again Ray. Will check out Jo and look around then!

Ha! I know nothing, Jon Snow. Really. I just talk a lot.

Best of luck with everything - there is tons of advice around the site. (I did just throw up a ranting post about marketing over in the Amazon reviews thread, which might have something useful in it.)

 

[Steve Wilson]

Indeed, loads of info for me here!
What I'm reading atm is just getting me confused to be honest...
But I'm sure it'll get clearer as I read on!

Moving over to that amazon review thread now then! Thanks again.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I missed this until now, but have been pondering it for myself (for a trilogy rather than a larger series). I put up a poll on Twitter (about spacing for a trilogy), so if you have a Twitter account please vote.

I'll post the result on this thread when it's done.

Morris Dancer on Twitter

 

[Steve Wilson]

Very curious about the results of that poll...

I've always thought the best spacing was about a year, with a release at a specific time of year (like just before Xmas, or for the summer), so you give most of your readership time to actually read each book before coming up with a new one.

 

[ratsy]

I voted just now Thadd. What I'm finding out there are the indie SF guys are pushing books out almost as fast as they can write them. They write the book, send to beta, rework, send to their editor, all the while getting a cover made up. Blam, every 3 or so months they are getting a new one out there. To be fair these are from the guys who have hit big on a book or two and seem to be doing it full time. Makes sense. They don't have the time constraints of the big guys editors and marketing teams. As a reader, I'm happy if a big author I love has one a year. I feel like 2-3 years was a fairly common industry standard a decade or so ago, but I could be wrong on that.

 

[Steve Wilson]

Quite agree with you ratsy, looks like the standards are getting shorter, as it is for movies and TV series seasons or half-seasons or whatever they do now (someone explain that to the Avatar team please ).

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'm aiming for 6 months between bk2 and 3 - I felt a year was too long.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I've always thought the best spacing was about a year, with a release at a specific time of year

I think that's Traditional Publishing.
I've decided I can't actually manage (time or money*) any faster than a month, even if there was a backlog of polished, proofed titles.
Obviously quality is important. But the more titles you have out there, I think they help each others visibility. There is also perhaps some extra value to a series (c.f The Chalet School, 59 to 61 books and even today a fanbase, vs. Angela Brazil's school books that are probably better. Or P.G. Wodehouse series vs separate comic novels)

For SF and F, there is too the investment by author and readers in the "world" (Ann McCaffery (Pern) Ursula Le Guin (Hainish), Raymond E Fiest, Terry Pratchett, C.J. Cherryh, Joan Aiken "JamesIII" etc, Niven (Known Space), Piers Anthony (Xanth) etc).

I'm aiming for 6 months between bk2 and 3

I may stretch out to that when I have 8 or 9 out. Probably extend from 1 month to 3 or 4 months after a few titles. They have to be at the point where I'm convinced there is nothing more I can do.
If I got widely popular (unlikely! ) then I'd hire someone to edit / proof / publish and concentrate on writing

[*I like to order a couple of the paper edition before they go on sale and hope they are "final" and not yet another proof! That's US$20 inc shipping]

 

[Brian G Turner]

I linked to a piece from Smashwords that basically said a new book every 3 months seemed to be the optimum for self-publishing - though the works tend to be shorter that trad pubbed novels.

Traditional publishing tends to ask for a full-length novel every year, as their optimum preference.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Traditional publishing tends to ask for a full-length novel every year

Smashwords / Mark Coker says 80K (which IMO is full length) is typical size of top sellers.
He advises against artificially chopping a 150K to 210K into 3 books of 50K to 70K.
He alleges 45K -50K is acceptable if it's a complete story.

Smashwords that basically said a new book every 3 months seemed to be the optimum

That's what I took also from what I read. Anyway, unless you have a big backlog written even achieving 3 months is a challenge, unless you are a pipeline with and editor / proofer etc assisting.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

For me, though, quality comes first. I can belt a book out - but it needs maturing time (I normally get around this by working at other stuff in between).

So, for instance book 3 of Abendau will come out this autumn. It was first written in 2014. It was revised after betas in 2015. It was revised by me once more after that. After my military scenes come back from my specialist beta, I will revise it again and spot some of the places where I'm missing the depth of emotion or description. Then Teresa will review it and it will pass between us and then Dusty will fine tune it so it's tight, tight.

I could not conceive, ever, of writing a book quicker than that. I could but it would be much, much weaker. I think there is more risk in going with every month or two and lowering the quality compared to a longer period that allows proper simmering time.

But, obviously, that's only me and my process.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

. I can belt a book out - but it needs maturing time

I agree.
I've found best to go and write something else and then re-read it and then what needs changed is more obvious.
Then leave it again and do something else. Currently I have two unrelated series and some standalone stories, one near ready to proof.


That's why I think as I use up my backlog (earliest is from 1994!) I may not even manage every six months as an outside limit.

Perhaps though with practice we will all get better. However I suspect I'm more at Enid Blyton or Derek Landy end of scale than Terry Pratchett, Mary Stewart, Ursula Le Guin ...

 

[Steve Wilson]

Certainly getting a clearer idea of how different the two publishing options (trad and self) really are as far as length and timing are concerned.
This does raise a question though: why the differences?
I'm guessing what Smashwords advise is based on stats, so I'll stick to that in my planning (a book every 3 to 6 months, between 50K and 100K words each).

As I'm quite a perfectionist and like to let things mature too (as you say Jo), and go over anything I write many times with some rest in-between each go at it (like you do I believe Ray), I'll probably wait until I have at least 3 titles (in a unique series) that I'm pleased with before publishing the first one. That should give me enough time to publish on a regular basis without risking to full behind on the schedule I hope.

Anyhow, I'll keep a close look at what you two are doing and learn from it.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Why the differences? Good question. I think part of it is that self publishing relies so much on Amazon - and keeping visibility in the rankings there is key. Too long between books and things start to die a bit.