Sequel Series??

I've never heard of a 'sequel series' but it sounds like a unique idea. But, why not combine your ideas into one series? That's something I did with my novel series in progress. Originally my story was to be an 8-year limited run soap opera with a 3-season primetime spin-off and another 8-season primetime spin-off (that would debut at the beginning of the 8th year of the soap). When I converted it into a novel series, I just took all of those ideas and combined them into 8-novels of the same series. I guess it all depends on the story. But if your spin-off series has one of the characters from the first, there's no reason why you couldn't make the entire story one series. Of course, if the sequel series idea works, then I would run with it. I have no idea if it's been done before (probably has). You should check to see the success of past series done that way.

Oh wait - have you already published the first series?

Hummingbird said:

Just some curious questions. If you make a series and it does good, but it's over, do you make a sequel series? And it doesn't fit in the same time as your first, but it's the same character? Is it even called a 'sequel series'?
Is the world going to end around me as post-it notes and index cards of questions bury me at my computer?
LOL, what do you think?

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Hummingbird,

I've heard of such things being done in the Movies (The Star Wars Prequels and the original Trilogy all have Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in them); I don't see why it couldn't be done in your writing. Also if I'm not mistaken, Jules Verne had some books that were connected by a single character but had nothing or little to do one with another (Specifically the character Captain Nemo in the stories 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island).

If it worked for Lucas and Verne, I don't see why it shouldn't work for anyone else.

Raymond E Feist: The Riftwar series, The Serpentwar series, the Empire series and the new Conclave (I think?) series. All set in the same world, but new stories and new characters in each (with some characters spanning all the series, despite the hundreds of years in between - fantasy can allow you to do that!).

I can't think of any others, off hand, and maybe it is the sort of thing that would be limited to the fantasy genre.

There could also be spin-offs, where minor characters from the first series get their own series.

David Eddings did it. The Belgariad was successful, so he wrote the Mallorean. Same characters, different series.

The two "Amber" series come to mind. Different Protagonist but a lot of the same secondary characters.

Tamora Pierce also. The Lioness (I think is a quartet) and is followed up by the Trickster series (only two). Actually the Trickster books follow Aly, the daughter of the Lioness, but they have the same setting and characters.

Terry Brooks sort of does it with Shannara books. There are several of them that feature the same characters all in the same world as time passes. I am currently reading some of the newer ones.