The challenges of writing a long series & Guardian of Monsters

Bonaventure plots

 I’ve wanted to write a long series, like forever. I am a slow-ish writer and the longest series I've written to date is the Fireseed series, only two books and a sequel novella. Finally, I'm embarking on a long series, and I’ve completed book one! I will wait to launch until I have two or three books done.

Guardian of Monsters is urban fantasy, a genre I have grown to like, having penned two shared world titles in this genre (Alpha's Revenge and Secrets of the Mermaid). It’s a private investigator series, set in Savannah, and starring two supernaturals I created in my other books, Luna Finley, a mermaid and water mage, and Celestine LeBlanc, a witch and wolf-shifter. 

I just returned from a research and fact-checking trip to Savannah. I had scenes set in Bonaventure Cemetery, where I took a two-hour walking tour and discovered mistakes in my plotting. I had Celestine just walking in there at night. Turns out there’s a huge, locked fence around it. I also went to the salt marshes where I'd set scenes. Such beauty! I went to the Savannah School of Art and Design, where I set scenes, and discovered it’s the largest art school in the country, with 70 buildings scattered around the city! And who knew Savannah is the third largest port city in the USA. 

Savannah historic district porch

Anyway, it's smart to do extensive research into your subject, whether you're a plotter or pantser. Another challenge of writing a long series with romance, is that you have to find ways to keep the love interests from totally getting together. I’m used to having them commit to each other at the end of a single title novel. And since this is a PI thriller series, I want the next client to walk in at the end of each book and hire them, to intrigue readers into reading the following book. That means I have to figure out at least the rough plot of the next novel each time! 

Here’s the VERY rough blurb for book one, and some photos from Savannah.

Guardian of Monsters (Sleuths of Shadow Salon, urban fantasy PI series, Book 1)

Celestine, witch and wolf shifter has a talent for prophetic drawings. She’s shocked when she draws her landlord Ray with his eyes gouged out and a strange winged-mermaid leaning over him. Later she finds an eyeless Ray dead on the sidewalk. All she wanted to do was open a gallery, but first she must apprehend his killer. In a posthumous note, Ray wrote he wasn’t just a leather-smith but a supernatural pirate mage. Years back, his Jekyll crew trapped the evil Demon Three Eyes clan. Ray feared they’d escaped, were stalking him, and would soon wreak havoc on Savannah.

Oryn, a fellow student in Celestine’s continuing ed art class, is a fae and a thorn in her side, when he asks nosy questions about the case. Yet, she’s drawn to him when he’s her masseur at the spa she frequents, and he’s clever at brainstorming leads regarding Ray’s case. He insists his air magic could come in handy.

When pirates in Ray’s old crew are murdered, their body parts stolen, Celestine puts more horrifying clues together. She’ll need everyone on board, including Luna, a mermaid asking to show her sea-glass sculptures at Celestine’s new gallery—and the very same mermaid in Celestine’s tragic drawing of Ray. Otherwise, the lethal monstrosity Demon Three Eyes is unleashing on Savannah will destroy the city and everyone in it. 

Have you penned a long series? If so, what were some of your challenges?

Salt Marsh

Evolution of a series cover

In the book world, both indie and traditional, common knowledge is that one should occasionally recover and repackage a long-running novel or series. I run into this all of the time when I teach. Even though I assign the same booklist, the covers keep changing from year to year!

Recently, I attended an "author mastermind" conference that involved branding and taking one's authorship more seriously. Upping one's game. It seriously kicked my you-know-what! It also inspired me to take a hard look at my covers, my promo style and release schedule. In this post I'll focus on my Fireseed series covers.

Here is the evolution of the first two of the Fireseed novels, Fireseed One and Ruby's Fire over time.
See the whole series here.

Oldest, on bottom:
When I launched the series in 2011 I wanted to break out of the YA trope of girls in gowns, and even from the photo retouched cover. Coming from the art world, I also wanted to include my own interior illustrations. I hired digital cover artist Jay Montgomery, who taught at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I designed the roughs. These worked for a while as they attracted attention from their unique look. But I decided to scrap my interior illustrations as some thought they made the book seemed aimed for the 9-12 year-old set. They are meant for older teens and adults. And though the covers were an homage to the classic 50s sci-fi covers, they also began to seem dated.

The big portraits, next oldest:
Najla Qamber designed these next incarnations, with close-up heads and a more trendy type font. These sold quite well and I was happy with them.

The edgy setting covers, second to top:
Then, I hired publicists, who convinced me YA sci-fi covers no longer featured up-close faces, but had object covers such as the Hunger Games crests or otherworldly settings. We looked at the top 100 YA sci-fi on Amazon, and I took the bait. Again, Najla delivered spectacular covers with a futuristic title font. The look was sophisticated, gritty - everything I love. But the covers did not sell as many books. Ultimately, I realized that in YA, and even in adult fantasy, people are drawn to, well PEOPLE!

The brand new 2019 covers, on top:
In a meeting with a mentor from the author mastermind conference, we looked again at the Amazon top 100 in YA sci-fi. Yes, we still saw object covers, but we also saw a resurgence of faces and human figures, which filled me with relief. The lead characters in this newest set by Najla are in mid-picture, walking or standing in front of spooky cool settings, the hallmark of the series. It's a burning sky, it's harsh desert, it's strange jutting rock formations and thorny Fireseed blossoms literally on fire. It's topped off with a big, brash title font that reads clearly from a thumbnail.

Who knows if and when I'll design another set. There's something I love about each rendition. Which one do you like best and why? Have you recovered and repackaged your novels? If so, what prompted it?