Book 3 how much recap?

I don't think any recap is needed. People can usually discern what happened in the previous books just by reading through whatever what they have picked up. Granted, it will take longer. But if they're anything like me, they hate having recap dumped on them, regardless of whether or not they read the prior books. If you think telling what already happened is needed, I would try to keep it to a minimum. Just my two cents though.

J. K. Rowling was a genius with recap. Have a look at the first chapter or so of the second, third, fourth, etc. Harry Potter books. She very quickly, very cleanly sums up the previous book.

Yeah I think everyone does a tad of recap. The key is making it blend in like regular background info.

missesdash said:

Yeah I think everyone does a tad of recap. The key is making it blend in like regular background info.

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Agreed. Too much recap just gets boring.

Right now I'm working on book two of a series, and I'm pretending that book one is essentially backstory. Important to their motivations, but the reader only needs to know what is relevant to the characters at this moment.

Of course, once I try having someone to beta read it who hasn't read book one, I'll know how well that worked out.