I’ve been thinking A LOT about series lately—how they’re put together, why some really work, why some don’t, and how to make every book in the series the same level of awesome. How do you make a series cohesive? Let’s talk about it.
Hook
When you’re first conceiving a series, you’re going to need a killer hook. I’m not just talking “well, it’s four brothers in a small town…” That’s familiar and tried-and-true, which is actually what we want (familiarity is part of the comfort of romance)—but then let’s go beyond that and put a new spin on things that hasn’t been done before (or at least, it hasn’t been by you, with your own particular worldview). Take a trendy idea from the zeitgeist (what’s popular now in pop culture, TV shows, social media), figure out your main characters for each book and what their connection to each other is (family/friends/coworkers/etc.), then start drilling down to tropes.
Farrah Rochon’s Boyfriend Project series is about three women who are catfished on social media (hook) and become friends after that shared experience (linked characters). The series kicks off with a workplace romance, then a fake relationship, then an enemies-to-lovers (tropes). It’s a clever premise that gets you invested in the characters, and the execution of the familiar tropes in a new context keeps you coming back.
Tip: The Publishers’ Marketplace announcements of series that have just been bought is a fun way to get a good sense of the hook. (You’ll usually see these on Twitter when a writer can finally talk about the book/series they’ve just sold.)
Characters
Romance is so much about character work, so you have to have well-drawn characters as the protagonists to keep readers there for each book, and also introduce intriguing bits about future protagonists in the series to keep readers there for the whole series. Start the series with the character you feel you have the best handle on so you can ease yourself into the series—you’re probably still figuring these characters out when you’re writing the first book! Make it easy for yourself with the first one, but have in mind where you want all of the characters to go by the end of the series so that you can start planting seeds early.
Over the course of the series, slowly reveal more about the future protagonists. You let readers get to know them, give little hints about them and what secrets they might be keeping, and leave the most compelling character till the finale of the series. My client Jenny Bunting did this in her first series, Here in Lillyvale—I read the first book and immediately told her, “hi, I need Dan’s book NOW.” But Jenny knew what she was doing and whipped her readers into a frenzy for Dan over the course of four books, with a spectacular payoff in the finale.
Sometimes you might not know if you have a Dan in your books, but readers will just glom on to a character and demand that they get a book. If you didn’t have one planned, that’s a great way to spin off to a novella or even inspire a whole new series.
Book order
The order of each book, and by extension each trope, is so important in keeping the reader on the line. Choose that first book trope carefully to get your reader invested in the world and the characters. Starting with a fish-out-of-water story can be really helpful—your main character becomes a proxy for the reader, with both of them getting dropped into a new context and figuring it out. This is especially useful if you have lots of world-building; Kit Rocha’s Beyond series does this really well, with sheltered rich girl banished to a dystopian underworld. A return to hometown is another good starting point; it’s familiar but uncomfortable at the same time for character and reader.
The middle books are space where you can dig deep into the world-building and the characters because you have more of a handle on both after writing a book or two. You’ve hooked readers with the first book and drawn them into the series, and these middle books often end up being more popular because they’re stronger for you being more comfortable in the world. It’s also an opportunity to deepen the understanding of that world. (World-building isn’t just for fantasy or sci-fi, by the way—you’re world-building even in a contemporary setting and defining the parameters of the space in which the characters operate and the context of their lives.)
The finale of the series is the culmination of everything—you’ve been training for this with each book before it. You’re going to deliver your final protagonists to their HEA, and then provide closure with all of the other pairings that everyone is going to continue to be well. If you’ve left enough hints in each book before this one, anticipation will be at an all-time high, and it means this one in particular has to be really satisfying. Sarah MacLean is a genius at this—she clearly has the final book planned from the beginning of the series, and she knows exactly how to build to it. Her Rules for Scoundrels series in particular leads up to a big twist in the final book, and she sticks the landing on it.
Anticipation
You’ll want to leave the reader wondering what’s going to happen in the next book to make sure they’ll keep reading—and that the desire for the next book stays with them in the time it takes you to write it! Some kind of cliffhanger at the end of the book will keep them primed the reader for the next one. It doesn’t have to be that the next protagonist is in peril in the epilogue of the book before; that foreshadowing you’re doing with the hints you leave about their character can be part of it. Even better is if you have the first chapter of the next book ready to put right after the epilogue with a pre-order link to get them while they’re still buzzing off the good vibes from the current book!
Timeline
You’re going to need to have a sense of when each of the books are playing out in time so that you’ll know where your final protagonists need to be by the time you get to them. If you have them break up in the first book and want them to have a second-chance romance in the final book, how much time needs to pass so that they’re ready for each other by then? Do you need the protagonists from Book 1 to be planning a wedding to get them back together in Book 3? Map out the timeline so you can see where all the players need to be when.
You can of course have books running concurrently so that the action of each book is happening at the same time, but that is a headache and a half to keep track of. If you can pull it off, amazing, but you don’t have to make it hard on yourself. Totally separate blocks of time for each book is absolutely fine. (Please take it from an editor, who will have to follow it to ensure consistency.)
Miscellaneous
Just a few more things to consider:
I love when authors create a universe in which all of their characters exist simultaneously so that fan favourites from one series can make cameos in later series. Beverly Jenkins does this across her historicals and her contemporaries, where her contemporary characters are the descendants of her historical characters.
Consistency is always key in writing, but especially in series:
Similar cover look—ideally, use the same artist for illustrated covers (see my client Mimi Grace’s gorgeous Leni Kauffman-designed covers for her Lovestruck series), or the same cover designer if you’re using photographs
Similar titles—not strictly necessary, but all of the titles should feel like they go together. For example, my client Karen Grey used ’80s song titles for her 1980s-set series.
Similar length—the exception here is if you have a novella in the middle of the series, but in general, you’ll probably want all of the books to be around the same length so the reader can figure out your rhythm.
Same POV type—don’t switch from single to dual POV in the middle of the series, or from first-person present to third-person past. You can switch to a different POV for a new series, but stay consistent with the series.
All of these things are going to help the books in your series be stronger together, and will encourage your reader to become a fan and keep coming back for more from you. But putting together everything you need for a series can be really daunting. So…
I want to invite you to a brand-new workshop that I’ve put together called Three Secrets to Becoming an Auto-Buy Romance Author.
Spoiler: series are a big part of it! But instead of the finer points about the elements of series like I’ve just discussed here, this is a big-picture overview about how series are a part of the strategies you can implement to become your reader’s favourite romance author.
We will talk about:
Why we write series (not just because everyone else does!)
Implementing strategies in your writing to set you up for success
Building momentum in your writing so you can produce consistently at a pace that works for you
Developing confidence in your abilities to do all of the above
Getting the support you need to write each book
I’m running this on Zoom on Tuesday, July 26, at 2 p.m. EST Are you in? Sign up here!
If you have any questions about series or this workshop, just get in touch—I’m happy to answer them!