Book Series...More Trouble Than They're Worth?

As I struggle to stay focused while writing the follow-up to another book, the answer to that question is....YES!!!

The very first book I wrote was the first of a two-part series. The second book was a little bit tougher to write than the first, but I was still very much in the zone and was a writing machine. I released the second part two months after the first.

My third novel, Scarred was also part one to what will soon be a 3-part series. But after I finished writing it, I took a bit of a break. And unfortunately when I was ready to start writing again, my brain only wanted to focus on a story I had started before I even thought of the concept for Scarred. I know my readers were wondering what the hell was going on. Why would I write a whole separate story instead of writing the sequel to Scarred?

Well, to answer that, it is because I'm a slave to my brain and my characters. I don't know how it is for other authors, but I know for me, I need to take breaks from stories. And when my brain is ready to create, if it's not for the story I should be doing or what everyone wants me to do, there is nothing I can do about it.

But many readers don't understand this. Truthfully, I used to be one of them. I used to rage at how long it would take an author to write the follow up book to a series. But now that I've become an author, I realize that stories don't magically drop out of the sky, don't grow from trees or can't be pulled out of the author's ass. The author literally has to be in the right frame of mind to create anything worth reading. If it's forced, then it will show.The readers have a choice: A follow up with substance that may take a while to be released? Or a follow up that sucks monkey nuts, but you get it right away?

I'm sure both the reader and the author would like a wonderful book that is released within weeks of the last. But I'd also like a tall, handsome and well-endowed European man to ring my doorbell right now, holding two tickets to Europe to begin a year of traveling. And though both of these scenarios could happen, it's also not very likely.

So even though I'm super stoked and thankful that there are readers that have been truly absorbed in my book and characters, I just don't know if it's worth the headache. If I do ever write another sequel in the future, I'll be sure to write the whole damn thing all at once and then release them within a few weeks or months of each other.

'Til next time...