Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Serieses!
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Re-Organising
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Why do you want to split?Do some books just belong to a second series?
Later books are better suited to a sub series of their own - a series that can be started independently
Books can be part of multiple series and spinoff series generally are (at least the first few books), so we could certainly add another series to the existing books that you are spinning off. However if they were published originally as part of the first series, they won't be removed from it. Books published only as part of the second series, would only have that series listed. Then if you want, we could create an overarching "World" series, that they all belong to.
Does that mean the existing series could become the overarching series and I could create two new sub series?
That would work pretty well too, I think.(My go-to example for sub-series inside larger series is Robin Hobb, if you like to see how it works. She has multiple trilogies, which each work fairly well if read in isolation, but they're all part of a larger universe and if all the series are read in order, they're all related.)
Took a look at Robin Hobb - and yes, that's the sort of thing I am after. So currently I have one series 'The Veil' which has four books and another coming. I would like the first three to be in one sub-series and the fourth to be the start of a another sub series.Question is - how to approach? Seems like the only option is to keep The Veil as the 'universe' series and create two new sub series. Is that right?
But how to I get readers to see primarily the two new sub series - in preference to the 'universe' series?
We can order them arbitrarily. The first one listed is the one that shows up linked in the title at the top of the page, so it has priority. The rest show under "More details" below the description (if you expand it), and there can be as many as you like - There are books that are part of 3 or more series even.
Generally we'd link on the series description page to the larger series too, so readers can find their way from one sub-series to another.
If you give us the names you are planning to use, we can set it up, and if it's not working, we can change it again.
Also, you get a bit of a pass on the "We can't change the series if they were already published that way", because I just investigated your covers and they don't have the series title on them.
So we could actually move Any Now to be the start of a new series, AND create a universe series that includes all four, and leave The Veil as books #1-3. You don't even have to be super creative about the names, since we're not bound by covers. Just call it "The Veil Universe", which includes the series "The Veil" + "New Series yet to be Named". Although I expect you can do better than that :)
So where I have ended up with this is two trilogies:The Veil: Seen And Not Seen - comprising Seen And Not Seen, A Child Of Our Time, and The Veil.
The Veil: Real And Not Real - comprising Any Now...and two others yet to come
The universe series would remain The Veil.
I have reorganized the titles on Amazon - though yet to get them to correct the actual series listing.
What steps do I need to take next to reflect this on Goodreads?
Thanks
Robert
How's this looking?The Veil: https://www.goodreads.com/series/1508...
The Veil: Seen and Not Seen: https://www.goodreads.com/series/2010...
The Veil: Real and Not Real: https://www.goodreads.com/series/2010...
That looks pretty goodCouple of oddities - Book 1 of the Seen And Not Seen sub-series has a semi colon in places:
The Veil; Seen and Not Seen, #1)
When you go to the book page, the title and series numbering looks good but within the detail you get a long winded series name like:
Series - The Veil: Real And Not Real #1, The Veil #4
...whereas I would prefer the universe number (i.e. The Veil #4) not to be called out. Is that possible?
Thanks
Robert
Fixed the semicolons. Re the detail, that's kind of the point of having it in both series, so readers can find it's placement.
The universe series can be unnumbered, but then there's no reading order at all, which is even more confusing for readers.
You have to be actually looking for that, to find the second (or more) series and have the detail view expanded (it is not by default), since the series is replaced in the title by the primary series listing. So if people are actually looking for it, why not let them find it?
Thanks for the semi colons.Re the reading order - I want to avoid readers thinking they must read all of one sub series in order to start the next sub series, as the way I have constructed them is to be broadly independent - at least for the first two trilogies, that is.
But at the same time I want them to know that there are other sub series in the universe.
It means there is more than one way in.
Regards
Robert
I think it' s better to just put that in the description on the series page. I can't tell you what to do with your books, if you want them unnumbered, I'll do that, I'm just giving you my opinion based on being a long time reader and GR librarian. I'd point again to Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings, which is exactly this situation: You can start with the Farseer Trilogy, or the Tawny Man, or The Liveship Traders, and each trilogy is a complete story of it's own. Reader's don't tend to find this too difficult to figure out, in my experience.The series descriptions are pretty bare right now, but they can be rewritten to anything you want too. Something like "The Veil series is numbered in internal chronological order, but the trilogies are complete stories that can be read in any order".
ok - I'll go with that and work on the descriptions - and take another look at Realm of Elderlings.Thanks
Robert
Is it possible to reorganize an existing series into two?
If so what would be the procedure to have it reflected in the book listsings and on my profile?
Thanks
Robert