At the Triskele LitFest
This post was updated in 2021.
It’s generally accepted that it’s easier to market a series of novels than separate, stand-alone ones.
It’s also more fun to write as you can introduce more entanglements and conflicts across several books. 😉
But if you already write a novel series you can expand their reach further by offering stories of different lengths and in different formats within the same series, such as short stories, novellas and box sets.
Nine reasons why
Assuming that you’re writing or plan to write a series of novels, think about this…
- Writing in short, medium and long forms is very good for your writing muscles. It challenges you to use different techniques and be agile in applying them.
- You will not only satisfy your fans with different and new offerings…
- …you can also target new readers with enticements.
- You can offer good reading at different price points and of different lengths. People can be money and time-strapped and offering that variety gives them access to your work.
- A varied offering catches all kinds of readers: those who are voracious and those who go at a gentler pace. Some haven’t stopped reading since early childhood, others are hesitant or returning readers. Some like short and sharp, others full immersion or listening rather than reading.
- Carefully co-ordinated with covers and blurbs, each item reinforces your brand.
- More products on a table (virtual or real) reassures readers they are buying from a serious, professional author.
- You can give away one smaller book and still leave plenty in your range to sell through.
- It can be economical for you as an author – a box set only has to be compiled not written.
Case study: my Roma Nova thriller series
When I started writing my first novel of 98,000 words, INCEPTIO, I had no idea it would generate two more. When I was writing the third, I then realised I had to explore the story of the younger version of an important secondary character. That became three more books. I ended up with over half a million words in two trilogies. The stories had sprung from my heart and imagination; I didn’t write them to make money. However, I’d run small businesses at different times before becoming a writer and the entrepreneurial instinct hadn’t faded. These six books which gave me so much pleasure were also products.
The Carina trilogy
I marketed INCEPTIO as a thriller featuring a female protagonist in a different, but modern Roman reality, but with many similarities to our timeline. Her story was one of self-empowerment – a strong theme. The second, PERFIDITAS, followed six months later as a sequel six years later. Nine months after that, I marketed SUCCESSIO as completing the trilogy and as revealing some of the secrets referred to in the first two books. All the novels stand by themselves, but I suggested (strongly) that reading all three would give the reader an enriching experience.
The Aurelia trilogy
After the fourth book, AURELIA, came out, I risked marketing it as a historical as it was set in the 1960s. It worked; it became one of four finalists in the 2016 Historical Novel Society Indie Award. Its two sequels, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, covered the dark days in Roma Nova in the early to mid-1980s. Altogether, that second trilogy covered backstory to the first and revealed and reinforced events in the first, so could be cross-marketed as a prequel trilogy.
Two Box Sets
As an experiment, I bundled the first three ebooks into a box set with the price at two-thirds of the individual books together.
Although a sensible decision as a marketing initiative, my fear was that it would cannibalise sales of the individual books. It did to some extent; in the first two months, the sales of the first three dropped by an averaged 50%, but income from box set sales more than made up for it. Now, they all make regular sales.
This has encouraged me to produce a second box set which will be out late November/early December to catch the pre-Christmas market.
Update: I did produce that second set and revised both sets in 2021 with new covers and to include the novellas, so readers now get four books in each collection, or ‘omnibus’.
Audiobooks
In 2016, Blake Friedman Literary Agency sold the first four books to Audible UK. Readers (Listeners?) tell me they listen on trains, at home and on holiday, but also switch between print books, ebooks and audio. And audio is reckoned to be the next biggest growth market…
Anthology story
Later that year, I was invited to contribute a Roma Novan story to 1066 Turned Upside Down, an collection of alternative outcomes of the 1066 Norman Conquest. I was known in the historical fiction community as an alternative history writer. They were all ‘proper’ medievalists, so the research was challenging. Writing short form dragged me out of my comfort zone, but it exposed my writing to a new audience. Result!
Since then, I’ve contributed to two more anthologies – one Roman (RUBICON) and one historical (Betrayal)
Novella
In the meantime, everybody seemed to be writing novellas, so I picked on an incident referred to but not described in my second book and turned it into a 35,000 story called CARINA, the character’s name. (I’d chosen that name for the heroine back in 2009 before Harlequin Mills & Boon used it as a brand!) That went out as a short, sharp read at £1.29/$1.49.
I admit that I wrote CARINA to market, as an enticement, although I did enjoy writing it. At first an ebook released in 2017, I used my newly acquired Vellum publishing software to produce a paperback April this year. Why? Firstly, fans asked me, and secondly, it’s a perfect giveaway. The glossy cover and distinctive eagle branding are immediately obvious and I’m not ‘sacrificing’ my main books.
So… now in the series, we have six full-length novels, two trilogies, contributions to multi-author anthologies and two novellas. What was missing?
Short Story Collection
Ah, yes, short stories. Heartened that I had got over the barrier of my short story reluctance with the 1066 Turned Upside Down contribution, I decided to put together a collection of moments and incidents outside the main stories.
Eight stories – four historical and four modern – they would be previously ‘hidden’ events, but still stories that could be read and enjoyed by new readers. Again, they would maybe draw in those new readers.
At 60,000 words, ROMA NOVA EXTRA went out in 2018 at £1.99/$2.99 (ebook). But I have not made the same mistake of delaying the paperback version; that just irritates fans. That’s available at £5.99.
In summary
To sum up in marketing-speak, “the supply of different and better goods allows for deeper fulfilment of consumption needs.”
In English, with variety, you are handing choice to the reader who is, of course, is the most important person in this whole scenario.
Based on a post written for the Alliance of Independent Authors’ blog
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Addendum: A few weeks after writing this, I decided, for marketing reasons (of course) to change the book covers. You’ll now find them looking like this:
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers.
Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.
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