Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer: Business for Breakfast, #14
    Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer: Business for Breakfast, #14
    Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer: Business for Breakfast, #14
    Ebook76 pages1 hour

    Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer: Business for Breakfast, #14

    By Blaze Ward

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    These days, your readers want series. That chance to revisit their favorite characters over and over, to see where their lives are going next.

    Television has spoiled them for long arcs of story spanning seasons, rather than episodes. You need to adapt to this new world.

    Learn to write in series, expanding your stories into greater and greater tales.

    Topics we cover:

    • Writing faster and cleaner
    • Writing series that your fans will want to read
    • Continuity encyclopedias (or, how to not have to spend hours looking up some detail)
    • Extending your universe with spin-offs and things
    • Thoughts on marketing your series
    • Ending things before everyone gets bored.

    This is a 201-level book, taking you from writing novels to that place where you are turning a quarter of a million or more words into one long, engaging story that your fans just can't put down.

    Be sure to read the entire Business For Breakfast books and see how it can help you improve your writing craft and up your publishing game.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKnotted Road Press
    Release dateAug 21, 2019
    ISBN9781644700785
    Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer: Business for Breakfast, #14
    Author

    Blaze Ward

    Blaze Ward writes science fiction in the Alexandria Station universe (Jessica Keller, The Science Officer,  The Story Road, etc.) as well as several other science fiction universes, such as Star Dragon, the Dominion, and more. He also writes odd bits of high fantasy with swords and orcs. In addition, he is the Editor and Publisher of Boundary Shock Quarterly Magazine. You can find out more at his website www.blazeward.com, as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and other places. Blaze's works are available as ebooks, paper, and audio, and can be found at a variety of online vendors. His newsletter comes out regularly, and you can also follow his blog on his website. He really enjoys interacting with fans, and looks forward to any and all questions—even ones about his books!

    Read more from Blaze Ward

    Related to Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer

    Titles in the series (19)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Reference For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Firing Up Fiction

      May 21, 2019

      Firing Up Fiction
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Identifying Your Book’s Target Audience

      Dec 21, 2020

      For about two years before I became an editor, I was an English composition instructor for first-year college students. (I was not good at it.) During that time, one of the most important things I tried to drive home to the students was: Know your au

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Writer’s Bookshelf

      Aug 17, 2022

      As you find your path as a writer, there may be no better support than the wisdom of your fellow travelers. Let these twelve recent and forthcoming books by some of contemporary literature’s most insightful and generous luminaries guide you on your w

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The ABCs of Freelance Success

      Oct 7, 2024

      Many freelance writers, especially those at the beginning of their careers, tend to place almost all of their professional focus on one specific component: craft. They work extra hard to master the basics of effective nonfiction writing because they

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Level Up Your Writing (life)

      Apr 12, 2021

      Consider this: Evocative writing in which characters come to life so fully that you’d recognize them as readily as, say, a neighbor or aunt. Now consider: Did that literary wondrousness take place in an amorphous place and time, a setting so vague th

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Milking The Cow, Part 2

      Oct 28, 2024

      Previously, we discussed the challenges of developing article ideas, finding appropriate markets to query, building a professional portfolio, and the value of multiples in freelance success. Here, we’re going to pull it all together as we explore the

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Getting Creative With Reality

      Oct 1, 2020

      What do H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, Notes on a Small Island by Bill Bryson and Tall Stories and Wee Tales by Billy Connolly have in common? They all belong to the increasingly popular genre of creative non-fiction writing. When creative non-fic

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Eye On The Prize

      Mar 26, 2022

      Eye On The Prize
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Milking The Cow, Part 1

      Oct 28, 2024

      Making a living as a freelance writer can be challenging. I know because I’ve faced every obstacle the job can throw at a writer, from uncooperative sources and unresponsive editors to uncompromising deadlines and fly-by-night markets that publish th

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Design And Publish Your Very Own EBooks

      Jun 30, 2020

      Ever wanted to become a self-published author? Looking for a simple way to create a digital publication – whether book or magazine – that can be read on a variety of devices? The solution lies in creating your book in EPUB format, which formats your

      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Overcome the Pantser vs. Plotter Dichotomy—And Improve Your Prose

      Jun 12, 2023

      Hang around any gathering of prose writers, and soon you’ll hear the question: “Are you a pantser? Or a plotter?” Pantsers write, per the old bromide, “by the seat of their pants.” Meaning, they plop down in a seat with a glimmer of an idea, staring

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Building Block Of Character: Part ONE

      Jun 6, 2024

      So far, in our meandering through the Building Blocks of Creative Writing, we have taken a look at the Building Block of Structure and the Building Block of Setting. We will now examine another of the fundamental Building Blocks of Creative Writing:

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Bookish

      Feb 26, 2022

      BY MATT BELL Author and writing teacher Matt Bell offers a three-part plan to help aspiring novelists finish a manuscript. First is the exploratory phase of discovery and drafting; the second involves structured outlining and rewriting; then, finally

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Month Ahead

      Sep 24, 2022

      Today is the first day of Mystery Series Week. Which mystery author will you read to celebrate? Finalists for the 73rd annual National Book Awards will be announced today. Litquake, San Francisco’s annual literary festival, begins today and will cont

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Recipe For Murder

      Oct 5, 2023

      A Recipe For Murder
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Your Writing Critiqued

      Jul 4, 2024

      Your Writing Critiqued
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Celebrating Our 135th Year

      Feb 26, 2022

      Celebrating Our 135th Year
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Deciding to Self-Publish

      Dec 21, 2021

      Whether you’ve been querying for a while or are still considering how to get your book into the world, self-publishing might have crossed your mind. The great thing about self-publishing is that technically, it’s open to anyone and provides opportuni

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Meet the Writer

      May 27, 2023

      Meet the Writer
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Read All About It

      Aug 16, 2021

      Getting Reviews for Self-Published Authors One of the elements a traditional publisher usually takes care of for an author is getting reviews ahead of launch. Authors seem to have a love-hate relationship with book reviews, which is fair! It can be h

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      More Eyes = More Sales

      Aug 13, 2019

      More Eyes = More Sales
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Scene-test Your Story

      Aug 31, 2020

      Scene-test Your Story
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Playing The Freelance Field

      Dec 21, 2021

      When stay-at-home orders were issued in March 2020, I found myself trying to buy food in a crowded grocery store after shoppers panic-bought most everything off the shelves. I knew of enough substitutes for everyday staples—sour cream for eggs, bakin

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Steve Harpster

      Dec 12, 2022

      WHY SELF-PUBLISH? I have created many books for other companies including entire series of books with product lines and merchandise. When the recession hit, my phone stopped ringing, and it was hard to find new work. It dawned on me to create my very

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Creative Content

      Jun 6, 2024

      Creative Content
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer

    4/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer - Blaze Ward

      Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer

      Series and Continuity for the Professional Writer

      Business for Breakfast: Volume 14

      Blaze Ward

      Knotted Road Press

      Contents

      Author Note

      More Author Note

      1. Writing In Series

      2. The Importance of Continuity

      3. Extending Your Universe

      4. Marketing And Your Series

      5. Endings, As Well

      6. Concluding Thoughts

      Read More!

      About the Author

      Also by Blaze Ward

      About Knotted Road Press

      Author Note

      The purpose of the Business For Breakfast series is to provide writers and artists easily digestible chunks of information. Bite-sized business advice. Our goal is to give you a section or chapter that you can read over breakfast each morning, thus the title. The concept comes from my wife, the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ having to read a two inch thick book on Copyright Law, which took her months, as she just read a section every morning while eating her breakfast.

      In this book, I’m going to address and extend some themes you’ve heard from me before, but I’m going to deep-dive on this topic because I believe it is that important for the modern Indie Writer.

      Mind you, only the Indie artist. If you are wishing to pursue a career in so-called Traditional Publishing (querying an agent, shopping a book, getting an advance, book tours, signings, etc.) then most of the B4B series will not be particularly useful, and I need to warn you that I occasionally have less than kind things to say about that lifestyle.

      This book, however, is largely an exception to that rule. Assuming you could be successful at a TradPub career (which I do honestly believe is less and less likely each year, but nonetheless…), then the lessons and ideas here on Series & Continuity will still be useful.

      We all have different paths to the top of the mountain, and I am not about to suggest that mine will work for anybody else, but I will point out that as of now (May 2019), I’m successfully retired from a day job for over a year, approaching my 50 th birthday, and supporting myself completely from my writing. Note, there is no income from editing, publishing, or other associated tasks. I am successful on my writing alone, and doing rather nicely.

      That, in my opinion, gives me some standing to lay out some suggestions that I think any writer could use as they work to carve out their own idea of success. You still have to do the work, and you’ll have your own path to success.

      Writing in series is, today, one of the best mechanisms to achieve financial success as a writer. But not everyone has money at the top of their career goal, so indulge me for a moment as I lay out my usual argument, and then try to better frame it into the context of this book.

      Do You Want To Be Famous Or Rich?

      Every beginning writer I ask that question to immediately answers both with a snide and usually sarcastic smirk. That outcome is, unfortunately, so unlikely in the modern age that being struck by lightning has a higher probability than you ever becoming a world-famous, fabulously-wealthy writer.

      Those days are gone. The world has changed.

      Go back, and read that line again. The world has changed.

      As of right now, most of the (currently) Big Five Publishers have done away with their career midlist writers. Those were the folks that could make a nice, comfortable, middle-class income from their books. They are no longer being offered contracts after a while, and are finding that their TradPub careers are done.

      Over.

      They wake up one morning with a rejection letter from the editor that has been happily buying their work for years, with no useful explanation. Worse, perhaps the publisher does offer them a contract, but it is twenty pages of legalese rights grab so dense as to be impenetrable.

      And the advance being offered appears to be missing a zero.

      These folks are no longer welcomed by the big publishers, and must try something else. Sometimes, they will be able to revert the rights to their books, but that will become less and less likely over time.

      Maybe that’s you. If so, welcome to the dark side.

      New writers these days are coming up and taking those deals, because they will accept any advance and whatever horrible IP-grabbing contract offered, for one very important reason.

      They would rather be famous.

      They want to be able to walk into a bookstore like Barnes & Noble and touch their name on a spine on a shelf. That the advance they received is crap doesn’t matter. That they will never get the rights back doesn’t matter.

      Their definition of success is being a published author.

      And then they’ll go back to their regular job in a call center, or being a mom with a supportive spouse whose income is enough to cover the household while they write. Something.

      They will not ever make enough money to even consider living on.

      For an anonymous example, a friend who has had several TradPub contracts over the years was complaining the other day that they rarely ever made four figures a month in income from all of their books. Four figures. $1,000 US. And this person was a big

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1