Sequel or Standalone?

[The Dark One]

When I handed in my latest novel to my agent, she asked - well stated really - 'It's a one off isn't it? No sequel?'

The way the book ends, you'd have to say: 'Absolutely - one off.' But no sooner had I said that than my natural inclination to play devil's advocate immediately suggested an angle for constructing a sequel.

The first book has now been out for about 4 months and I'm about 90 pp into the sequel, which I am really enjoying writing.

The point is, I had no idea there'd be a sequel until I'd finished the first. I've never started a book knowing there'd be a sequel and it would have to change your approach.

 

[Jackarandajam]

I'm in the same boat;

Currently writing a stand alone with the possibility of a prequel, and a few thousand words into a tie-in trilogy/series based in the same world.

Since I'm pretty dedicated to this world, I'm hoping a standalone will pull readers into it with a shorter, fast paced read.
"TH/LOTR Pattern" it should be called... a good formula. Put a book out, and if it's well received, try a trilogy. If that goes over well, then books on history and many more tales can safely follow.

I don't know if that's the order or reasoning Tolkien followed, but it makes sense to me.

 

[Gurkhal]

I make the decision based on my writing skills. Making a standalone has a much higher chance of being finished than a series so I go for that.

 

[Occassus]

Although I may not have done a lot of writing, I do a crap-ton of reading and the one main thing I've noticed in most first books is that they tend to leave seemingly unimportant things open. Finish the story at hand, by all means, but always leave a few simple and (at the time) almost unnoticable loopholes to work with if you decide to take it to the next level. Just my thoughts

 

[Caged Maiden]

When I began writing, I just WROTE. It ended up as ten books roughly broken into three trilogies, all set in the same world. That being said, almost all of them could be read as a stand alone because time passes between them all and sometimes generations of time.

Now, I've got clear goal to publish and I know the way to do that is with a stand alone because taking on a series of that magnitude as a no-name author is just not going to happen. IF this book is wildly successful, I can certainly continue the characters' journeys, but I'd hope it's just a stand alone. I don't even want to write a sequel, I want to move on to other things.

 

[Chilari]

Ten doesn't divide into three. I guess that's where the "roughly" part of it comes in. What would you call a series that comprised 3.33 books? A trililogy? tritrilogy?

 

[BMKGohan]

For me I usuallly do like a short story continuing series for a starter. As i continue if i see the potiental for a novel then I will stop and begin an outline and see what i have. But usually i just write to get ideas out and see where it goes. I could use better organization, no doubt

 

[Caged Maiden]

to answer, one book got too long and it turned into four for the last trilogy. I may still revise that book down into one longer one (heck, it's the ninth one, so by then an agent might be happy enough representing a 200k word novel).