JoAnne asked Susan Mallery:

How do you decide to make a book a series vs. a stand alone? If you do decide on a series do you have an idea of how many books that will be? How much extra work is it to involve your fans in brainstorming some of the people, places and things for your books?

Susan Mallery Hi, JoAnne. The idea of writing a standalone does have some appeal. It’s a challenge to keep all the details straight in an ongoing series! That said, I do feel a lot of pleasure reconnecting with characters I love, and writing a series allows me to do that. Fortunately, my readers seem to love it, too!

I love finding ways to involve my fans in my books! (Anyone who wants to join the fun should be sure to like my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/susanmallery.) It’s not really extra work, just different work, mostly staying organized. My assistant helps a lot with that. When I ask my fans to help, I’m looking for something specific—for example, I asked my readers to name all of the businesses in Mischief Bay. That was a lot of fun, and all of those readers are mentioned in the acknowledgments of The Girls of Mischief Bay. They’re the Mischief Makers!

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