Recently, I put the first book of my New Hope Series on sale for $.99. More serious thought than you might think goes into those offers, the hope being that the “right” people (i.e., someone who enjoys the sort of historicals I write) will like the first book so much that they’ll get the second book and then work their way through the rest of the series. It’s not a given, of course – in today’s publishing world, there are no givens – but it’s worth a try.
The other aspect of a serious series is keeping each book in the series a stand-alone tale while still giving homage to characters in previous series books, hinting at but never giving away the plots of those previous books. Harder than you think, believe me. And often people read a series out of order, which adds another challenge to writing a series that holds the reader’s interest in each individual book.
I have three series: the “Laramie Series” has 6 books, the “New Hope Series” has 4, and “The Penwarrens” is made up of 3 books. I hope I’ve followed my personal rule of each book teasing about but not giving away the other plots in the series. But that’s for the reader to decide.
If you splurged on my $.99 special What We Carry With Us, why not move on to the second book of that series, Surprised By Shadows?
If you haven’t dipped your literary toe into any of my series, click on my website’s Hasley’s Book Store tab, peruse the titles and plot-lines of the first book of each series – Lily’s Sister, What We Carry With Us, & Claire, After All – shell out around $3.00 to Amazon Kindle and get started. If you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can get the book free as part of your membership. What’s holding you back? You might find a new book series full of people and places and adventures that you really, really love, and isn’t that a great way to spend a summer?
