Question for series writers

[Heidi]

For those of you who write or have written a series, how do you go about promoting it? So far, all I have written is 4 (and a partial) books in a series, but I feel like I can only promote book 1 since the others won't make sense without it. But I feel like I've put every spin on it I can think of. The 5th and final book in the series will be finished sometime this year, but I don't know the best way to promote it (or the previous 3 for that matter) since book 1 really remains unknown. Those who have read it say they enjoyed it, but I can't seem to reach a wider audience with it. It's as if I'm writing book 5 mostly for myself and my 3 beta readers.

[[deleted user]]

I haven't written any series, but I would think the best way to promote the other books is to promote them as a series. For example, the second book you could promote like: Check out my book "Title of Book 2" second book of the "Series Name" Series! That way your potential buyers know that it's the second book in a series and may look up book one to check it out as well.

I hope that makes sense....

[Virginia]

Do you have a mailing list? Have you considered offering up the first book for free to people who sign up for a mailing list? Maybe even the first two books? Then maybe discount book three/four and finally, when book five comes out offer up some additional bonus material (or additional discounts) to the folks on your mailing list to accompany buying book five. This should drum up more interest in your work and increase the number of people who are interested in the series.

I hadn't realized how important a tool mailing lists were for promotion until I watched a few tutorial videos on them. Now I'm slowly working on growing mine. I haven't gotten far enough with mine to make a huge difference yet, but I'm preparing to launch the 2nd book in a series in May and getting ready to use a similar strategy. I hope that's mildly useful to you. If you don't have a mailing list at all yet, consider signing up for mail chimp (free until you have more than 2000 subscribers) and using the "sign up" call to action button on your facebook author page. Mark Dawson offers up some great free videos on how to grow one's list: here

That is 110% of what I know about that topic. ;-) Good luck!

[George]

I just finished the fifth book in my series of the detective and the priest. I wish I knew the answer to your question. I dealt with each book separately so the reader need not have read the previous books. Some readers who like the book they were reading went back to read the others. Each of my books I have tried to make a stand-alone book. They each have a beginning, middle, and end. The end could be the end, or, in my case, the next book continues where the last one left off. I think a mailing list is a great idea, but I don't know what mail chip is and I only have a dozen or so emails of potential readers. This may not help, but if it's any consolation I feel a lot of writers face the same problem. Good luck and Happy New Year!

[Emma]

Firstly, your series doesn't look like a series, The covers don't match and you haven't got them listed as a series on goodreads. It may well be that people haven't worked out there are other books.

Giving the first few chapters of the next book, or the blurb in the back helps, as does adding the purchase links to the next book.
Although each of my series has far more reviews on book one than the later books, the read through rate is quite good. The majority of people that read book one, go on to read the rest.

[Zee]

Can you make Book1 permafree? It's what I did with my trilogy once the 3rd book came out. No other promo, and it's been driving sales to Book 2 and then book 3 without me doing anything else so far. Add the first chapter or end with the start and a cliffhanger of the next book at the end of Book1 - this gets readers hooked and makes them impulse buy the next book. You can also offer to get them book2 or 3 for free if they sign up for your mailing list, and if they've already signed up, you could ask them to get in touch at a form you create with a discount code/coupon created just for them. Hope this helps!

[Colin]

I have started a series, The German Aces Speak, two of my dozen books written. I am also starting an American WW II version, all based upon my interviews. Website is www.lewisheatonbooks.com and books are available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. We sell signed copies from our website.

[Emma]

Colin, this wasn't an advertising thread. The OP was asking for promotion tips for series.