As a member of The Writing Mastery Academy, I get to listen to a couple of webinars each month. These webinars feature guest authors, editors and others in the publishing field.
This past weekend, I tuned into webinar with science fiction and fantasy author Scott Reintgen as guest. He spent an hour answering questions members of the academy submitted, including mine. Here’s my question:
“What is your advice on writing novels in a series?”
I’ve transcribed Reintgen’s answer:
“What I would tell people, especially querying authors who are focused on something new, focused on getting an agent for the first time, focused on publishing for the first time is this: I would suggest to not go knee deep into a series first.
“You can write the first book of a series; you can write a book that has series potential to it. That’s totally fine and totally normal. I don’t know that if I’m querying a book, my first thought would be, ‘Hey, go dive into book two and get as far ahead as you can.’ My first thought would be to give that series a little bit of a break while you query and focus on chipping away at some other project.
“If that one (manuscript that you queried) happens to get rejected, you’re not knee deep in book two with nowhere to go with it. You have a new project that’s exciting to you and you can work on.
“So, I do think it’s okay to work on a series, and it’s okay to want to write a series. Most of us like to write and read in series. I think there’s so many rewards to that. I do think that publishers are a little bit more skeptical on a long, long series. It’s harder for them to make the investment . . . Do what feels right. Work on what feels good, (but) diversify what you’re working on while you’re in the query process.”
Reitgen speaks from his experience in writing book series. I’ve read his Nyxia books and and also the first book in his Waxways series. He has a course with The Writing Mastery Academy called Level Up Your Writing. It is also available on Udemy.
By the way, if you’re interested in The Writing Mastery Academy, it’s $15 a month and well worth it. Tons of writing resources are available including the webinars as well as writing courses, a helpful blog, and a writing community. You can try it out and cancel at any time. If you are thinking of expanding your craft as a fiction writer, it is well worth it.
Photo by Olga Lioncat: https://www.pexels.com/photo/mosaic-old-gray-ceramic-tile-with-round-pattern-7245527/
Andrew M. Friday 
Leave a comment