YA Series - Questions

I think it's hard to talk about Gossip Girl because that was done by a book packager, so that publication process would have been entirely different than what you would have to go through. The Hunger Games was probably pitched as a trilogy all along, but Suzanne Collins was already an established writer when the books were picked up.

I think it would be best for a new author to start with one finished, stand-alone manuscript and mention that it "has series potential" or that you intend it to be a series in the query.

Write a strong first book and mention it could become a series. Don't try to write the whole series and then sell it. If it turns out you can't sell it anywhere, you'll just have wasted a lot of time and effort.

kcallender:
What would the required lengths for one book in a multi-book series be? If you know you want to write a series like this, how do you query? Do you query for the whole series, with one complete manuscript and a proposal? Just a proposal? How does this work?

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Unless you've already been commercially published and it's gone well, you can't query a series from scratch. The process is exactly the same as for any other YA novel - you need to make sure it's a well-written, stand-alone story but in the query letter you say that there's a potential for a sequel or series (mention how many books you envisage).

Word count is anything between 45,000 and 120,000 as for normal YA novels.

MM

I think it's hard to talk about Gossip Girl because that was done by a book packager, so that publication process would have been entirely different than what you would have to go through.

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Yes, this. There's a big difference between big series put together by packagers (Gossip Girl, Sweet Valley High, Nancy Drew, Goosebumps) and things like Hunger Games or other sets that were sold by an author.

If you're looking to sell your own series, the PP is right; you have to start with one book with series potential (Gregor the Overlander, while not YA, was like this, and I think there were 5 books in that series?).

If you want to work with a book packager, well, I'm not exactly sure how that works, but I think in those cases the concept belongs to the packager, and you are writing what they've specifically contracted you to write.

"This book has series potential." That's the phrase that pays. Agents and publishers love a good series, but it has to be good. And nobody reads a series unless that first book is good. So, concentrate on number one, make it amazing, and make it stand alone if possible. If it sells well...series!

And what about "true series"? When the first book isn't truly a stand alone book because the main issue is arching over the whole trilogy/whatever, so it can't be resolved in book one. Are they better left to established authors who already have something published in the target genre?

Windcutter said:

And what about "true series"? When the first book isn't truly a stand alone book because the main issue is arching over the whole trilogy/whatever, so it can't be resolved in book one. Are they better left to established authors who already have something published in the target genre?

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Unfortunately, yes. It DOES happen for new authors, but it's really, really hard. (Honestly, it's hard for established authors too--especially in contemp.)

Like everyone else has said, it is best to write just the one and if you plan to do more write the ideas down so you don't forget them but start your next project so you aren't tied down to one novel too much.

Shady Lane said:

Unfortunately, yes. It DOES happen for new authors, but it's really, really hard. (Honestly, it's hard for established authors too--especially in contemp.)

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Interesting, and then we have all those paranormal/fantasy trilogies. Though maybe I'm too strict in my definition of series?

Windcutter:
Interesting, and then we have all those paranormal/fantasy trilogies. Though maybe I'm too strict in my definition of series?

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But those trilogies almost all start with a self-contained book and for publishers to buy them, there will usually be a synopsis and sample chapters for the remaining two. As such, publishers know what they're getting in advance.

I share an agent with an author who got a 5 book fantasy/horror series, but that still needed a self-contained first book and decent proposal and that was, I believe, only developed after he secured representation.

MM

My experience with series writing was a little different, but then--well, I'm weird.

I have two YA series, Reality Shift and The Dark Lines. Both are being published by Jupiter Gardens Press, a small press. I'd already written the first drafts of all the books in both series, not so much to ignore the advice of "write and sell the first book, then worry about the rest" as because I wrote many of them toward the end of and in the aftermath of a nasty marriage, and I needed some distraction.

Both series were sold to Jupiter Gardens by sending a proposal for the entire series along with the manuscript of the first book. That is not the way it usually works for series! I kind of back-doored into it because I'd already been published by a romance publisher that's under the same umbrella, so to speak, as Jupiter Gardens, so the company owner knew me and knew I could deliver what I promised. Also, because it's a small company and was just branching out into YA, they were willing to take a chance where larger publishers or those more established in YA fiction might not have been.

The advice in this thread is sound, and I would follow it if I were working on a new series.

Becca C. said:

I think it's hard to talk about Gossip Girl because that was done by a book packager, so that publication process would have been entirely different than what you would have to go through. The Hunger Games was probably pitched as a trilogy all along, but Suzanne Collins was already an established writer when the books were picked up.

I think it would be best for a new author to start with one finished, stand-alone manuscript and mention that it "has series potential" or that you intend it to be a series in the query.

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That's what I was going to bring up about GG. Alloy series rarely start as newbie authors querying and then getting deals. Don't make the series the focus of your query.

kcallender said:

Hey everyone!

Could anyone give me some information on writing a YA series? Gossip Girl, for example. What would the required lengths for one book in a multi-book series be? If you know you want to write a series like this, how do you query? Do you query for the whole series, with one complete manuscript and a proposal? Just a proposal? How does this work?

And then, is there a difference between Gossip Girl (with many books in the series) and, say, Hunger Games (with only three-four books in the series)? If it's a shorter series, is there a difference with the querying as well? For example, would all of the manuscripts be expected with a proposal?

Thanks!

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This is exactly how I began with the mindset like this. I've gotten advice from a lot of sources and have just put aside my other WIPs in the series I've started with the book I'm querying. I've put my energy into that one book and made sure that it could stand alone but I'm hoping like crazy that I get the offer for a novel series. I thought about going Gossip Girl length, but that's a pipe dream. GG is also with the Alloy packaging. It's alright to think of the book as the first in the series, but make it a stand-alone on paper to others. Fingers crossed! Pitch the first book only and put all the effort into it and then only mention that it possibly has a series following.