January 26th, 2010
Writing a series
Here are a few things to keep in mind when you are planning out or writing a series. While e-publishing has blasted through the genre barriers, it hasn’t touched demographic factors.
Age groups are based on cognitive ability and maturity. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but they are largely consistent regardless of economic and cultural background.
When you write a series your goal should be to create a following. A core group of people who enjoy the world you’ve built world and the characters within it. Ideally, they can’t wait for your next installment to read what happens next.
For a series, building an audience is very important. There are certain consistencies that must be observed. If you don’t satisfy your audiences expectations from one installment to the next, they will become frustrated and stop buying your books.
One way to ensure you keep your audience is to have a clear picture of who they are in your mind.
If your first installment in your series is written for teen boys who love science-fiction, make sure all your new stories in this series are written for them too. Even after your series is established, don’t mess around. You can add layers, but don’t sway from your original audience.
Think about Star Trek, the story lines are consistent and the audience’s expectations are met every time, regardless whether it’s a new TV series or feature length movie. Can you imagine what would have happened if the first Star Trek movie had an R rating – half of the established TV audience wouldn’t have been allowed into the theatres. The franchise would have suffered. (for the record it was rated PG for mild language)
Over the years, Star Trek’s target audience has changed slightly with each new spin-off series. Some are slightly darker, some focus on relationships more than the space adventure, but the core of the story has remained the same. The main factors that drew the original audience, is consistent with each new spin off.
Harry Potter is the same. Even though the characters have grown up, the books language and content have remained consistently targeted to a younger audience. You’ll recall, the young language it didn’t stop adults from reading it too, they knew what to expect and weren’t disappointed.
Jeffery Deaver is also very clear on who his audience is. Each time I pick up his newest Lincoln Rhyme mystery, it’s like I never left and the adventure continues.
This is good advice, even if you’re writing stand alone novels.
Make sure the language and storyline is consistent from start to finish. Even if your character ages, your audience won’t (at least within the few hours it takes them to read your book). Keep your language and level of mature content the same.
From a marketing perspective:
If you plan on writing several non-series books. Write the first few for the same audience, then once you’re established as an author, you can branch out to other genres and audiences.
In a series it’s normally not a good idea to branch out to different audiences – I can’t think of one instance where this has worked commercially.
I hope this helps
Sue