Memorable story VS continous series

LC2010HIS

Which is better?
Im writing my book and can go so many places with the plot.
What do you prefer? A really really good book as in one unique story with no sequel? Or a book series like eg Gossip Girl books, Twilight saga etc

My book is a drama. Worried about ending. Whether I should tie up loose ends and go out with bang...or leave opening.:rolleyes:

What are your views? What, as a reader ,do you find more appealing?

Mr E

If you go with a series, each book should be self-contained. You should be able to pick up book 3 in a series and not be completely lost. You could use a chapter/prologue called "The Story So Far...", or inject references to earlier books (to help fill in the blanks).

Just don't leave a huge cliffhanger. They're fine on TV, but in books you normally have a long wait for a resolution (and by then, you don't care). Lee Child and Matthew Reilly, I'll looking at you.....

davyjose

I'd be careful about leaving the ending open. If it's a better story, go with it, but there must be some kind of denouement.

Tbh, getting a book published, and getting sales, is about the most difficult thing you can imagine. It's one in a million. You need to give it your best shot, and worry about one book at a time, not book 2, or book 3.

Someone like JK Rowling was in the position where, had the Harry Potter series ended after one book, it was still a very self-contained book. Thaat single story was not sacrificed in any way, for the other 6.

Be careful of sacrificing your story, for a series.

Hrududu

If you go with a series, each book should be self-contained. You should be able to pick up book 3 in a series and not be completely lost. You could use a chapter/prologue called "The Story So Far...", or inject references to earlier books (to help fill in the blanks).

It depends on the type of series you are writing though. Any series that I've read and really liked would not apply to this rule. If you were to pick up the 3rd in the Dark Materials series you would be completely lost. Adding a 'catchup' chapter would only alienate readers of the other books.

Whatever you choose you should plan it out. So if you decide you'll write a series of 3 books then you should know what's going to happen in all three before you write book 1. At least thats in my opinion. I don't think memorable stories and continuous series are mutually exclusive. Any book or series of books should be memorable. Otherwise why would anyone read them.

af_thefragile

Not a fan of series myself.
They just end up getting geeky like the Harry Potter stuff.

From an economic standpoint, series are great if you think you've found a formula with which you could target a niche market audience and get them hooked on it. Then after that you can put out whatever crap you like and the readers will obsessively buy it. Great for your sales!



But I'm not a fan of that. I like good solid books that don't need to have a sequel to be explained. I was planning on writing a trilogy. But then I decided it'ld be much better if I could condense the whole thing into one book. Its tougher, the story needed a major rework, a lot of things had to be left out and you had to rely on the reader that they'ld manage to figure out the concepts without you having to explain it all to them in detail.
Makes for a more intellectual book. Something you could read over and over again and always discover new things in it because you have squeezed three books worth of concepts in one single book.

Mardy Bum

Quality series require an excellent author, as was said above books need to be self contained. I would stick to one off book unless you have brilliant story and are able to keep the books contained but also accurate to the characters in the other book. Also if the book doesn't sell well the first time the next book won't be published. So I would just go for the story.

Generally brilliant literature are almost 100% of the time single novels.

LC2010HIS

Hrududu wrote: »

It depends on the type of series you are writing though. Any series that I've read and really liked would not apply to this rule. If you were to pick up the 3rd in the Dark Materials series you would be completely lost. Adding a 'catchup' chapter would only alienate readers of the other books.

Whatever you choose you should plan it out. So if you decide you'll write a series of 3 books then you should know what's going to happen in all three before you write book 1. At least thats in my opinion. I don't think memorable stories and continuous series are mutually exclusive. Any book or series of books should be memorable. Otherwise why would anyone read them.

Its basically a drama after traumatic event, but I was gonna leave a cliff hanger but I dont wanna do the whole series of books like, Gossip girl (sorry, it just keeps poppin up)..
Not sure what I want but I dunno if i wanna tidy up loose ends or not.

Antilles

If you sacrifice the quality of your book just so you can put in series hooks, then you might not even get the first one published.

Put as much quality stuff you can into your book, and create a world large enough to have room for further development.