Best before dates. Not just for tubs of yoghurt anymore!

When you write a series of novels the first thing that you think about is how to end the series. It’s the same as writing a novel, you have to some idea what the end-game for the characters and/or world is meant to be.

Without those guidelines the series might sag in the middle, fall apart, or just sort of widdle off instead of a satisfying denouement for readers who followed you that far. No one wants that. Rule number one of writing a series–according to TA Moore anyhow!–is don’t make the readers regret having stuck with you this far.

It can be hard though! For one thing, you generally like these characters and enjoy writing them. I assume! Then if it is a popular series the readers like it and want to see more, at least the people who talk to you do.

Plus, you know, money. That green temptress! None of my series have hit that tipping point yet, where I’d be tempted to draw the conclusion out to get one more book’s worth of revenue in, but it would be disingenuous to pretend I couldn’t be tempted. I’m Ulster-Scots, we’re a prudent people!

So how do you decide how long a book series is?

Well, first of all it depends on what TYPE of series it is. What genre is it, does it follow the same characters, or does each book have a different protagonist?

Crime and Urban Fantasy can run a bit longer. You can extend it more if the books visit a different set of characters each time. High Fantasy, for me, always fits into a trilogy. A series that is world-based rather than character based, different MCs each time, can usually run for longer.

This is mostly, from my POV, because…eventually people want things to end! Even in a long running series, they want the throughline plots to wrap up and then new ones to kick off. In a direct series it’s even more important, because you can’t really have a HEA until the series wraps. So if you have more than 5-7 books with the same MCs, you kind of have to start screwing with their relationship. I mean, otherwise they’d either just be together, right?

Usually, The word usually, by the way, is important. For every rule there’s a series that flaunted it!

My series, for example?

I’ve always planned for Digging Up Bones (direct series, crime) to be about four books long, give or take the occasional short of novella. Wolf Winter (related series, urban fantasy) was always a trilogy. Then there’s Island Confidential (related series, contemporary) which is going to be about five books, but could probably go longer since they are all stand-alones with a shared location.

Hopefully.

Because, in the end, how long a series is depends on how well it works. If no one wants to read the books, obviously the series needs to wrap up soonish!