Prequel question

[Hannah]

For the longest time this book was listed as a stand-alone novel. However, it does have some shared characters with a trilogy. I meant to link to it today only to find that it had been added to the trilogy as book #.5. I'm confused; I thought we reserved decimals only for short stories/novellas?

Sweetbriar Cottage

[Olivia]

You are right.
Full length prequels should have #0.
Corrected

[Scott]

If it was the first one published, shouldn't it just be 1? It wasn't published later, so it's not a prequel.

[Hannah]

The publisher originally specified it as a stand-alone, so that may be why.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Scott wrote: "If it was the first one published, shouldn't it just be 1? It wasn't published later, so it's not a prequel."

Prequels don't have to be published later. They can be separate from the series sequence in many ways.