Why You Should Write Series

Ebooks usually disappear from the charts on Amazon after a few weeks. But when books are part of a series, they sometimes remain on the bestseller lists for years.

To avoid any misunderstandings: This article is not about classic sequels. Every book in a series must be complete in itself for this tactic to work.

So readers do not need to have read all the books in a series to understand the new book. If the books in a series are based on each other, the readers’ number decreases dramatically from book to book. If, on the other hand, each book stands alone, each new book often finds more readers than the previous ones.

You won’t find any information here about the marketing of sequels. You should also be willing to distribute your books exclusively on Amazon if you want to take full advantage of the tactics described here.

1. every new book sells several old books

It’s the same every time — as soon as a new book in one of my series comes out, suddenly all the other books in the same series sell more and more.

This is a huge advantage of writing series because usually, older books inevitably sink deeper and deeper into the charts if you don’t have paid advertising all the time.

2. the old books push the new book

Some readers might first come across the fifth book in the series at Amazon and buy it. At the end of the book, they will find links to the rest of the series, especially your current release. This way, these readers will also discover your latest book, even though they usually find their books via the search function and never look at the current bestseller lists.

3. with every book, your email list grows

Even if a reader has read the first five books of your series without subscribing to your newsletter, it is still possible that he or she will decide to subscribe after volume six. Some people need more than one book to determine that they want to hear from you regularly.

4. you establish yourself in the subcategories

The first volume of my first series was published in 2015. Until today it is still listed in the Top 100 of up to three categories on most days. This would not be possible if the book were not part of a series. But because I regularly publish new books in this series, what I described in points 1 to 3 happens.

I have now described the advantages of a series in detail. Now let’s get to what you have to do to use these advantages for yourself.

1. publish in short intervals over a long period

Anyone who writes series wants to win many loyal readers and earn a good income with their books.

If you mean it by that, you have to think and act like a professional. Learn your craft and be aware that you are not only an author but also a salesman.

Timing plays a central role in this business. You have to keep an eye on deadlines, order covers, and editing in good time, and write to advertising sites so that your ads can appear there in time for publication.

Furthermore, it is important how often you publish. How often is enough?

It is ideal to publish a new book every two months. This may sound ambitious, but it is feasible and, above all, necessary.

A new book is most effective when the last one is less than two months old. If the previous book still sells well, you can generate some additional sales by mentioning your new publication at the end of the book.

It may seem strange to call a book old just because it has been on the market for more than two months, but Amazon treats books that way.

After two months, the book disappears from the hot new releases and suddenly becomes much less visible to new customers.

As a result, sales decrease significantly, and the book gradually falls even in the less volatile rankings. Therefore, the next book should be published now at the latest. As long as a book is still listed in the hot new releases, it can do much more for your latest release.

2. use the power of Kindle Unlimited for your book

Kindle Unlimited is mandatory in most cases if you want to make good money with ebooks on Amazon today. The rentals increase the titles’ visibility enormously and let it rise in the rankings much faster than if you are solely dependent on sales.

The effect is so significant that many authors earn between 50 and 70% of their earnings from the loan program.

A series that runs well in Kindle Unlimited is like a money printing press. If you have a long series and generate many read pages, you can even enjoy high bonuses. I have received an Allstar bonus from Amazon several times, which would never have worked if I hadn’t written series.

Bind your fans to you

The fans of your series are pure gold for you. Every new series reader you can win over is potentially good for many more sales. Compare that to a reader who discovers a book of yours that is not part of a series. Getting him or her to look at your other books is much harder than getting a serial reader to buy the next book.

That’s why you need to get that reader to sign up for your newsletter. Amazon does inform readers who have subscribed to you as an author via the Amazon site, but this can take up to sixty days. But you want to be able to inform your fans immediately when your new book is published. So there is no alternative to your own email list.

Additionally, you should consider creating a group on Facebook just for your fans. Through my group, I currently reach over 300 readers at once. I can inform them about new releases, exchange information with them directly, and learn a lot about my target group.

You should use every way to get in direct contact with your readers. Do not leave it to Amazon to inform your fans.

Conclusion

If you have already gained a lot of experience and writing good stories is no longer your main problem, you should really think about trying a series.

I have managed to quit my job and make a living just from writing. That would have been much more difficult if I had only published single books that had nothing to do with the other books I had written before.

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