11 / 17
Jan 2021

Okay, so I've seen this question get answered before for comics, but I haven't seen any clear answers in regards to novels. So if this is a repeat post, I apologize.

The thing is, I'm almost done posting the first book of my Devil's Colt series. I've been steadily posting one episode a day for the past however many days since I first came to Tapas, doing edits, revisions, and additions as I go. And finally, we're nearing the tail end of the first story.

I have a nice shiny new piece of cover art ready to go for when book two starts, but I'm at a loss as to what to do with it. I've heard some people suggest I just tack it on to the end of book one and continue the story as a single series, but then I've also had people tell me it's better to end each installment and start up a new one for sequels.

I'm currently at sixty subscribers with this first story, and while it would be nice to reach a hundred before it's done, I just don't think that's going to happen. So what do I do? Do I continue with book two in the same series? Or do I create a new series, title it as the second book in the Devil's Colt saga, and hope that the ones who come to read it will also like and subscribe to the first book as well?

Which is the better choice? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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    Jan '21
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If you had a ton of subscribers, I think you could afford to be flexible, but since you only have 60 I recommend you just add on to the existing story and keep your momentum. Maybe throw in a divider episode between the books?

Either way works.

If the series all tells the same story, or definitely made to be read chronologically in a specific order, then I think continuing on the same series makes a lot of sense.

If the series tells multiple stories though (be it in the same universe or whatever the case may be) then I think there's more to think about in regards to splitting them up vs. continuing. By continuing you can maintain & focus all of your series growth into one place (i.e. retaining subs and the like). On the flip side if the stories are separate enough it can be potentially beneficial to split the series up to make the new stories easier for newcomers to find and read.

For example maybe the first story doesn't hook the reader but the 2nd one would, due to a different character/perspective/genre/etc. If the 2nd story is all the way at the end of the 1st one some readers may not be willing to wade through the upload list to get to it, where as if it were presented as a separate series it's easy to start at the first chapter/episode and decide from there. Although a separate series technically starts at 0 readers, it's likely that at least a few of people will migrate from the previous one. Definitely not a sure thing, though. At that point it's up to the author's discretion what they think the best way to distribute the content would be.

Having written multiple (like over 30) stories for the audio drama company all about the same character... it depends on what you want to do. To date the company has over 300 (I think) stories not including a 5 part serial I did for them. CJ Cherryh is up to book 20 in her Foreigner sci-fi series. Several of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy stories are multiple booked. Once you get into the characters you just want more and more. think Harry Dresden.

I'm writing Volume III of my Bright Morn of Issareth series. With mine they can "kinda sorta" stand alone but not really, to understand it you have to start at the beginning. But I'd rather not have something that is tons and tons of chapters long so I'm breaking it up.

If your subscribers on the first book really liked it they'll go over to the second. If they were just sub for sub types of things they might not and they might not even care if you add more chapters.

My personal opinion is that breaking it up into volumes is a good way to egg people on. I've had three people ask me for hard copies so far (I know.. three... underwhelmed but... hey why not)

There's also the aspect of possible publication. In some parts of the world tons of chapters are okay and in others... not so much. The Grave Robbers Chronicles come to mind, same characters (more or less) but divided into 6 books.

It's your call but it sounds like you were thinking of breaking it up in the beginning so, maybe your gut knows best?

Write hard, write true.

I basically decided to append to the end here, and start a new story on Wattpad with a new cover. Because nobody reads it on Wattpad anyway... here, I sort of hope that I can get the sub count up 🤧 once I keep going again.

Starting new book from scratch was just so disheartening... like back to zero again. And since it is a sequel, I hope much of the same peeps will be interested anyway.

Why bug them with subbing twice?

Also, once it pops up again, dead subs might fall off helping me to trend/popular

So from the answers I've received so far, it looks like there are both advantages and disadvantages to either strategy. On the one hand, some of you pointed out that there could be dead subscribers and sub for subs I'm not accounting for. And that could affect my ability to reach that overall a hundred subscriber count like I'm hoping to reach if I start right back at the bottom.

On the other hand, if I just keep adding on to the same series, what I do about the title? Should I just rebrand this series as "The Devil's Colt" and leave it at that? Maybe give a more generic description of the series as a whole instead of the book specific ones I was planning to do? But then if I change the title and book cover, won't that throw off people searching for my work?

I don't know. I'm conflicted here. My gut is telling me, divide them up so you can give good detailed descriptions of each story, and do them all justice with their own cover and everything, but then my head is telling me you need to focus on getting to that three-digit subscriber count first before you go messing with the algorithm. With the way my story is written, it feels like I'm going to run into obstacles no matter which choice I make.

But I guess that's the price I pay for having written all this down before I even knew that Tapas was a thing yet. This story was never meant to be episodic, I've just been taking steps to make it fit that format. Now I've got this major issue looming overhead with no clear solution. It's a little daunting, I'll admit.

Okay... lessee here, my "series" if you will was meant to be one story but I realized that wouldn't work. The first book is "Bright Morn of Issareth" and I have subsequently added "Vol. I The Arrival."

The second book I used the same art but added the words "Vol. II The Journey" and the third book is tentatively "Vol. III The Awakening." I haven't thought of a title for the 4th book yet. I'm a pantser so I'm not sure what will present itself but I do have an idea where I'm going.

My point is, all of them are "Bright Morn of Issareth..... and then whatever." Think Harry Potter... it's a Harry Potter book but then it's also... whatever.

So you do "the Devil's Colt" and then the secondary title.

Here's a link to CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series/ etc. The covers are different but the characters on the covers are the same. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/c-j-cherryh/foreigner/

My series uses the same art on the first two books. I have new art for the third (with the same Bright Morn Character) and I might use the third's for the fourth too, I'm not sure. It's costing me $$$ so I might :slight_smile:

Why is the sub count more important than presenting some great new content in a shiny new package?

Definitely both possibilities have good and bad. Let's remember that online novels and comics have a different rhythm, viewership and expectations than mainstream publications.

Pros of having a saga:
-People who loved you previous work will want to keep reading!
-People who like the new book might be interested in the first one. At the bottom of your update Tapas recommends works related and your first series will be in that list.
-Working with an existing universe is easier to expand because we count on readers to know the lore without explaining again the basic stuff.

Cons of a Saga:
-You have to plan your series an an individual but it has to make sense as a whole series, that's more work.
-A huge Issue is see on Web comic/novels is that readers forget everything, you foreshadow something in the first book, they will likely have forgotten by the time you present the pay off in further books.
-Many readers get discouraged by books that already have too many chapters to catch up and adding a whole first book might make them think is too much effort (sad but true story of many readers online.)

Starting fresh also has a lot of advantages, you can market you book differently, even make it a different genre. There are some artists that have different types of books and get more visibility because they are in different categories. You could make your stories in a shared universe. Like Star Wars, they have many series and movies and they include the text "A Star Wars story". This way you can make whatever book you have in mind, there will be a link in your other work, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a sequel unless you want to make a direct sequel. The good part of being in a very flexible medium like the internet is that you are not attached to a certain length nor there is any need to have a full saga.

generally longer running is better and since audience building is tough it’s better to stick to one title.

You can put your new cover in a chapter as a release and use it as the new thumbnail /your main cover if it fits.

Moving people between titles is crazy hard.

There are at least, if not many more readers who do not want to invest in short works that might not get completed.

Here, Tapas is actually failing the writers by not giving a separate venue to the completed works. This venue exists, it is Binge, and it is not being maintained by Tapas.

Ideally, completed novels will automatically go into binge and rank separately there, taking some pressure of this decision!

Agree, completed works for some reason are seen as "dead woks". As a reader, I think the way it's marketed affects how you perceive novels. It should be better to have a full book ready to be read...but the thing is that there is this idea that keeping up with the series as it gets uploaded is cooler, like being part of the hype instead of something that is already done and gone.
Many readers are like that. I'm not saying everyone, but the way the site is designed definitely makes older work seem less attractive.

I think it depends. Probably a good idea to think about what you want to accomplish with either option!

Keeping all updates under one book makes it less likely that you'll lose reader interest with a new update, as not everyone will want to/remember to subscribe to the sequel installment. (had this issue on wattpad many years ago, if I went back I would have kept it all under one book for that series)

But starting a new book may reach new audiences and pull in readers to your first book. That's never guaranteed of course, but that's always the goal!

Personally, I feel like a loose sequel that doesn't necessarily depend on the first book can do well on it's own. But if it's a direct follow up, it might be good to consider whether it makes sense to keep it altogether to avoid possibly confusing new readers. And being honest, if someone comes across a book they might not be interested in checking out the sequel or prequel. But other people will.

No perfect answer unfortunately ^^;

@therosesword you bring up multiple very valid points regarding a saga. And you acually hit the nail right on the head as far as what I wanted to do. That is make "The Devil's Colt" the name of the saga as a whole and then with each new series, just tack on the title for that individual novel. I.E my first series is currently labeled "The Devil's Colt: Rise of a Hunter." and my next series would be labeled "The Devil's Colt: Ashes of the Phoenix." In a perfect world I would just stick to that story structure as that's how it's always been done before. New story equals new cover and new series. That said, Tapas's algorithm clearly is not perfect as several other people have made it apparent. And I would hate to put myself in a situation where I'm fighting a software system instead of exposing more potential readers to my work.

@amortelito thank you so much for laying out all the pros and cons like that for me. Definitely a helpful resource there. Also I agree with what you and @domisotto were saying about the algorithm. It doesn't seem fair that works that are completed are considered "Dead" I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but stories are supposed to eventually have an ending right? Or do they just expect us to keep churning out these episodes indefinitely with no conclusion? It seems like Tapas would really benefit from having a section devoted entirely to completed works. But maybe that's asking for too much.

@CJYoung considering it is a direct follow up to the first, it's looking like the smartest decision would be to just keep it all in the same series. That said, If I change the title of my series to just "The Devil's Colt" and provide a more generic description of the series, then what can I expect to happen as far as the algorithm goes. What are the "cons" of doing it that way? So to speak.

I suppose this is a little embarrassing but I really haven't paid that much attention to the algorithm and just kinda "throw my child in the water so it learns how to swim."

Has anyone talked to Tapas tech about this?

Definitely is not fair that completed works get no hype in the platform. Once you finish your don't get promoted ever again unless people are re-read your series and somehow you make it into "popular" section. The rest of the sections favor ongoing works.

And you are equally doomed if you have a long ass comic/novel because readers can lose interest in a never ending story. Many creators of long runing series feel like they are being "punished" for having worked for so many years and having "too many episodes".

The advantages of fragmenting your series into books can help you to avoid both problems because you can have a book that gets updated and can still be recommended by the algorithm and this way you also can write books with a reasonable and appealing length.

They already have it. It’s called Binge, in every genre. but they want to manually populate it, instead of just filtering completed books into it. Which means that in Romance (!) you have only 2 books there, one of them is a BL & the second is like short stories... 🤯

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