Is this a series or no?

[NRuhwald]

So, all my books are (or will be) set in the same universe, and many of them have overlapping characters. Some more so than others. The first five or so novels I'm planning to write are all centered around a particular magic cult/secret society called the Inner Circle, with one chapter existing on Earth, and one in my fantasy world, Desylvar.

The novels aren't a series in the traditional sense in that the main character of one book might be a supporting character in another, or only mentioned, or make a brief cameo. I'm currently planning on self-publishing the books, so I'm wondering if I should market them as a series or not. The order in which the books will be written is not set in stone, but I've given them in chronological order.

Here's a rough description of the books and how they intersect so you have a better idea what I'm talking about.

Book A: Set in Desylvar. Main characters are Corvin and Laia. Main antagonists are members of the Desylvar chapter of the Inner Circle.

Book B: Set in Desylvar and Earth. Main character is a snarky maid working for Laia's family, who briefly appeared in Book A. A few supporting characters from Book A appear, but not Corvin or Laia although they will be mentioned. Main antagonists likely to be members of the Inner Circle from Desylvar and Earth, but not neccesarily the same ones from Book A.

Book C: Set in Desylvar. Has some of the same supporting characters from Book A. Main character is a relative of Corvin. Main antagonist is Corvin's father, who appears in Book A. Also features another secret society, called the Crescent, working against the Inner Circle. The Crescent is suggested in the vaguest possible terms in Book A.

Book D: Set briefly in Desylvar, but mostly in a strange pocket universe. Main character is Sarah, a college student from Vancouver. Corvin is a supporting character who is now working for the Crescent. Antagonists are the inhabitants of the pocket universe, and a mysterious person Sarah brought with her when she accidentally traveled to the pocket universe.

Book E: Set on Earth. Main character is Sarah's sister, Meghan. Main antagonists are members of the Earth chapter of the Inner Circle, so there may be some overlap of characters from Book B.

I'm planning on writing these books so they stand alone, that is, so you don't have to know what went on in any of the other books in order to understand the one you're reading. Although that may change as I write them. But that's the intent, anyway.

So yeah, is this a series? Could I just add a tagline "an Inner Circle novel" without numbering them? Most importantly (just kidding, but not really) will Amazon have a problem if I do that but don't number them?

I'm sort of hoping I don't have to market them outright as a series, because the market for books 2,3 etc are generally limited to people who have read book 1. And since book 1 with be my debut novel, that may not be all that many people. Plus, as I said, the books are related, but it's not exactly a conventional series.

 

[Insolent Lad]

That's very much like my own novels set in the same universe (currently standing at 19 published and more on the way). The whole thing covers several thousand years. I do not label them as a series but some of the books do make up smaller series—trilogies, mostly—and I mark them as such in their public release. I've never really come up with a name for the whole group, other than referring to them as the 'D-World' in my own notes (after Donzalo, the star of the first series). Probably I should!

 

[Rosemary Tea]

It's been done, and I suppose you could loosely call it a series. One brilliant example is Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad books. Each works as a standalone novel, no need to read the others to understand. They're all police procedural murder mysteries with detectives on the fictitious murder squad of the (real) Dublin, Ireland police department as the protagonists. It's like that: the main character of one book always appears as a supporting character, or gets just a brief mention, or sometimes no mention at all, in the others.

She's also written some stand alone novels that don't involve the Dublin Murder Squad, and those are listed as separate from the series.

 

[Ned Marcus]

It's up to you really. Some writers would call this a series; I see it more as a cycle of books. I think saying an "Inner Circle" novel would be fine. I've never heard of Amazon objecting to this, but if you want to formally call it a series in your Amazon data, then they'd want numbers. At least, they've always asked me for them.

I see my second series as being in the same story world as my first. There's a small overlap of characters, but I market it as a separate series.

 

[Slartibartfast]

So yeah, is this a series? Could I just add a tagline "an Inner Circle novel" without numbering them?

That certainly makes sense to me. In a way, I'm reminded of the Discworld books. These could variously be described as a series, several interconnected series, or a bunch of separate books set in the same place, some of which happen in a specific order.

It's never really occurred to me to try and work out whether the Discworld books are a 'proper series' and I don't think it would accomplish anything one way or the other to try and force them into or out of that box. It sounds like your books are similar in that regard. Basically, I shouldn't worry too much about deciding on a rigid series/not-series classification and then sticking to it forever. They just are what they are.

Most importantly (just kidding, but not really) will Amazon have a problem if I do that but don't number them?

If you're referring to the new feature in KDP where you can declare something to be a series then I don't know how that feature works yet. I'd really welcome any information you turn up while you're looking into this.

 

[FifthView]

So yeah, is this a series?

Yes. If publishing on Amazon, be sure to use the exact series name for all of them. Amazon will group them this way; even one letter difference will cause the novel to be published as an item in a "different" series.

A series can be:

1. the sort like Harry Potter, with an overarching story spanning all the books, and meant to be read in a specific order;
2. something like the Sherlock Holmes or Nancy Drew books, with recurring main characters but entirely standalone stories for each novel;
3. or a set of novels linked by some theme or setting but otherwise standalone (or mostly standalone.) Some characters might overlap, but this is not necessary. A lot of anthology series also fall into this category. (Example: Wild Cards.)

Additionally, you can have "mini-series" in #3. For instance, you could have a 3-book series with an overarching plot—the #1 sort of series—within a larger series that is mostly standalone novels set in the same world.

Could I just add a tagline "an Inner Circle novel" without numbering them? Most importantly (just kidding, but not really) will Amazon have a problem if I do that but don't number them?

I think "An Inner Circle Novel" somewhere in the description, blurb, or cover will be a great idea either way.

If published on Amazon in the U.S., you can choose "ordered" or "unordered" for the series. If you choose ordered, then you'll need to select the number in the sequence for each book. Amazon will display the sequence on the series page, in order. If you choose unordered, the novels will still be grouped together as a series on the series page. An unordered series will be displayed in order of publication.

Apparently, all non-U.S. published series on Amazon must include the series number.

This is about the extent of my knowledge. I'm not sure how you'd create a "mini-series," intended to be read in order, in an otherwise unordered series on Amazon....? To make things easier in that case, you might want to separate those into their own series, ordered, and simply say "An Inner Circle Novel" on each.

Perhaps others will chime in with better info.

 

[NRuhwald]

Shoot, not in the US. An unordered series would have been great to do.

 

[FifthView]

A series page will list all the books in that series. Also, the "Books In This Series" list will appear on each novel's homepage. This can be extremely helpful for new readers.

That said, apparently series pages are only available in a limited number of marketplaces. Amazon lists these:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.co.jp

All this is new for me. I did just check out Amazon in France, and Discworld novel homepages do not have the "Books In This Series" list, unlike Discworld novels on the UK or US sites. I'm assuming they also don't have series pages in Amazon France. (They do have "Customers also viewed" and "Customers also bought" lists displayed on the homepages which contain other Discworld novels. So there's that, at least.)

However, the Discworld novels still have series numbers in the titles of the home pages, e.g. in France, "Carpe Jugulum: (Discworld Novel 23) (Discworld series) (English Edition)," so I believe that other marketplaces still support series metadata even if there is no series page or series list? I am not sure if the marketplaces that do not have series pages still use series metadata, even so. It would appear they do, but you should check out your specific Amazon marketplace.

Long story short, creating a series if possible, even if you need to include a series number, would probably be best for marketing on Amazon, i.e., for generating sales, regardless of marketplace.

That said, you might be better off creating separate series for your books if you have any that should be read in a specific order. Group those into individual series, then group all the standalone novels into another series.

Using series number for the latter, standalone novels might give the impression they need to be read in a specific order, but you could always include something like "A standalone Inner Circle Novel" in the description. The benefit of having them grouped into a series probably outweighs this inconvenience. Again, however, check with your particular Amazon marketplace to see what options are available to you.

*Edit: I would also note that your author page will have all your novels listed together, so this can help to compensate for not having a series page.

Plus, of course, your novels can appear on Amazon sites worldwide, at least ebook versions, so there's that. As author, you probably have worldwide rights, assuming everything you are planning to distribute was created by you or you've purchased the rights (maps, images, etc.) I've not set up a title from outside the U.S., so I'm less clear about the metadata you'd be entering in this case.