Doris Lee asked Grace Burrowes:

Dear Grace, why is it that you've announced your more recent series as trilogies, only for them to expand? The MacGregors, the True Gentlemen and the Jaded Gentlemen series have all started out as trilogies, yet they have either added a fourth book or are about to do so. Maybe you should hold off deciding on the number of books for each series until the first three have come out to avoid length-based expectations :(

Grace Burrowes Interesting point! I can't say a reader has EVER complained because I've added to a popular series, which might be why this never occurred to me. Part of the issue is that with the MacGregors and the True's the publisher decides how to position them, and whether to call them a series of unspecified total or a trilogy. I don't have immediate plans to add to the True's, and in the case of What A Lady Needs, the decision to add a Christmas book to the MacGregors was made in conjunction with my publisher.

Trilogies are extremely popular these days, so even the decision about what to call the "set of books" can affect its sales. If the series is called a trilogy, readers grasp the concept. If the series is called, "connected books, total not yet decided," they'd probably not be as enthusiastic.

Then too, I don't know which worlds are going to expand, and which aren't. Noah was my only true stand-alone, and readers immediately asked for his sisters' stories. I did not foresee that. I would not have known to call him even, "First in a series, total not yet specified, and I'm not sure when the rest are coming out, either." So I'm left having to revise my series totals in hindsight as the least cost alternative.

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