Of Sequels and Series

So I regularly get requests for sequels or addition to series, and in truth I want to write them. Recently Grog IV even got a four star review with a request for continuation of the Phantom Badgers or a sequel to Zerk.

Few of my books are written with the intention of being stand-alone novels, but as I grow a bit as a writer, I have to confront the facts: I will write one or two books per year, so I have to choose wisely.

The simple fact is that if I want my work to be read by the most people possible, I have to have my choices guided by shown interests. The sad truth is that more people have read Grog I (the first of the series) than all the Phantom Badger books combined. Zerk, for another example, has had less than a thousand readers.

Since the hard and fast rule is that each addition to a series or sequel will be read by roughly half as many people as the book before, continuing a series, or adding a sequel to an existing novel, where the preceding book had less than a thousand readers is a poor choice. The exception would be Floating Hunger, where the idea I had let me write it in just a couple months.

So while Dark Journeys and a Zerk II exist in my Projects folder, and get worked on when I have time, my focus must remain on series like Grog, whose readers are numerous enough to warrant the time, or on new novels who might catch the public’s eye in a way that my other books have not.

Now, my name is getting around enough so that every one of my 25 published books sees some sales every month (which was not always the case), so the situation is not static; as interest in several of my older books, the Phantom Badgers in particular, is steadily growing, and with it, my incentive to add another book to the series.

I’m not going to stop writing, so don’t give up on your favorites.

Although I should point out that The Zone, Chains of Honor, City of the Way, and Sunstone are single novels, and the Dream Trilogy is complete.