Topic: Anyone with a series ending . . .

[Jessica Burkhart]

and feeling completely freaked out?   

I still have 3 contracted books to write for Canterwood Crest, my tween series, and I'll turn in my last book next summer. The final book will pub late 2013 and I vacillate between feeling excited and "this is good for my career--now I can write YA and other projects" and "OMG. I'm about to lose the financial security I had for 20 books."

Canterwood has supported me for 7 years and the thought of it not being there is, well, terrifying. Anyone else go thru something similar? How did you get yourself back into the "I've got this and I'll sell another book" mindset?

xo

[m_stiefvater]

I definitely felt weird about the end of the Shiver trilogy happening — I really didn't want that to be it for me. My solution (and your schedule may or may not work for this) was to write a standalone between the second and third books, which ended up coming out right after the last Shiver book. It made me feel like I had established that I wasn't just That Shiver Author and could do whatever I wanted next.

[Vijaya]

I've done a fair bit of WFH and most of these books do come in series, so it's always some nail-biting after you finish ... wondering whether the next one will even come. I use that time to work on my own pet projects, and somehow, things always work out.

Good luck, Vijaya

[AnneB]

I definitely felt weird about the end of the Shiver trilogy happening — I really didn't want that to be it for me. My solution (and your schedule may or may not work for this) was to write a standalone between the second and third books, which ended up coming out right after the last Shiver book. It made me feel like I had established that I wasn't just That Shiver Author and could do whatever I wanted next.

I think it is fair to say that you have absolutely established this, Maggie!

[Jeff_S]

I've been going through the same thing recently. The final book of my Deviants trilogy is out in January, which was my first original, not work-for-hire series. So far I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to follow it up with -- especially since the series didn't do well at all and that effects the saleability of any follow ups I do.

At the same time I've been writing a series for a packager, the third book of which I just finished. I have the fourth and final one left to write at the end of the year. Financially, this series has been a big help. Creatively, it's making me consider focusing more on MG than YA for my next original project.

So for the money side of things, I've already expressed an openness to doing more WFH with this same packager, since they pay extremely well and have fair contracts. For my future original projects I spoke to my agent about my various ideas and we settled on the three that have the most potential. What we're going to do is have me write up sample chapters and synopses for each, then shop on spec (with the openness to publish under another name, if necessary, to avoid the stigma from the failed series). That way we can hopefully get a contract before having to write the entire first book of the new series, and the money can keep flowing. I think with your track record for producing on such a quick schedule and for so many years, you can certainly do the same. I imagine many of your readers who started with CC young will have transitioned to YA by now, so your name will only be a good selling point!

So I guess just realize that you are an attractive prospect for any publisher based on your career so far -- all you need now is a solid idea. If you have that, you'll be fine!

[KimJo]

My two YA urban fantasy series Reality Shift and The Dark Lines aren't exactly coming to an end; after two and a half years of disappointing sales, I made the decision to stop writing them, and told my publisher that the two books she currently has under contract (one for each series) would be the last in those series. It was very disappointing for me, because those books contain some of my best plotting and worldbuilding (in my opinion). But the sales didn't justify continuing them, nor did my apparent inability to promote them effectively. I hope in the future to self-publish the remaining books in each series just so they'll be out there, but that won't happen anytime soon.

Meanwhile, I have some contemporary YAs out and have a couple things under consideration with other publishers I haven't worked with in the past, so we'll see how it goes. Mu ultimate goal is to get on board with an agent and/or a larger publisher, which might bring more exposure for my name and renew interest in the two series, but I don't know how realistic that hope is.

[Jessica Burkhart]

I definitely felt weird about the end of the Shiver trilogy happening — I really didn't want that to be it for me. My solution (and your schedule may or may not work for this) was to write a standalone between the second and third books, which ended up coming out right after the last Shiver book. It made me feel like I had established that I wasn't just That Shiver Author and could do whatever I wanted next.

That helped a lot, Maggie. I definitely fear being pegged as The Horse Girl and to combat that am working on a YA proposal when I can in between Canterwood books. I want it to be so different than my tween work and something that moves me away from that younger crowd and, like others said, hope my former readers will want to check out my work for teens.

Thanks for all the input, guys!