I've had an idea for a story that I could possibly do as a series of books (like Harry Potter, but much more adult and darker), but not sure how to go about doing that. If you're writing a series of books, what's the minimum amount of pages or words you need to write per book?

Dwriter, it's very important that the books each stand on their own as stories and in all other ways, so you need to think about each as if it weren't part of a series: for any adult novel the broad limits are, say, 70,000-140,000, with the majority of books falling into the bracket 85,000-120,000 (or a bit more if you're in a genre which likes them long, such as sf/f, historical, sagas, bonkbusters).

Emma

Yes, as Emma says, the first book of the series must also work as a standalone, it is then up to the publisher whether they want to make it into a series or not.
As for minimum word count, 80K (or 100K for fantasy) is a good figure to aim for, for each book.


- NaomiM

Ah, I see. You write them as standalone stories first. So presumably you don't mention anything to the publisher about it being a series if you try to submit it?

You write them as standalone stories first

You write the first one as a stand alone. If that's not picked up, then you'd have to reassess your options - either rewrite the other novels so thay are stand-alone and you can submit the seperately, or amalgamate them into one book.

So presumably you don't mention anything to the publisher about it being a series if you try to submit it?

The concensus of opinion is don't mention it's part of a series until you've managed to sign with an agent and they ask you what you're working on next.


- NaomiM

Yes, I'd agree with Naomi. I think you could mention that you have other adventures in mind for your characters, but not that what you're sending is only part of their story, if you see what I mean. You certainly don't want them to have the least sense that your first book wouldn't be complete and satisfying and saleable on its own.

Emma

I agree Emma. I guess even Harry Potter wasn't supposed to go on for as long as it did. Thanks for the great advice once again guys.