Interesting Book Series Need To be Carefully Planned and Structured

As kids we were always told about the benefits of reading. As we grew up, most of us realized that books are a storehouse of information and a ticket away from reality. Whether it is a novel from an interesting book series, a single story book, or a textbook, as part of the school and college curriculum, writers fill books with rich content that helps to open our minds and introduce us to cultures, traditions and ways of life from across the globe.

What are Book Series?

As the name suggests, it is a series of books sequentially written and published where characters, background, ideology or the storyline remain similar. Such books that are launched as part of a series are written by the same writer, usually have the same publisher and are often promoted by the same agency.

Interesting book series are usually a set of two or more books where the storyline is interlinked between the books and the writer inter-weaves the plot and the characters subtly, so that the readers’ interest levels never get to waver. The first book in the book series plays the central role in such cases because if it is able to grasp the attention of the reader, the rest of the series will sell better and will acquire a fan base.

A few things become important as the writer sits down to write the book.

1. Books in a series need to be carefully planned – the storyline needs to be divided in a strategic manner and the narrative needs to be in a way that it leaves the reader always on tenterhooks encouraging him to read on.
2. Once the concept has been established, the writer needs to pay attention to how he illustrates the characters and assign levels of importance to them. Often, an interesting book series whether in the thriller genre, a crime genre, or any other niche for that matter, keeps a character in the background in the initial book and in a later series show his/her relevance to the storyline. This is perfectly okay as long as the plot is exciting and fascinates the reader provoking them to continue reading.

The objective of the writer should be to engage the reader to the maximum, so they read all the books in the series. Lackadaisical attitude and wavering story do not make for a great reading – whether it is a solo book or one in a series. Writers need to understand that they cannot afford to lose the interest of the reader anywhere in the story. A small little slip on their end can completely ruin the reading experience of the audience, leaving them dissatisfied and disinterested. Authors cannot afford to take this risk, especially at times when digital media is a strong competition and the number of young adults with book reading as a hobby is dwindling. The other aspect that writers need to take care of avoiding the unnecessarily lengthening of the story to convert a solitary book into book series. This can serve to be a serious deterring aspect for readers. In other words, don’t try to make your story into a book series just for the sake of making it longer. Focus on the reader and the story will come, a long one or a short one isn’t that important.