The Series Effect

It’s been a remarkable week. On Tuesday, A Killing in the Family reached the #1 slot on Amazon UK’s Cosy Crime chart. Then, yesterday, just for a few hours, The Haunting of Melmerby Manor hit the top spot on the British Horror chart, but this time it was in the USA.

Separate titles, separate genres, but they have one thing in common. They’re both single titles from series. Melmerby Manor is the first in the Spookies series of paranormal mysteries, and of course, A Killing in the Family is the twelfth title in the Sanford 3rd Age Club Mysteries.

The Sanford 3rd Age Club didn’t really take off until book 5, Murder at the Murder Mystery Weekend, and from there, things just exploded. At one point last year, all ten titles available at that time could be found in the Cosy Crime top 100.

The more surprising of this week’s hits is The Haunting of Melmerby Manor, first because it’s a bigger hit in the USA than it is in the UK, and second because it’s the first of a series. The second title, The Man in Black (cover pictured below) is not due out until November 27th.

I used to knock on doors for a double glazing company, making appointments for the salespeople. That was hard work. Selling books is damn sight harder. You’re competing with giants like Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, James Herbert and Stephen King, and you’re just one of millions vying for the readers’ attention.

Turning out a series makes life just a fraction easier. Not much, but a little.

There’s a sort windsweep effect with a series. Like a truck speeding past you, the wake ruffles your hair as if it’s trying to drag you along, well a new title in a series does exactly the same thing. Regular readers snap it up, but new readers take the title and they realise it’s only one of a dozen. Those who like the new title go back and pick up earlier volumes, and naturally, because it’s a series not a serial, all titles are stand alone; you can read them in any order.

But it ain’t easy. Good friend Carol Hedges blogged on the iniquities of writing a series and I have to agree with everything she says. You know your characters, but you have to ensure they don’t behave out of character, you’re constantly seeking new angles, new situations, and when you’re working as far down the line as I am with the Sanford 3rd Age Club Mysteries, there’s always the risk of boredom setting in.

But it’s worth it because the series effect is real. Between STAC #11 (Death in Distribution) and STAC #12 (A Killing in the Family) the series languished. As at this morning, there were no less than six of the titles in the cosy crime top 100, riding on the back of the new title’s success.

I’m looking forward to the release of The Man in Black to see what effect it has on sales of The Haunting of Melmerby Manor.