Miniseries: Maximum Payback
Benefits
of a Miniseries:
q
Each book is promo for other
books.
q
Creative opportunities to
hook readers on upcoming characters and/or enjoy “epilogue” style moments for
previous characters.
q
The longer length of a
series gives you room to explore deeper backstories with characters as their
conflicts build over several books.
q
Promoting a series is
cost-effective because it’s easy to advertise several books at
once.
q
Writing is easier when you
have recurring characters or recurring settings with which you are already
familiar.
q
Readers love
series!
Potential
Drawbacks:
q
If your series tanks, you
don’t have just one book with poor sales… you have
several!
q
Possibility of being
pigeonholed.
q
Locking yourself into a
series could constrain your Muse and make her—and you!—cranky.
q
Releasing series books close
together can give you great short term sales, but can create a more crunched
writing schedule with longer lapses between releases before and
afterward.
Ongoing
No
predetermined number of books.
Usually author-driven (Catherine Mann’s Wingmen Warriors,
Alexandra Sellers’ Sons of the Desert), but can also be an ongoing
miniseries with multiple authors in a line like The Wrong Bed in
Temptation, which moves to Blaze in 2005.
o
Pros: Individual author’s
ongoing series allows creative freedom to add characters to an extended
community familiar to readers. A line miniseries like The Wrong Bed
allows authors to contribute to an already popular product with built-in
readership.
o
Possible
Cons: If an
author wishes to walk away from an ongoing series for contractual reasons, there
may be remaining characters that she cannot take with her.
Continuity
Developed in house by the
editorial staff or freelance writers, continuities are long (a year or more)
miniseries with multiple authors contributing. Can be in line or out of line. Examples:
Code Red, Montana Mavericks, Athena Force, Family Secrets, Dynasties: The
Ashtons.
o
Pros: Allows authors to
participate in a well-advertised product with other authors who each bring their
individual readerships to the larger series. Necessitates working with other authors,
which can lead to useful and fun networking.
o Possible Cons: Your assigned storyline might not resonate with you personally. Occasionally, working with other authors can lead to thwarted creativity when participants don’t share your vision.
Finite number
of books planned out in advance.
Trilogies are popular, but other formats are possible. Can be cross-line (Joanne Rock’s
Single in South Beach) or in-line (Jennifer Greene’s Scent of
Lavender).
o
Pros: Creative
freedom!
o Possible Cons: You’ve only got your name to rely on.
Finite number of books in a series with multiple authors
contributing. This kind of
miniseries is plotted and pitched by the authors. Examples: Lock n Key in Blaze
o
Pros: Other authors bring new
readership to your work. More
creative brainstorming power.
o
Possible Cons:
Must play
nice and work for the greater good.