A cautionary tale…osmosis isn’t always the ‘serie-s’ way
to go!
By Nancy Jardine
The last time I visited this blog, I was writing about Agricola’s Bane, Book 4 of my Celtic Fervour Series (Saga), but today I’d like to offer some insights into what to avoid when needing to market multiple related novels.
Some seasoned authors, and perhaps wise newbies, plan
a perfect book series well in advance of writing Book 1. Others, new to the
profession, have only one book in their sightline. With personal hindsight,
that isn’t the best strategy because “There
may be trouble ahead…” The following may hopefully forewarn new authors
that some choices made can be good marketing ones, other less so. But what YOU
want to write really is important!
Picture this – A historical Novel. Late 1st Century
A.D. setting, North Roman Britain location. When Ancient Roman Legions invade
their territory, members of a Late Iron-Age tribe become refugees, the story
told from a Celtic perspective rather than Roman.
During my last teaching year (2011), I became aware of
how difficult it was to get historical fiction traditionally published. Though,
I also learned it was easier to get a historical romance published by an ebook
publisher. Hefty revisions changed my original story to having a central
romance between Brigante Lorcan of Garrigill and Nara of the Selgovae tribe,
without reducing my main historical content. A New York State ‘Romance Only’
ebook publisher rejected the manuscript but gave me a long list of improvements
which, if done, would more likely satisfy their publishing criteria. I was so
excited, I might soon be published!
Caution A!
Don’t be in too big a hurry to be published.
I ‘ramped up the sexual content’ as required but
minimising the roles of my strong secondary characters, and clawing back on the
historically accurate settings to make it fit that publisher’s ‘house style’
and book length, I found, didn’t appeal.
My manuscript by then wasn’t my initial conception of
a historical novel. However, undaunted by the hybrid that my fabulous story now
was, I submitted it to a Scottish-based publisher who published multiple
genres. To my utter euphoria The Beltane
Choice went through editing and publication stages in 2012, and the first
reviews trickled in. One was 5* glowing in the way every author loves – highly
praising the character portrayals (main and secondary); authenticity in
historical details; and the underpinning romance. A huge shock, though, was
being asked how long the reader had to wait for Book 2 of the series. In all my
to-ing and fro-ing, a Book 2 hadn’t yet entered my mind.
My publisher was highly encouraging. Brennus of
Garrigill, brother to Lorcan, was perfect for Book 2. Though for Brennus’ a
relatively simple historical romance just wouldn’t suit. His story involved
much more interaction with Ancient Roman characters, brought in much more
military strategy on the part of both the Romans and the ‘Celts’ –– it had a
completely different tone from Book 1. Brennus’ story revolved around three
main characters and was told from three viewpoints – two Celtic and one Roman.
When submitted, the manuscript was deemed too long with a word count of above
110, 000. The publisher suggestion was to make Brennus’ story be over two books
with an intention to have both of them be stand-alone novels but this didn’t
really work, though we strove for this. It was decided that a part of the title
of Books 2 & 3 needed to have something in common so After Whorl: was inserted before the rest of the title – the Whorl referring to the battle at the end
of Book 1 which was catastrophic for Brennus. A disclaimer was inserted at the
end of Book 2 that Brennus’ story carries on in Book 3, a factor which doesn’t
please some readers of ‘series’ books. After publication day, marketing the
books became a huge challenge. A few reviews trickled in, all thankfully highly
complimentary, but indicating that the books really do need to be read from the
beginning to appreciate what’s happening to my Brigante Garrigill clan.
Brennus does get an HEA romantic ending at the end of
Book 3, though it’s subdued because by then a huge battle confrontation is
being enacted between the Ancient Roman Legions and the Caledonian Allies,
which my refugee Garrigill warriors have joined. The main theatre of action at
the end of Book 3 is barbarian northern Caledonia (currently North East
Scotland), the progress of General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola’s campaign having
reached there (in historical reality, Agricola’s campaigns from N England to NE
Scotland took around thirteen years and my time-lapse reflects this).
In marketing terms what was being presented? It
couldn’t be called a Historical Romance series because Book 2 had no HEA
ending. So, it was marketed as a Historical Romantic Adventure Series since it
truly did have all of those component parts across the books.
Book 4, told over multiple viewpoints (Roman and
Celtic), has morphed all of the books into a continuing Historical Family Saga
set in Ancient World surroundings, with older members like Lorcan and Nara of
Book 1 now in the background with second generation mid-teens becoming the main
protagonists.
The whole set of novels are historically as accurate
as I can make them using the most up-to-date archaeological record that I can
lay hands on. Does Book 4 have a more definite ending? No, because the story of
young Beathan, the baby born in Book 1 to Lorcan and Nara, still has much more
of his prophesised future to be revealed in the final Book 5. The set of four
books are currently self-published with Ocelot Press and marketed as a
historical Saga.
Will it be any easier to market the set when Book 5 is
published sometime in early 2020? Time will tell, but as an author I’ve learned
a lot, I believer my writing skills have grown a lot and…best of all, I’m
writing what I want to write.
To date, I’ve sold hundreds of my paperback novels at
Craft Fair and Event venues across my home area of Aberdeenshire. But that’s
probably because, face to face, I’m able to make sure my customers realise the
importance of beginning at the beginning to get the best reading experience of
what is a set of highly different, yet extremely interrelated novels. It’s so
brilliant when they sell, though a drawback is that they never write reviews in
useful places like Amazon or Goodreads.
Caution B:
If there’s a chance a new author might want to create
a series, make sure to know: Is it going to be a family saga over a number of
decades involving lots of family members? Will the books have an
interconnecting theme but with different characters majoring in each book? Will there be a series of events happening to
one character across multiple books?
Why? What you have might not actually be a ‘series’.
It’s all about that marketing, because if you don’t get it right “There may be trouble ahead…” with
selling to book buyers.
If anyone reading this has a really brilliant idea of
how I can best market my Celtic Fervour
Saga when 5 books are on offer – please tell me!
Thank you Mary-Anne, for allowing me to share my publication
journey with your readers!
Pick up
your copy of
The Celtic
Fervour Saga
Or Read for
FREE with
Nancy Jardine
Nancy Jardine writes contemporary mysteries;
historical adventure fiction and time travel historical adventure. Writing is
squeezed in between regular grandchild minding and messy gardening. She’s a
member of the Romantic Novelists Association, the Scottish Association of
Writers, the Federation of Writers Scotland and the Historical Novel Society.
She’s self-published with Ocelot Press.
Some very good advice here, Nancy, thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. There's no one best route to publishing but if pitfalls can be avoided, then best to know early enough.
ReplyDeleteThank you for inviting me today, Mary Anne. It's always a pleasure to join you.
ReplyDeleteSome interesting points on how a series can evolve in unexpected ways. My historical novella, 'Abandoned' (2015) was never intended to be the start of a series, but I became so engrossed in my reading around the subject of life in post-Roman Britain and how that fed into Geoffrey of Monmouth's Uther and Arthur stories, that I ploughed on with books two and three, before returning to book one and extensively re-writing it (doubling its length) and re-launching it as a second edition. I feel vindicate as I have created an extensive family backstory for Arthur, and by doing so, hopefully I've imbued my Arthur with an element of historical realism. But yes, it always starts with one idea and one book.
ReplyDeleteIt does, Tim. I've read the original but not your 2nd edition...yet!
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