If you are planning to submit your first novel are you prepared?

It doesnt seem that uncommon. I'm a bit worried about what the next book is going to be, my current one could be a series. Oh god... I don't want to think about that.

I think we write because we enjoy it and fall in love with our story. It's possible to only have one in you, but I don't think that is common.

Here's my experience. I started to write a novel expecting it to be one long book.
Then, as I wrote chapters, and extrapolated my writing style, chapter length, things to write about etc. I was able to prove empirically that it was going to be 2 books.
Then it expanded to 3 books, then 4. Now it is at 5. Now...I am totally confident that I have enough material for 5 books. I have all of the outline work done to show that.
I decided that I have enough material going in different directions for more books, those will be spin-offs or novelettes.
I will probably be self-publishing, but I think the best way to answer the question about sequels is to have done some work to show if there is enough to write about to generate a sequel. Doing that for my first pentalogy demonstrated it, and I am also fairly confident that I can create 5 substantial books. Now, will they, in aggregate, be any damn good? Well, that's a whole other question.

I write historical novels and they take SO long to research and write! I would need a team like James Michener to write one in less than four years! I have an idea for historical novel #3 but I don't know if I have the energy. I may focus on writing articles and short stories instead of full length HF.

Books are usually "two book deals" these days unless you REALLY say you have a third book in you. Or a fifth. Whether it's series or standalone you'll work out with the agent, and honestly, they'll completely be able to tell just by reading it what sort of book it'll be.

You can make it so there's no time limit on the second book - the publisher will take a look whenever it's ready, and it's sometimes a "right of first refusal', which means they'll only publish one book.

(Mind you, I was given set dates for the next four years, yay/groan me.)

I feel kind of the same way about my fantasy series. I'm a little nervous for book 3 because I'm not sure what to do with it, but I have a basic plan for book 2 (which I'm working on) and book 4, which is the grand finale. I know that there's going to be a big showdown in book 3, but aside from that it's a mystery. I'm not TOO worried about it, though. I never outline my books so...it'll come to me.

The novel I have going on sub soon is the first in a potential fantasy trilogy, but it's also designed to function as a standalone story if need be, so there are sequel hooks included but no huge cliffhanger. The sequels are already more or less planned out (the second is actually about 2/3 drafted) and more tightly connected, similar to the New Hope -> Empire -> ROTJ progression.

abdall said:

I feel kind of the same way about my fantasy series. I'm a little nervous for book 3 because I'm not sure what to do with it, but I have a basic plan for book 2 (which I'm working on) and book 4, which is the grand finale. I know that there's going to be a big showdown in book 3, but aside from that it's a mystery. I'm not TOO worried about it, though. I never outline my books so...it'll come to me.

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This is an older thread, but since it wasn't really mentioned earlier in it:

I think far, far more writers head out on this path, and write multiple books in a series. Often, they don't properly stand alone and become very difficult sells as a result. If book one doesn't sell, there won't be a book two, or three, or four.

There are definitely one-hit wonders. One of my favourites is the guy who wrote the music for the musical Les Miserables, which is brilliant, only he never quite achieved anything else even close. Sometimes it just happens that way. But that's largely something to worry about later, if you worry about it at all. All you can do is write, after all. And far more writers trip up by trying to do too much than by doing too little.

VeryBigBeard said:

This is an older thread, but since it wasn't really mentioned earlier in it:

I think far, far more writers head out on this path, and write multiple books in a series. Often, they don't properly stand alone and become very difficult sells as a result. If book one doesn't sell, there won't be a book two, or three, or four.

There are definitely one-hit wonders. One of my favourites is the guy who wrote the music for the musical Les Miserables, which is brilliant, only he never quite achieved anything else even close. Sometimes it just happens that way. But that's largely something to worry about later, if you worry about it at all. All you can do is write, after all. And far more writers trip up by trying to do too much than by doing too little.

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Indeed, there are people who are known for just one or two things, when in fact they've left quite the hefty legacy: The Exorcist; The Godfather; Jaws; Catch 22; Psycho, The Eagle Has Landed, Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange, Lolita--these are the books people think of when you mention the writers, even if the writers themselves would be more than happy to prove that this is a small part of what they consider important in their legacy. But the people have spoken, and that's what they will be remembered for

I feel like this would be an amazing problem to have!

I guess series are pretty common in romance, although it's a bit different. Since book one is supposed to end with a happily ever after, it's more or less impossible to use the same main characters in book two. Often they promote some secondary characters to the leading roles. I have a casual couple in my WIP that I could make a sequel out of, and I've kicked around some ideas, but I don't really have a passion for it. If it was a condition of getting the first book published, I suppose I could do it, but I'd discourage them from making that demand, as I don't think it would benefit either of us for me to write a mediocre book.* I'd try to pitch them an unrelated standalone instead.

*On second thought, it probably does benefit them, and even me, financially. If the first book is good enough, people will probably buy the sequel even if it's meh. It doesn't benefit the reader, though.

Hmm, question for those of you with book deals like this, especially if a series was not the expectation: it seems to me the publisher (or your agent) would work with you on other titles you might have written in the past, but have never published. I'm currently working on my sixth novel (only two have been published, one POD and one with a now-defunct publisher with my full rights back). Once one of my four remaining novels was picked up, if I was expected to cough up another two or three these remaining ones would be very much in play, even if they don't end up ultimately being part of the multi-book deal.

Does this happen? Have you gotten any of your other WIPs published through a deal like this?

Chris P, that's a good point and a good question.

I feel like that's a conversation you and your agent would want to have before agreeing to a multi-book deal. The other mss might not be quite ready for prime time. That would be the primary concern: sure, they're there, but do they need work before publication? If you have one or two in-hand that are ready to go or close, it would make a two-book deal much more viable.

[I'm in a similar situation in that I have 5 completed mss, two of which were with an agent at one point (I dropped her). I plan to query with a third ms, then (if I get an agent) present the rest of my back catalogue to see what we might do with them.]

angeliz2k said:

Chris P, that's a good point and a good question.

I feel like that's a conversation you and your agent would want to have before agreeing to a multi-book deal. The other mss might not be quite ready for prime time. That would be the primary concern: sure, they're there, but do they need work before publication? If you have one or two in-hand that are ready to go or close, it would make a two-book deal much more viable.

[I'm in a similar situation in that I have 5 completed mss, two of which were with an agent at one point (I dropped her). I plan to query with a third ms, then (if I get an agent) present the rest of my back catalogue to see what we might do with them.]

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That makes the most sense to me, too. And echos the oft-repeated advice to begin writing your next book as soon as the previous one is ready to be shopped around. As long as it takes to get an agent, your next one will be closer to ready. Also, if you're like me and you, the first couple won't get picked up, so when you are writing number five or seven, or even number nine, you'll have stuff to work with.

I think two of my back titles would be ready with minimal work (one could be subbed as is, and for the other there is one deal-breaker, lethal scene I can't seem to make work), a third would be ready with a lot more work but is a whole story, and two more (including the current WIP) that still needs the whole story to get on paper so it could even be ready for work.

I haven't followed this thread closely but the word "editor" may be the most important in any discusion. Even after quite a few self edits you will most likely be blind to some of your problems. After having had one book professionally edited I am more aware of things I didn't see or suspect until I got my first book edited. Certainly my second will be an easier presentation for my editor to work over but I'll still learn more from the reult. AFter several books I may be a decent writer. The content coming from my invention is fairly solid as far as being at least somewhat unique but the formatting is where the work is done and interest will be earned.

in short GET EDITED. Prior to that there is plenty to be learned right here in Share Your Work, a good tool but not a subsitute for professional editing ... which is not cheap but worth the investment.

None of the books I have beta read have been ready to be published and most were nowhere near so. There were fairly serious flaws in each that the writer was not aware of (and I am by no means an editor). Still the authors have been, for the most part, fun to work with.

Chris P said:

Hmm, question for those of you with book deals like this, especially if a series was not the expectation: it seems to me the publisher (or your agent) would work with you on other titles you might have written in the past, but have never published. I'm currently working on my sixth novel (only two have been published, one POD and one with a now-defunct publisher with my full rights back). Once one of my four remaining novels was picked up, if I was expected to cough up another two or three these remaining ones would be very much in play, even if they don't end up ultimately being part of the multi-book deal.

Does this happen? Have you gotten any of your other WIPs published through a deal like this?

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Debut author with two-book deal here. My novels are standalones. Book two wasn’t written at the time of the offer (it’s at about 40,000 words now) but I did provide a couple of paragraphs about the idea at their request.

As for my trunked novels... yeah, they’re trunked for a reason so I won’t be revisiting those.

ShouldBeWriting said:

Debut author with two-book deal here. My novels are standalones. Book two wasn’t written at the time of the offer (it’s at about 40,000 words now) but I did provide a couple of paragraphs about the idea at their request.

As for my trunked novels... yeah, they’re trunked for a reason so I won’t be revisiting those.

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*Nods* I have a few in the trunk, too, that'll never see the light of day, bless 'em.

But I have several that are perfectly viable and are ready to be seen (by my estimation). Right now, the strategy is to put one forward and try to get some traction there, then use said traction for the other mss. My personal story is a rather long one, but basically ms 1 got some traction but no agent, ms 2 got an agent but then no deal with a publisher, and ms 3 similarly did not get a book deal, at which point I parted ways with my agent. I do not consider 2 and 3 dead because of the particular reasons surrounding my parting with my agent. But in the two years I was with said agent, I also wrote mss 4, 5, and 6. So now I have all these viable mss and I just have to choose my strategy. I imagine the same thing might happen if it takes a while to query or get a book deal: you might end up with a manuscript or two that you write while waiting for the cogs of the publishing industry to turn.

Not for planning, but every novel I've ever written lends itself to a sequel and can stand on it's own. I've never really thought about it. I always have stuff in my books that isn't finished, but isn't important enough to need finishing if it ends up being only one book. I write a lot of books in a shared universe, which is handy. There is never an end.

- Mark Charke

I'm going to self-publish, so I guess I'm as prepared as I can be!