Dear Readers,
Every week or so in my street team, I post Random Ramblings from Lisa Suzanne, and I thought it would be fun to share some of my ramblings with you here on my blog. I plan to post once each week, probably on Mondays, and I'll write about a variety of topics. If you have suggestions, comments, or questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!
This first week, I'm going to write about a topic that came to light last night when I posted something to my author page. For those of you reading this who are aspiring authors, let me just start by saying that I have learned a lot over the past eighteen months, and there are some hard and fast rules. Before I tell you the first one, let me set the scene for you.
I'm working on my next story, and at the moment I'm planning to release it as a serial. I don't have my release date set yet, but as a side note, I plan to have all of the serials written, edited, and ready for publication before publishing the first one. It will likely be a total of five books that will run somewhere between 100,000-150,000 words.
So last night I posted a question on my author Facebook page: What are your thoughts on serials?
For the record, serials are those shorter installments of stories, sort of like episodes. Each book typically runs between 25,000-50,000 words, although that's not an exact science. Novels run a variety of lengths, typically over 60,000 words to 100,000+ words. My friend Jennifer Stevens tells me that novels officially run from 40,000-150,000 words. And she's pretty smart.
Aside from the fact that Facebook showed my post to a total of 58 people, the first two responses fascinated me. One person loves serials, and the other hates them. So, as an author, what's the answer? Do I go ahead with my plan to publish a serial, thus alienating 50% of the two people who responded to my question? Or do I reorganize my ideas and restructure my books to fit them into two companion novels or possibly a trilogy to please my serial-hater?
My ultimate answer (and the hard and fast rule that I mentioned earlier) is this: You can't please everybody.
Here are a few examples of what I mean:
✔ One review says one of my books has too much sex! The next review says there's not enough sex! Both readers read the same book.
✔ One person loves my cover. The next person finds it unappealing. Both readers are looking at the same cover.
✔ One person loves serials! One person hates serials! Both readers have enjoyed my books in the past.
It's a tough call, but ultimately when I write, I have to write what makes me happy. I have to write something that I believe in, something that I love, something that I care about. If I write my stories from an honest place, I can only hope that you will read them and love them as much as I do as I create them. Changing a serial to a series is a possibility, but it would require changing the story. And the story these characters are begging to tell is ultimately a serial.
And speaking of serials, I have several that I HIGHLY recommend you get your hands on ASAP. The links are below - make sure to let me know what you think once you read them! Click the cover to learn more.
Book 3 coming soon!
I'll end by saying thank you for reading. If you have any ideas, comments, or suggestions for future topics for my Random Ramblings, I'm always here to listen!
XOXOXOXO,
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