does a book series get write first before getting published

[Hikari3747]

Basically do you have to write the entire series for a book series then publish it or can you write one book at a time and publish one book at a time?

[marshmallowcreampie]

Many authors do write and publish a series one book at a time. In fact, I think most series authors do that. Even if a writer wanted to put the entire series out at once, he would be hard pressed to find a publisher willing to go with that. Publishing even one book is a risk for the publishing company, and they would want to ensure that the first book is successful before they commission the author for a sequel.

Granted, there's nothing stopping you from writing the entire series at once. It's just unlikely that you'd be able to get the entire series published right away, not to mention that even if the first book is successful and your publishers want a sequel, they might expect to see certain things in the sequel. (like if they belief that X is the reason your first book sold well, they might want you to put X in the sequel) If you go with writing one book at a time, that's fine too, as long as you have the story planned out and you aren't just making up stuff as you go along.

[I_Write_Ivre]

The LOTR trilogy was technically written all at once, but keep in mind it wasn't meant to be a trilogy.

I think there were also series that the author intended to be one book, but decided years after publishing to submit a sequel because it came to the them. I can't remember any though.

I think your title had a stroke, by the way.

[Hikari3747]

marshmallowcreampie

Many authors do write and publish a series one book at a time. In fact, I think most series authors do that. Even if a writer wanted to put the entire series out at once, he would be hard pressed to find a publisher willing to go with that. Publishing even one book is a risk for the publishing company, and they would want to ensure that the first book is successful before they commission the author for a sequel.

Granted, there's nothing stopping you from writing the entire series at once. It's just unlikely that you'd be able to get the entire series published right away, not to mention that even if the first book is successful and your publishers want a sequel, they might expect to see certain things in the sequel. (like if they belief that X is the reason your first book sold well, they might want you to put X in the sequel) If you go with writing one book at a time, that's fine too, as long as you have the story planned out and you aren't just making up stuff as you go along.

Thank for your answer.

[Hikari3747]

I_Write_Ivre

The LOTR trilogy was technically written all at once, but keep in mind it wasn't meant to be a trilogy.

I think there were also series that the author intended to be one book, but decided years after publishing to submit a sequel because it came to the them. I can't remember any though.

I think your title had a stroke, by the way.

So basically you can write a book, and later make it a series to?

[Tenshi Yaminade]

Well, it can go either way. You submit the first book and if that book is popular, hand them one book at a time, pretending that you haven't gotten them written. You can squeeze a little more funding out of them that way. A stroll down easy street. Also you don't want to publish them all at once since the audience you'll get will stress over getting all of them all at once instead of having each book have their own limelight for a few months. You also get more royalties in the way of publishing one at a time.

If you're not so worried about the fiscal statistics, it's a good idea to have at least outlines for future books from the first book of the series. In this way, you haven't wasted your time on a series that's not going to get published, but if it does, you'll have spent your time well in developing the plots for the sequels.

If however, you take too long in putting out sequels (if you don't make outlines for the next few books at least), your audience will get frustrated and the first book which is made all the rage will force the series into irrelevance. There's a very strict timeline and books in a series have to come out steadily and with even frequency.

Series can be published, but it's not recommended to be published all at once.

[marshmallowcreampie]

Hikari3747

I_Write_Ivre

The LOTR trilogy was technically written all at once, but keep in mind it wasn't meant to be a trilogy.

I think there were also series that the author intended to be one book, but decided years after publishing to submit a sequel because it came to the them. I can't remember any though.

I think your title had a stroke, by the way.

So basically you can write a book, and later make it a series to?

That does happen, yes.

[I_Write_Ivre]

Hikari3747

I_Write_Ivre

The LOTR trilogy was technically written all at once, but keep in mind it wasn't meant to be a trilogy.

I think there were also series that the author intended to be one book, but decided years after publishing to submit a sequel because it came to the them. I can't remember any though.

I think your title had a stroke, by the way.

So basically you can write a book, and later make it a series to?

Only if your publisher is okay with printing the whole thing as a trilogy. They probably want you to divided it up before sending it though.

[christwriter]

Hikari3747

Basically do you have to write the entire series for a book series then publish it or can you write one book at a time and publish one book at a time?

Self published? You can do whatever you want. Write it all out, then publish, or write it one book at a time. Release it all at once, release it a little bit at the time. With that, you're the boss.

You also won't have many readers. Maybe a few, but not many.

Professionally...In my experiance a book is a six year committment. One year to write, two years to shop it to agents, and three years trying to sell it to publishers. After that I don't think it's reasonable to focus on that project anymore. It might sell, it might not, but if you're working right you should have another book worth working on by the end of three years. So your best bet if you have a series is to outline the whole thing, write the first book, try to sell it and put the rest away. Come up with the next series while you're trying to sell that first book. If the book sells, work on that series. If it doesn't sell, then you'll have another product to shop around while you trunk the first one.

[Thirteenth King]

I_Write_Ivre

The LOTR trilogy was technically written all at once, but keep in mind it wasn't meant to be a trilogy.

I think there were also series that the author intended to be one book, but decided years after publishing to submit a sequel because it came to the them. I can't remember any though.

I think your title had a stroke, by the way.

HAHA! rofl

[Captain Jessie Hawk]

It goes by the author really, some authors write several different series of novels, and so they flip flop between them. While others write one story at a book at a time. It is really depending on the author and the series it's self.

If your writing a series it's great to at least finish the first story and begin on the second before getting it published to show that you are working on the series as a whole. That's always a plus, that way when you go to get it published your showing that you are willing to write the series.

[Pumpkinfrost]

Either way is fine. The only professional author whose publishing style I'm familiar with usually writes a few books in the series before getting them published. I think most authors doing a series has a general idea of where they want the story to go.