Trilogies, series and sequels

[malena2006]

My novel is getting to be so long, that someone advised me to divided it and turn it into a trilogy, but I don’t know how to submit it, if and when. I see that the market is crowded with sequels and series, but how do they work? Does the author know he is writing a novel in several volumes, or sequels are requested on basis of the popularity of a first book? What happens to a novel that is obviously uncompleted (e.g. The Jewel in the Crown part of Paul Scott’s the Raj Quartet)? Does one submit the total product and the publisher decides when to publish it, or does one just present the first volume with the promise of further sequels coming soon?

 

[GreenKnight]

Trilogies

Tolkien had an interesting problem with The Lord of the Rings. It was so long (and paper at the time was so scarce!) that HarperCollins wanted to divide it into three. He reluctantly agreed - and so that notorious beast the 'fantasy series' was born. But it's obvious, when you read TLOTR, that it was never meant to be three books - it is one. (Well, it's actually SIX, but you get the idea. It was meant to be one volume).

I think any book in any series/trilogy, however, should be able to stand up on its own. It should be satisfying in its own right. So make your first book good enough and no publisher will care if it's one of three, one of six, or one of one.

P.S. Susan Cooper's sequence 'The Dark Is Rising' (six books) was only meant to be the first volume initially ('Over Sea, Under Stone').

 

[malena2006]

To my eternal shame, I am not..

Tolkien had an interesting problem with The Lord of the Rings. It was so long (and paper at the time was so scarce!) that HarperCollins wanted to divide it into three. He reluctantly agreed - and so that notorious beast the 'fantasy series' was born. But it's obvious, when you read TLOTR, that it was never meant to be three books - it is one. (Well, it's actually SIX, but you get the idea. It was meant to be one volume).

I think any book in any series/trilogy, however, should be able to stand up on its own. It should be satisfying in its own right. So make your first book good enough and no publisher will care if it's one of three, one of six, or one of one.

P.S. Susan Cooper's sequence 'The Dark Is Rising' (six books) was only meant to be the first volume initially ('Over Sea, Under Stone').

a Talkien fan (though by no means do I deny his genius). But I have never been able to read more than three pages from his trilogy. But my friends (who swear by Talkien) tell me what you have jut said. It was a book that had to be fragmented. I get the same feeling from the Raj Quartet, after you finish The Jewel in the Crown, you know it demands a sequel. So many unanswered questions. That is going to happen to my novel, if by the grace of G-d, ever gets published.
Oh I just remember another example, the Forsyte Saga. Galsworthy published the first volume in 1906(A Man of Property) , and it was obviously an unfinished story.

 

[pontalba]

My novel is getting to be so long, that someone advised me to divided it and turn it into a trilogy, but I don’t know how to submit it, if and when. I see that the market is crowded with sequels and series, but how do they work? Does the author know he is writing a novel in several volumes, or sequels are requested on basis of the popularity of a first book? What happens to a novel that is obviously uncompleted (e.g. The Jewel in the Crown part of Paul Scott’s the Raj Quartet)? Does one submit the total product and the publisher decides when to publish it, or does one just present the first volume with the promise of further sequels coming soon?

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series started out as a stand alone novel, afaik, and has since extended to 6 in that series, with extensions of non-main characters into another series. Outlander was the first book she'd ever written besides some sort of dryish manuals. She had no idea the book would morph into what it has. So keep on going, and let the characters take you where they will.