series writing

Setting is critical to a successful series, make sure your places and organizations feel real enough to have their own merchandise (merch). *Some affiliate links below*

I didn’t watch Gilmore Girls but a while ago I saw this story about the coffee shop featured on the show popping up around the country. It allowed fans to grab a cup of free coffee and in some locations they get a sleeve branded with ‘Lukes Coffee’ to remember the experience. They were mobbed and it was a huge promotional success.

This is the level of fan passion and engagement you should strive for when creating a business or setting in your series.

After writing and publishing two series with 6 books in each I decided to look at the process and see if there were steps I could take to improve my odds of creating something successful.

One of my biggest issues has been reader engagement while I’m working on a new story. When I’m writing my head is down and I don’t have time to come up with ideas to share with my readers. Traditionally I have not shared anything with my readers until I have a book complete and ready for them to buy. Recent research has shown that readers want 2 main things from authors they like – more content and a peek behind the scenes. I was looking for a way to deliver those two things while I was working on a story. They had to be part of the plan.

In April 2017 I came up with a seed of an idea I thought could be a great series. I was working on finishing another project at the time and resisted the urge to jump in and start writing. In September I was wrapping up my other projects and started to formulate my plan for attacking the new series. Below are the 15 steps I came up with.
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