It got big. Ever had to spit a book into a series?

[Karlie]

I've worked with some authors who have begun a book only to have it grow and grow in length.

Has anyone had experience with their word count ballooning to the point that it appears you don't have a single novel, you have a series?

How were you able to break down your first novel and plot idea into separate books in a series with their own distinct beginning and end?

[Riley, Viking Extraordinaire]

Yes, I have. That's Breath of the Titans: The False Titanbringer for me. I started out to write it as one book, and before I knew it it was a trilogy. Was a lot of fun to write though, so it didn't matter. As for how I broke them up, I just followed the typical book pattern. Build and build and build to a climax with a sharp drop off. Find one of those moments, and break the book there. Course, others will probably tell you more "Technical" ways to do it, but my thought is if it feels natural to you, it's probably natural. AND your book may not need to be split, even if it is three times as long as your average book.

[Martin]

My story turned into a trilogy with six additional related short stories.

[[deleted user]]

Yes. My novel got to 175k words and it was still growing. I had a decision, cut it down drastically or cut it in half. I chose the latter. What originally was thought to become a two-part series now is projected to be a trilogy.

Morris

[Michael]

I've just decided to do this with my work in progress, Under the Dark of the Moon. Right now it's just shy of 72K but considering what I want to do in the rest of the novel, I thought it would be better to break it up into smaller installments.

Now I just have to finish the novel.

[Karlie]

So it seems this is half way common. The question one author in particular was struggling with was where to split the work.

Do you have any advice for beefing up what you thought was a plot element in one complete novel into, say, a blockbuster climax for book one of a trilogy?

[Owen]

Karlie wrote: "So it seems this is half way common. The question one author in particular was struggling with was where to split the work..."

I have the impression, from reviews I've seen, that cliffhangers are not popular, especially when the work is by a new author. It seems to be better if the first book ends with a satisfactory resolution that points to the second book.

When the ending seems forced or abrupt, I see reviewers making comments about selling "half a book" and more than a couple of reviewer saying that can hurt.

It's also best to finish the whole thing and then release the installments around 4 months apart. Readers seem to like consistency.

[C.B.]

Had the same "problem" (really it's a good thing... an embarrassment of wealth). About 60% in, it looked like the damned story just wouldn't converge so I stopped and wrote the ending. After that, I adjusted the story trajectory and filled in the intermediate blanks (about four chapter's worth). Only way to get it under control.

That said, I still had a big story (185k words), but readers like thick juicy novels in my genre, Historical Fiction. Mebbe Romance should be juicy but not thick... Donno.

Editing for quality aside, I wouldn't cut a story down just to create a shorter book; 200k isn't outrageous these days (unless you're going POD perhaps). And definitely I agree with Owen, readers hate completus interruptus in their story line.

[Micah]

I actually considered doing the opposite with the first novel I wrote (unpublished).

It did turn out longer than anticipated, but nothing crazy. The second part to it was covering an 8-year period in which several of the main supporting cast went missing from the first book.

So it wasn't a prequel, nor a sequel...it was actually contemporary (or concurrent) to the main plot of the first book--a concurrquel?

So I often thought about putting both of them together into one big door stopper sized book. But I never finished book 2. And even if I had, I'd probably look at the combined book and realize I should split it into a trilogy!

[Iffix]

I had a slightly different problem. In the sequel to a novel I had written, I had two plots dueling for attention and becoming too complex for me to follow, so I split that sequel, and since my first novel hadn't yet been published, I split it in two for a comparative length. I liked the outcome personally, though the novella market probably harmed book sales. 5.99 wasn't a bad price for a novella but the shipping is killing my product. If you're main market is going to be Amazon or another online source, I'd recommend caution with shortening your book too much.

[[deleted user]]

$5.99 for a novella? How many pages? You mention shipping is killing your product, so I am assuming paperback, right? Do I take it that you are not doing an ebook version? If you are and need assistance, let me know and if I am interested, I'll help you.

Morris

[Iffix]

I also have an e-book version, but it's a little pricey, perhaps. I have it on the market for $2.99 (since Amazon rips away profits when you sell the book for cheaper than that, and I tend to think the book has a fair value). I'm more concerned I'm not marketing properly. If I could figure out how to target my niche, I might actually survive this author business. I have 4 more books on my agenda that don't have book covers, and sooner or later I'm going to have to start paying for them (since my artistic skills are limited.) And, by the way, just to gently put this thread back on topic, each time you split your book, these fees go up too.

[Owen]

Micah wrote: "I actually considered doing the opposite with the first novel I wrote (unpublished)..."

We did that on our third book. We had a main novel (120,000+ words), short novel/novella (~50,000 words) that follows months later in the plot line, and a plot thread that grew into a short novel/novella (unfinished at this point) that is contemporaneous with the main novel.

We couldn't figure out what to do. They are all quite different. We ended up bundling the novel and short novel/novella that follows it. We will be releasing the short novel/novella that is contemporaneous later. We did that mainly because short novels/novellas don’t seem to do well in many cases, and we didn’t want to price it at $0.99. We also felt that the main novel wasn’t going to be especially popular with many of our readers, but the novella would be. So we hoped they’d be stronger as a bundle.

I have no idea if this was a good plan. Reception has been mixed although it still sold pretty well. I think some people may have tended to ignore the second part (the short novel/novella) -- there’s a sense of that in some of the reviews. I think it was disconcerting to some people to have two such different stories released together.

Overall, I don’t think we’d try that approach again.

[R.]

That's why my 123k blockbuster was split into "Run from the Stars" and "Turn to the Stars".

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Karlie wrote: "Has anyone had experience with their word count ballooning to the point that it appears you don't have a single novel, you have a series?"

Sort of. Twice.

Once was back in the nineties when I really only wrote for myself. I began writing a novel about superheroes and the next thing I knew I had eight or ten novels. Or more. I don't recall. It became quite a saga.

More recently, I set out to write a book of one hundred short stories, each one thousand words. But, I decided to chop it up to six books of sixteen or seventeen stories each.

[C.B., Beach Body Moderator]

I don't balloon, I blimp!

- I had an idea for a 3000ish word short story written on a torn off piece of notepad paper.
- After a week of sitting on the counter that short story note had become a nine chapter book. 30,000ish words
- After five chapters of writing it became a three part epic fantasy series of approximately 500,000 words.
- Now it has plans to become a franchise. The second series has spontaneously started a spreadsheet on my computer and the third is floating around in space!