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Sequels and prequels and sequels, oh my!

Toto Too

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So I've been told, by people I trust, that many (most?) agents and publishers will reject manuscripts, especially from first-time authors, if there is not an obvious lead-in for sequels.

I actually find this troubling. My WIP is a self-contained story, and it's that way by design. And being honest, I'm more than a little exhausted by everything these days being franchises, trilogies, sequels and prequels, and on and on and on. What ever happened to just telling a good story, with a beginning, middle, and end?

I get the financial reasoning. And we all need to eat. But are we really at the point where an author has lost the power to write a self-contained novel, and expect to get it published?

And on the other side - do today's readers become angry if a book comes to a conclusion without teasing a sequel?

Just curious to read what people think about this. :e2coffee:
 

Harlequin

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Says who? What citation?

I'm not trying to be arsey, but honestly, anyone can say anything and it's meaningless unless they have experience or authority on the matter, and some kind of proof. Kameron Hurley said recently on twitter that she's not working on series atm because standalones are more popular. I expect the pendulum swings back and forth.

I personally would have thought writing a standalone is great if you're trying to break into writing, because (to my mind) there's less risk entailed, but I'm nobody and that's pure opinion on my part.
 

Toto Too

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Appreciate the feedback! The references I'm talking about are people I have met personally. One has been published, one is self-published, and one other had previously done work as an agent. The common suggestion was that if a book does not show the potential for becoming a series, agents and publishers are far more likely to dismiss it.
 

Horserider

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I think this depends heavily on the market and genre that you're writing in. For instance, I highly doubt anyone is rejecting YA contemporary for not being a lead-in for a series. However, I went to a conference last fall with a panel of agents that expressed the same thought when it came to YA fantasy.
 

Hbooks

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I would guess (disclaimer: I'm no expert) this probably differs somewhat by genre. I don't recall coming across a series of memoirs. Surely someone must have written one, but I imagine in that genre, stand-alones are much more common. In romance, series are quite popular, and I have seen publishers put out calls for manuscripts with series potential. But plenty of stand-alones get published in romance all the time as well.
 

Harlequin

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Self published is all about backlog. If you want to make money as an indie then yes it's considered better to have loads of series. Saves time in fantasy etc re world building and romance readers enjoy some character continuity.

Trade publishing seems to place a lot of emphasis on blockbuster standalones, though. A single novel is less daunting to casual readers and the returns from a series go down with each book (less and less follow to the end with each installment). A single novel is arguably more marketable.

But again, I am just a random on the net.

If you like your book standalone, write and pitch as that.
 

Toto Too

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I should have clarified! YA fantasy.

Appreciate everyone's feedback. I'm definitely not changing the story. The thing is, I expect to make precisely zero dollars on this venture, so, paradoxically that gives me a lot of power. I have nothing to lose.:) But despite my low expectations, I do plan to pitch it eventually, so that led to my curiosity about whether or not this was really a thing.
 

Old Hack

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I've never come across an agent or editor in any genre who rejected work which didn't have series potential.

However, most agents and editors prefer to work with writers who have more than one book in them. It's much better to establish a stable of successful writers than it is to have to keep looking for new clients all the time.
 

Sage

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If you have a standalone book and they want sequels, they'll ask you to write a sequel. It won't keep that book from being published.
 

Enlightened

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This has nothing to do with the topic question, but I wanted to share a thought (for those reading sometime later).... I am unpublished, and I start my first book next month.

My original, standalone book was okay (plot, characters, and setting). It wasn't until I developed a series out of it, and developed some plot and pinch points (before and after the first book takes place), that my first book became much stronger than it was to begin with. It forced me to develop more of the submerged iceberg of iceberg theory. This is not always a good thing though. I created a potential of two series, same setting, following two groups of MCs. If one does poorly, I have the other to pitch. It's fun, to me, because I can make friends between the groups who can assist one another during fights with shared villains and beasts. Try-fail cycles can collide between the two.

If asked for a series, I definitely have one in place (with lots of evidence in book one that is the goal, but the first book will be a standalone).

I like to start something new with daunting challenges, so I went overboard on this. I think a little pre- and post-development is a good thing (for a standalone). It can be used to pitch a sequel or a prequel, if requested.
 

Elle.

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Agents and publishers will publish a book because they believe it's great and they believe they can sell it and make money out of it, regardless if it's standalone or a series. Also following that logic of only interest in series then pretty much no general fiction or literary fiction would ever get published.
 

Hbooks

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"I should have clarified! YA fantasy."

I have no knowledge what this would mean from an agent's perspective, but much of what is currenlty coming out in that genre is part of a series.
 

Will Collins

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Yep, I've definitely heard agents like YA fantasy books to have series potential. It isn't a deal-breaker though. I'd just go with whatever you think best. YA standalones will still get noticed if they're brilliant.
 

JJ Crafts

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This is really strange. Everything I've read so far has said that agents rather your book is a standalone as publishers are more likely to take a gamble on a debut author if it's self contained rather than a series that might not sell. Honestly, it has been freaking me out seeing as the fantasy book I'm writing definitely is not a standalone. I guess that just proves you'll hear different advice because all agents are different.
I definitely don't think a book being standalone would hamper you as long as you had other projects planned. I've read agents like to know they're repping someone who has potential. But it doesn't have to be the same series just another book.
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

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This is really strange. Everything I've read so far has said that agents rather your book is a standalone as publishers are more likely to take a gamble on a debut author if it's self contained rather than a series that might not sell. Honestly, it has been freaking me out seeing as the fantasy book I'm writing definitely is not a standalone. I guess that just proves you'll hear different advice because all agents are different.

There's a difference between something that has the POTENTIAL for a series, and a book that is not self contained and therefore REQUIRES the sequel in order to finish the story, i.e. a duology or trilogy. Agents love the former, because it means if the book sells, there's more golden eggs in that goose. But they will likely auto-reject the latter from a debut author, because it's higher risk, lower marketability.
 

indianroads

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This thread is really interesting. I really learn a lot here at AW. I read a lot of scifi and there days it seems to me that most of what I see are series. I have nothing to prove this, it's just my observation.

I'm currently writing the first of a series of 5 scifi novels. Each is a separate that fit together to paint a larger story. I'm self publishing, so I guess I'm fine. Honestly I never considered the questions raised here.
 

ikennedy

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Some publishers that I've seen say on their website when you submit a manuscript: is this part of a series? Or something similar.
My stories are in a series. Currently it consists of 3 novels with more coming. I ended up self publishing (I went with self publishing first, rather than trying to find a publisher and getting rejected. I wanted to get my universe out there rather than wait years.)
Self publishing can be useful as it gives you full control. But returning to the question: yes I have seen a number of sites ask for whether it's a series. Some do, some don't. I'd recommend researching the websites of where you would like to submit.
 

JJ Crafts

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There's a difference between something that has the POTENTIAL for a series, and a book that is not self contained and therefore REQUIRES the sequel in order to finish the story, i.e. a duology or trilogy. Agents love the former, because it means if the book sells, there's more golden eggs in that goose. But they will likely auto-reject the latter from a debut author, because it's higher risk, lower marketability.

Well I guess I'm screwed then. Ah well. I'll try anyway and keep my fingers crossed.
 
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DanielSTJ

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It makes a lot of sense to me that agents/publishers would not want to invest in a series from a debut author. Like mentioned, it has too much liability-- so many things can go wrong.
 

BethS

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The common suggestion was that if a book does not show the potential for becoming a series, agents and publishers are far more likely to dismiss it.

OK, that's based on the opinion one published writer, one writer who chose to self publish, and one former agent. That doesn't make a consensus, much less anything statistically significant.
 

BethS

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Most books in a series are standalone to a point, insofar as they have a resolution. Very few cut off mid-story like LOTR does.

Actually, that's becoming more and more common. I just finished a debut fantasy that is the first in a trilogy. And it was definitely not a stand-alone. It ended rather like A Game of Thrones--with the world gone to pieces and all the characters in big trouble.
 
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Aggy B.

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There is a difference between series potential and series-required. My agent had me rewrite part of a MS because it ended on a cliffhanger and he said that would be a more difficult sell (for a debut novel) than finding a home for the resultant, much-longer MS. (Went from 88k to 136k.) That's based on the editors he intended to pitch to and what he feels they want.

As pointed out above, most agents and editors prefer to find authors who can produce more than one book. (I mean, Harper Lee was great and all, but most of us are not her so two books published over the course of 50-60 years will not cut it.) Writing a standalone novel is great, but be prepared that most agents and quite a few editors will want to know what else you are working on so it doesn't hurt to have another pitch or two lined up. (Or another, separate novel waiting in the wings.)