Multiple queries are not usually recommended

Unless otherwise stated, publishers and agents usually want you to select your strongest manuscript, or the one that best fits their guidelines, and just query one. If they’re open to multiple submissions, they’ll say so. if they don’t say so, just pick one to send. Hinting that you have other completed manuscripts is enough. If they like your writing but the particular manuscript isn’t a fit, or if they want to see more of what you’ve written for any other reason, they will ask to see more.

Query the book, not the series

Similarly, writing an entire series before the first book has sold is not recommended, for lots and lots of reasons. I’m seeing a lot of this in the queries I’m receiving. While it has yet to be a deciding factor, it’s a big turn-off.

If you’re aiming to be a professional author, completing sequels to books you haven’t signed yet is an inefficient use of your writing time. You can certainly write the outlines of the future books. You can certainly mention in your query that the ending is open for sequels. But it’s in your best interest not to actually write them yet.

Why?

In no particular order:

* First and most importantly (I know, I just said these weren’t in any order. I lied.), you need to focus on selling someone on the first book, or there won’t be a series. Really. Don’t tell me how much more there is. Hook me on the first one and make me want to see more.

* Any editorial changes in Book One may have dire consequences going forward, possibly undoing a lot of — or all of — your hard work. Those manuscripts may end up scrapped. That’s time you could have spent writing and selling other books.

* A publisher isn’t likely to buy a lengthy series up front from a new author without a proven sales record. You might get a two- or three-book contract, but even then the completion of the contract will likely depend on the sales of the first book. It could happen, but it’s the exception, not the rule. You should never base your strategy on being the exception.

* If a publisher buys Book One, even if they don’t buy the series outright, the contract usually gives them Right of First Refusal on further works with those characters or in that world. That means that your entire series is now tied up and unsellable elsewhere. If you had focused on writing “Book One” of multiple series instead, you would still have other properties to shop around.

* While there are rare exceptions who have been wildly successful with a single series, publishers usually like to see that an author is not tied to a single world and has a bit more range. Some writers only have one series in them. They have one story to tell, and can’t (or won’t) write anything that isn’t in that one world. But signing an author is, potentially, an investment. Publishers like to know that you can write other things, and that you’ll have other books and ideas in you after your trilogy plays out. Agents like to know that you’ve got more than one strong property that they can shop for you at the same time.

* If you’re making your living off your writing, or trying to, you need to focus on writing stuff you can sell, not stuff that you can maybe sell someday if this other thing sells first.

To quote Seanan McGuire, who sums up this point well: “I love my books. I love my art. If I were only in it for the money, I would be doing something else for a living, like selling my kidneys. But at the end of the day, if a series can’t pay, I can’t afford the hundreds of hours required to write the average book. It’s just not feasible. Note the number of unpublished “first in series” books I have sitting around. Until they sell, I can’t afford to write the sequels. No matter how much I want to.”

SOLOMON’S GRAVE is now in print! Congrats to author Daniel Keohane, with whom it was a pleasure to work. You can purchase the book from Amazon.com via the link above, or by clicking on the book cover in my sidebar.

The fantastic podiobook NINA KIMBERLY THE MERCILESS will be arriving in print on May 15th. To celebrate the print edition, author Christiana Ellis is offering a new and improved version of the podcast. Listen to the first installment!

Also scheduled for release in May is THE NECROMANCER’S BONES by Deby Fredericks. This is the sequel to the excellent novel THE MAGISTER’S MASK. While the second book can stand alone, the first is an intriguing fantasy/mystery and well worth a read! Order MAGISTER’S MASK now, so that you can be ready for the release of NECROMANCER’S BONES.

For those curious, or in the area, here’s my current panel schedule (subject to change) for Ad Astra:

Sat 10:00 AM — Ballr. East — What’s In a Name (MODERATING)
What are the challenges and trends in naming characters, locations, races, etc? Where can you find names? Is there a push for more realistic-sounding names? Do more fantastical names turn some readers off?

Sat 12:00 PM — Ballr. East — How Not to Submit Your Work
Panelists present all the things you should never do when submitting your creations. There’s a right way and a wrong way to present the fruit of your labours, whether it’s a novel, comic, short story, art portfolio, or other creative work.

Sat 1:00 PM — Ballr. East — How to Edit Yourself
Authors and editors share tips on how to spot the problems that are so easy to miss in your own work, how to add a bit more polish to your writing, when and why you need to find a second reader, and how to prepare your draft so that editing goes as smoothly as possible.

Don’t be afraid to drop me a line via my contact page if you’re going to be at the conference and want to say hello.

Also, a reminder, I do have openings in my schedule and I accept queries for editing projects through my contact page, as well!

To Sequel, or Not to Sequel: The fine line between inspiration and convenience

The creation of a world is a process that requires quite a bit of time and effort; yet, it’s something that science fiction and fantasy writers do all the time. It’s no wonder that writers become just as attached to their worlds and their characters as their readers and fans do. Moreso, even, because they’ve got more invested in them. They breathe, sleep and dream these worlds. They have, by necessity, a greater and deeper understanding of them than can ever be conveyed through a novel’s pages.

When that novel is over, sold, and handed over to editors and publishers, it’s sometimes hard for the reader to give that world up. They’ve been drawn into it, made to care about it, understand it, and maybe even wish they could have a chance to live in it. For the writer, it can be even harder. They’ve invested time, sweat, tears and ink in the creation of a fully formed entity, and there can be times when it feels like a waste to have done all that, only to dip into it for a mere two- to three hundred page slice of that world’s history and then abandon it for all time.

The answer, of course, is the sequel. Another chance to open a window into that beloved world, see more of its people and places, experience more of its flavor, and immerse yourself in it one more time. Reading a sequel can feel like coming home. It can feel like a reunion with old friends, or a chance to take one more sip of a sweet, rare wine.

There’s value, though, in a novel that stands alone. As faithful readers will know, two of the books I’ve worked on have just come out in print; both of them are sequels. Both of them are fairly independent sequels; you’ll miss a lot of the nuance and background flavor of each if you haven’t read their precursors, but you’ll still be able to follow along. That’s the best sort of situation for the casual reader (the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell is another good example), because a reader can jump in at any time and the later books can create an interest in going back to the previous installments. In contrast, some sequels assume that you’ve just finished the last page of the previous book before diving into the next. It’s much more difficult for the reader to pick that sort of series up midstream, and there’s a chance that the accessibility of your work might suffer as a result. Beware, also, the “glass cage,” where a writer gets so deeply locked into a given series that it becomes all they write (or even, some might speculate, all they can write).

How do you, as a writer, know whether to plan a sequel or to gracefully let it go? Consider the following questions:

1. What questions does your novel leave unanswered?

I’m not talking about cliffhangers here. The surest way to piss your readers off is to end a book on a cliffhanger and make them wait three years for the next installment. By that time either they’ll hate you with a fiery passion, they’ll have resorted to writing their own fanfic to resolve those questions satisfactorily for themselves, or they’ll have stopped caring. An ending can leave questions unanswered without having to employ a fishhook through the cheek to keep readers reeled in for the next installment. A book that exists only to bridge the beginning and end of a trilogy will always be unsatisfying. Each book should have its own plot resolved, even if the larger issues are still up in the air.

As a writer, identify those issues and questions. If there’s enough meat to one of them, it might have the potential to become your next plot. Even if your next book is “the continuing adventures of…” and doesn’t rely on the previous plot at all, there should still be some growth and progress. Keep track of those questions. Answer some. Create more. There’s a very limited market for the types of series where the slate is wiped clean for each episode and the characters never grow or change. If you want to keep a reader invested in your characters, those characters have to develop and deepen. They have to affect the world and be affected by it.

2. Why are you returning to this world and these characters?

Is it because you’re inspired by them and you think they have more stories to tell? Do you know what some of those stories are? Is it because they’re familiar to you and their patterns are easy to write? Is it because you have so much time invested in the setting that you don’t want that effort and research to go to waste, or because you have so much time invested in the setting that it’s easier to continue there than to invent someplace new? Is it because it’s what your audience likes and requests more of?

I’m not placing value judgments on any of these reasons. Whether they’re good or bad reasons isn’t important, for our purposes, and a lot of them are situational, not necessarily black and white. What’s important is that you know what your reasons are. Think about them, take a step back, and look at them from a reader’s perspective. Most importantly, ask yourself, Is this reason strong enough to sustain a whole book? If your reason is “Because there are stories left to tell,” then the answer is most likely yes. If your reason is “Because that’s what authors are supposed to do,” you may want to re-evaluate.

3. Have you saturated your market?

It’s always better to quit while you’re ahead, go out on a strong note, and other such clichés, than to drain the well dry, jump the shark or beat the dead horse. The last thing you want is to get a reputation as “that writer who didn’t know when to quit.” Even if you do feel that you have more stories left to tell, make sure that your readers have an interest in hearing them. It’s much harder to regain the attention of the former fan who’s gotten disillusioned or bored, whereas you can always return to the series later, if circumstances and demand warrant it. If you’re not sure, wrap up gracefully until your readers (and your publisher) want more.