I grew up reading doorstopper fantasy novels. It started
with J.R.R. Tolkien, and continued with the likes of Robert Jordan, Tad
Williams, and Raymond Feist, and Robin Hobb.
If a series didn't have at least three books in it already, I wasn't
interested. Naturally, when I started writing my own novels, I wanted to have a
long-running series of my own.
I know I'm not alone in this, because many of the query
letters I've seen (through Pitch Wars and similar contests) from aspiring SF/F
authors promise books that are "the start of a trilogy" or "part
of a planned 6-book series." It worked for Robert Jordan, didn't it? In my
opinion, you should not say these things in a query letter, for three specific
reasons:
It can be
daunting to the agent. Attracting the attention of a literary agent is kind
of like trying to lure a wild turkey into a clearing. You don't want to make
any sudden movements to scare them off. That's what you're doing when you say
you've written three books and have planned four more.
The first
book needs to stand on its own. When you're trying to break into a crowded,
selective industry, you have to deliver your very best writing in a single
book. If you try to hold things back or leave too many open questions for
subsequent books, your first book may not be satisfying enough.
It's
assumed. Look, unless you've done absolutely zero research, you can assume
that the agent you're querying has read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. They know
how it works. They will expect you to leave room for a book.
My debut novel, The
Rogue Retrieval, is about the mission to retrieve a scientist from a
pristine medieval world. The gateway to that world was discovered and kept
secret by a powerful corporation. When the head of their research team goes
rogue, they obviously want to get him back before he can reveal the secret of
the gateway's existence.
When that mission ended, however, I had an entire secondary
world that I'd just begun to explore. There were compelling characters that
undoubtedly had more adventures in front of them. I was thinking, this should
at least be a trilogy. Before we went on submission, my agent asked me to write
a brief synopsis of the subsequent books in the series.
The model for this was straightforward: I thought of the
original Star Wars trilogy. Every
book would be a self-contained story, but they'd all feature most of the same
characters. Book 1 is the adventure story where the scrappy upstarts score a victory.
Book 2 is the great revelation, where the characters explore to develop
newfound skills while under duress from the antagonist's counterstrike. Book 3
is when everyone must choose a side in the epic battle, with the fate of the
world (or universe) in the balance.
Even though I had an agent and was about to go on
submission, I didn't write the subsequent books. As Michelle remarked in her
guest post about writing
and selling a fantasy series, you generally shouldn't write book 2 until
you sell book 1.
And fast forward past a long period of submissions agony,
and we had the unprecedented: an offer from Harper Voyager for The Rogue Retrieval. It was a thrilling
moment! After talking with my agent, however, we decided not to push for a
multi-book deal. There were a few strategic reasons for that:
1. The option clause
Most traditional publishing contracts have something called
an option clause, which requires that you grant the publisher an exclusive first look at your next work
of fiction. The logic behind these is that the publisher is investing in
building you up as an author, so they should have an advantage over their
competitors when your next book is ready.
The scope of the option clause varies by the deal, the
house, and the agent. Houses obviously want it as all-encompassing as possible.
Agents fight to narrow the scope to the next work in the same world, or
featuring the same categories, or in the same genre. Sometimes they succeed.
Other times, they don't. There's still a huge power differential between major
publishers and most agented authors.
Bottom line, no matter how many books are included in your
contract, you'll still have an option clause. In other words, if you write a
sequel or prequel in the world of your book, your publisher's going to have
first dibs on it.
2. Unknowns at the
publisher
As this was my first book deal, I hadn't yet worked with
David Pomerico (or anyone at HarperCollins). Artistic differences are always
possible. If it turned out that I didn't like working with him in particular or
them in general, I'd be stuck for however many books we'd committed to.
Alternatively, I might love working with David, only to see
him leave for another publishing house. Editors move around from time to time,
but an author's contract remains with the publishing house if the editor
leaves. When you sell a trilogy, that's
usually at least a two-year commitment.
3. Long-term
publicity
This last strategic reason might seem Machiavellian, and
it's not nearly as critical (in my opinion) as the first two. When you announce
the sale of a single book, I think it generates slightly less fanfare than the
sale of a trilogy or quadrology. That's a disadvantage, but a slight one. But
there's a long-term perk: it allows for a second burst of publicity if and when
you announce the contract for future books.
Those Publisher's Marketplace announcements of book deals
are widely read in the industry. They generate buzz, and all things being
equal, I'd rather have two or three chances to do that to keep my name in
people's minds.
Deadlines: A
Double-edged Sword
Another important difference between selling a standalone
and a series has to do with deadlines. When you commit to a series, the
timetable and deadlines for subsequent books are often written right into the
contract. This is useful, because it helps everyone involved in a book – the
author, the publishing team, the readers – know when to expect the next one.
Yet it also establishes firm deadlines that the writer is expected to meet. Sometimes
life gets in the way of writing, and we can't finish a book as quickly as we'd
like to. Turning a draft in late tends to wreak havoc on its publishing
schedule.
Then again, some writers work better with deadlines. When
you sell a standalone novel, there's no deadline for the next book. No expected
publication date, no slot in the publisher's promotion schedule. The fate of
future books rests, as it so often does, only with the author.
--------------------------------------------
About the Author
Dan Koboldt is a genetics researcher and fantasy/science
fiction author. He has co-authored more than 60 publications in Nature, Genome Research, The New
England Journal of Medicine, and other scientific journals. Dan is also an
avid hunter and outdoorsman. He lives with his wife and children in St. Louis,
where the deer take their revenge by eating the flowers in his backyard.
Author of The Rogue Retrieval (Harper Voyager, January 19th, 2016)
E-mail: dankoboldt@gmail.com
Twitter: @DanKoboldt
Thanks for letting me stop by, Michelle!
ReplyDeleteValuable insights, despite SFF not being my genre. Thank you, Dan, for this peek into the publishing process. And to Michelle for hosting all these useful and entertaining posts.
ReplyDeleteI found this so helpful. Thank you, Dan & Michelle
ReplyDelete