What to do with a rejected sequel?

It's going to be difficult for you to find another publisher willing to take on Book Two of a serial, but it's not unheard of.

Could you rework it so that it's a standalone, and then try other publishers? If you think not, your options are probably now self-publishing or not publishing it.

Like OH said, if you think its good, don't can it, self publish. Not that hard and if your list on your website as sequel, could do well with those that enjoy sequels.

Good advice thus far.

If you do decide to self publish, I'd wait a little while.

Put some time into marketing the first book and build the desire for a sequel.

Then, self publish the second book and direct all incoming queries to where they can buy it.

You can table it for now, rewrite it as a stand alone, or self-publish. There is an outside chance another publisher will take it as a sequel but I have only seen that happen once.

A number of times over the years I HAVE seen a series that starts out at one publisher and continues at another by various authors, and with Amazon being the great equalizer I don't think you need to give up on the idea that people will follow your series from one pub to another though they may be people who read book two first and then go back and find book one.

What would be absolutely key is making sure the book does stand on it's own and can be read without the first one. People will then read book 2 and go look for your other books and find book 1. I don't think you need to assume that you can't do this without trying it.
I would suggest going through book two and fixing anything you need to to make it stand alone. You can just give a clue the books are linked in how you title the second book. (Making it similar to the first.)

It never occurred to me that a sequel might get rejected, and I'm frankly horrified at the prospect. No advice here, I'm very sorry, just some moral support!

gingerwoman said:

A number of times over the years I HAVE seen a series that starts out at one publisher and continues at another by various authors,

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Can you give us examples, Ginger? I've only heard of this happening very rarely (perhaps a couple of times) so it would be good to know if it's more common than I thought.

and with Amazon being the great equalizer I don't think you need to give up on the idea that people will follow your series from one pub to another though they may be people who read book two first and then go back and find book one.

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The issue isn't that readers will be reluctant to follow the series from one publisher to another; it's that most publishers are reluctant to take on part of a series when the first book has already been published elsewhere.

What would be absolutely key is making sure the book does stand on it's own and can be read without the first one. Then when submitting it to the second publisher don't even mention that there is a linked book.

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My bold.

Please don't do this!

Seriously. This could lead to cancellation of your contract, legal action, book-pulping... it's really unprofessional. Just don't.

Old Hack said:

Can you give us examples, Ginger? I've only heard of this happening very rarely (perhaps a couple of times) so it would be good to know if it's more common than I thought.

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I don't know many of the details of why and how these series switched publishers. I just happened to notice them so I thought the OP might have some hope.

Maya Banks moving her Colters series from Samhain to Berkley.
Joanna Wylde's Reaper's Legacy series moving from EC to Penguin.


Our member LA Witt had a short story with Amber Quill Press set in a small town called Tucker Springs that later became a whole series of connected books at Riptide Publishing.


Robin L. Rotham's Alien Overnight series moved from EC to Samhain.

Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel’s Legacy series switched from TOR Macmillian to Grand Central Publishing.



(Sorry about weird font switches from copy pasting, I don't seem to be able to undo them.) My apologies for the mistakes.

The OPs publisher was a romance epublisher and most of the series listed above started at romance e-publishers. Possibly it's extremely uncommon in other genres .

Sunny Moraine said:

I write a sequel. It gets rejected. I'm like, okay, and I basically rewrite it from scratch.

So I guess I'm wondering about the likelihood of being able to sell this thing elsewhere - which I know is not high, but I'm trying to get a sense of just how low "not high" is while I think about what's next.

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This happened to a friend of mine in back in ancient times. She had two books with a medium size print house, the books sold well, but things changed at the house and the third book winding up the series was rejected. She could not interest another house in the reprint rights for a 3 book series, with the 3rd book being all new. Things are even tighter now than they were then.

I would hazard that it is very unlikely you'll sell the sequel to another house.

Give it one more solid effort to sub it to the publisher and ask for specific reasons exactly why they don't want it. If there's a basic flaw in the book, they should let you know about it. If they don't, then see about getting some beta readers here on AW to check it over.

If the house turns it down again, take that as a firm no and consider the next option: selling it to another publisher.

If it's marketed as a "sequel" to the first book, they're not going to be interested. They won't say it to your face, but most are not going to buy "sloppy seconds."

If you do a rewrite so it is a stand-alone, you make it more marketable. There's no guarantee it will sell, but you'll be on the submission go-round for it, which takes time.

If it is impossible to do such a rewrite, then the best option is go for indie publishing the book.

On your website you pimp the hell out of both books. Readers generally don't care who publishes the book so long as it's something they want. If they love the first, they will buy the 2nd.

Expenses: you want a professional edit (I can point you to one of my friends, who is experienced, careful, with reasonable rates. No passive verb is safe around her!) and a professional cover that compliments whatever cover is on the first book. Istockphoto is a good place to shop for low cost images.

Those costs will vary, you'll have to research them. There are a number of talented artists on Deviant Art who might be able to do a cover for you.

But uploading to Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, and Createspace is free.

Now -- here is something that no one has mentioned: be working on the next book.

Heck, be working on the next five books.

These are just two of many more. Don't get bogged down on this situation and forget to move forward!

If it's all possible, I'd say give yourself a week or so to REALLY think about whether or not your editor is right about the issues in your book. Maybe talk to your agent if you have one. Not to say that you're automatically WRONG, but maybe you're too emotionally close right now.

re. books in series published by different publishers - I do know that 'Eric' by Terry Pratchett (I think it was the 8th or 9th book in the Discworld series) was published by Victor Gollancz rather than Transworld who published the other 40 or so of his novels.

I don't know if it was rejected or what, just thought I'd drop it in there.

I don't think many of us are as popular as Terry Pratchett, though, so it's probably best for us to assume that most good publishers are unlikely to be interested in publishing the tail-end of a series which another publisher started.

Sunny Moraine said:

So I guess I'm wondering about the likelihood of being able to sell this thing elsewhere - which I know is not high, but I'm trying to get a sense of just how low "not high" is while I think about what's next.

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Easiest way to find out is to submit it to other agents and publishers. You always have the option of publishing it yourself if you wish.

Jeff

I didn't think anyone would be interested in my sequel after my publisher rejected it. As others here have mentioned, I re-wrote it so it would stand alone, adding parts of the first book via one character's dreams. I got an offer for that book, as well as for three more books, from a respected publisher in my genre. I used that offer to get an agent.

My advice: don't give up on it just yet. Rewrite it as a stand-alone/sequel and try to come up with a third book. Get an offer from a respected publishing house, then use that leverage to interest a good agent. Or get an agent first. Either way.

GingerGunlock said:

It never occurred to me that a sequel might get rejected, and I'm frankly horrified at the prospect.

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Happened to me. My debut novel was accepted by Samhain, but the sequel I wrote to it wasn't - it got an R&R, and finally an R.

After a little while, I hit upon another idea for books set in the same world and following the first novel. Right now I've sold three sharkpunk manuscripts to Samhain and just finished the fourth. If not for the sequel being rejected, I might not have decided to try a different tack. So it doesn't have to be that devastating a prospect.