I was thinking about this thread and realised we've not answered your original question, Fairies, so I'm going to start again.
Hi. I know when you go to publish the first book in a series, you get put on a contract for how many books you are going to write, say a three book contract if it is a trilogy.
I was just wondering, is it possible to get out of this contract if you hit a wall and run out of ideas in a series? I know sometimes they give you more time, but is it possible to actually get out of it?
It is usually possible to get out of your contract but if you have to get out of it because you can't supply the book(s) you're contracted to, you'll not enjoy getting out of that contract.
You'll have to pay back the advance you were paid and might have to pay termination fees, which can be substantial. It's neither easy nor painless. If you can't be reasonably sure that you can write the books you're being offered a contract for, it's best not to sign the contract.
I say this because I am worried about my own series. I'm an outliner, and have the first two books pretty well figured out. I know how the story ends, I know I need four books to get there, but I don't have a vast amount of 'filler' for the last two books. I'm worried I'm going to run out of ideas.
If you've outlined the series, and it's clear to you now that you don't have enough for the last two books without adding filler, then
you don't have a four-book series. You might want to write a four-book series, but you don't have an outline for that right now, and if you add "filler" then you still won't have four books. You'll have the same as you've got now, but with stuff that any good editor is going to cut.
If it's not possible to get out of the contact, is it possible to only make it a two book contract when you know there is going to be four books? How would that work?
Two-book contracts are probably more common than four-book contracts.
If it was likely that there would be more books in the series than the two under contract, the contract would include a clause which gave your publisher the right of first refusal on subsequent works in the series. That wouldn't oblige them to take those books if you wrote them: it would just mean you'd have to let them see them before offering them to any other publishers (not that any other publishers would be likely to take books three or four of a series when another publisher had already published books one and two, but still).
Hi, so the problem is that the way I have it outlined, I KNOW I need four books to get to the ending.
No. You KNOW you've outlined something which says you need four books to get to the ending; but you also know you've not got enough content for those four books, so unless something big changes you aren't going to end up with four books.
But your telling me sometimes, if they know it's a series, they won't give you a four (or how many there are) book contract? That would be the kind of deal I am looking for. I just want to take it one book at a time.
You're more likely to be offered a one or two book contract as a new and untried writer, with the publisher having a right of first refusal on subsequent books.
I think you should concentrate on writing your first book now, if it's not already written, then write a new and better book, unrelated to that first one, and only start writing book two in your first series when you have sold book one.
This isn't a business decision, as was suggested upstream: it's good writing advice. Writing in a new world will stretch your talents and techniques and improve your writing in ways that writing a sequel will not.
If you have your outline structured for four books, but only have enough material for two, then you need to rethink your outline. Just because you want certain points in your outline to be the ending of a book two, three and four does not mean your story needs four books. You may have to turn some of those outline points into mini-resolutions within one or two books.
Yep.
We state in our contract that we have the first rights to the next book in a series instead of dedicating ourselves to unwritten books.
This doesn't make sense: if you have rights to the next book in a series, then you ARE "dedicating [y]ourselves to unwritten books".
And if you state in your contract that you have first rights to the next book, then I am not impressed by your contract. Good publishers take a right of first refusal to related books: but those clauses are very specific and don't demand that they just get to take those books, no matter what.
