Timing the publishing of books in a series

[Nick]

Hi All,
I have been slaving away, hacking my saga into more digestible chunks.

Currently, I have the first volume John & Andy – Book 1 – An Ancient Arrival more or less ready to publish.

The next one John & Andy – Book 2 – Disappear in Darkness is not finished. If things go well and no major rewrites need doing, it will be ready in about 6 weeks.

Is there an ideal length of time between books1 and 2 being made available to readers ?

Has anyone left it several months between publishing consecutive books and then decided that was a bad move ?

There will be a Book 3, but that isn't written yet.

All the best, Nick

[Colleen]

Hello Nick, Congrats on the success of completing your first book. I've written two books and in both cases, it took longer to actually launch than I predicted. Re-writing is always part of writing. One of my books, Life Lessons From Lucy the Schnauzer, published on Amazon in November 2021 has a second book, which I am currently writing. www.colleenbooks.com. Because of illustrations, I'll not be publishing until May or so. I think this is a good length of time between books. Longer is ok too. Marketing before the book launch, time spent on marketing after the launch for your first book is perhaps where you want to put your energy. 6-8 months later, you'll be prepared to entice your readers with your second book. You can also spend time before the launch of your second book on marketing that one as well. Good luck.

[Nick]

Colleen wrote: "Hello Nick, Congrats on the success of completing your first book. I've written two books and in both cases, it took longer to actually launch than I predicted. Re-writing is always part of writing..."

Hi Colleen,
You've certainly been extremely busy, so thanks for taking time out to answer my query.

As I think I mentioned before, I am also doing some drawings to go with my book. I was extremely rusty, but have been doing some drawing most evenings with a view to completing around 10 pencil sketches of the characters in my story.

What is the ideal gap between first and second books being published seems to have no settled answer. Some people think it should be very short, or ideally the two books should both come out together.

All the best, Nick