52- Keeping a Series Fresh

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What does it take to keep a long-running series fresh? How do you keep readers from losing interest after a few books?

As far as series go, my first thought was the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It's kept me hooked for more than twenty years. I'm trying to analyze what it is that has kept me coming back. Off the top of my head:

The plot is the main thing. What's the new mystery Pendergast will solve? How will he do it? What new places will I visit, what new things will I learn, what legends/mysteries/conspiracies will I learn about? And I get more out of it because I actually care about the cast of characters.

I'm fascinated by the protagonist, and the authors have done a good job of never revealing too much about him, his history, his family of origin... Thus, there are always new revelations about him along the way, new layers of the onion to peel back. Pendergast himself is like a mystery that's been slowly unraveling over the decades.

I never worry that the protag will die (even though I feel the same reading a stand-alone) but the authors aren't above offing an important secondary character along the way, even one who has played an important role in many previous stories.

The authors do a good job of carrying subplots from book to book, or across several books, making sure the important characters change as a result of previous books, that their personal lives move forward...

It's fun to see a familiar face from several books back pop up again and play an important role.

The authors also occasionally go back and pluck little bits out of previous books and make them important to the current story.

I will say that I've lost interest in lengthy series that tell what amounts to a single story stretched out over several volumes. I guess it's the Robert Jordan/George RR Martin effect. With fantasy, I currently prefer authors like Mark Lawrence, who write trilogies and actually put out books on a regular basis.

Those are my thoughts on keeping a series fresh. What are yours?

2016 Earnings Breakdown

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It might be a little late in the year for this, but I thought I'd take a look back at my 2016 earnings and break down how much each vendor contributes.

As expected, Kindle was, by far, my most lucrative channel, accounting for more than three times what I earned from all other formats and platforms combined. It breaks down like this:

Kindle: 77.7%
Nook:     6.2%
Kobo:     5.4%
Audible: 4.4%
iBooks:  3.7%
Print:     2.0%
Google: 0.4%
Other e: 0.1%
Translations: 0.1%

Observations:

-Though my non-Kindle earnings seem small by comparison, I still earned a great deal more on my non-Kindle sales than I did in my previous day job.

-Nook earnings slightly declined over the course of the year.

-Kobo earnings generally held steady.

-iBooks earnings were up and down, but ended the year on an upward trajectory.

-Paperback earnings include both Createspace and Ingram (LSI and Ingram Spark).

-Since print-on-demand paperbacks are high-priced compared to their mass market counterparts, I generally price my paperbacks as low as possible. It might be worth experimenting with higher price points.

-I didn't join Google Play until the beginning of the year, and at first, I found their interface confusing, so I was lazy about listing my books. I think I finally have it down. That said, even the best months at Google Play barely surpassed 20% of the other, non-Amazon, ebook retailers.

-I sell almost nothing through small etailers such as Scribd and Smashwords. (When I say I sell almost nothing at Smashwords, I'm referring to direct sales to Smashwords customers via their site. SW remains a valid service to distribute to/sell on iBooks, Nook, etc...)

-I have been using Bablecube to sell translations of my books. Unless I can develop some effective marketing strategies, it might be wiser to hold on to rights and wait for translation offers.)

Looking Ahead
-Several of my author friends tell me they are doing very well on iBooks. I'd like to increase my sales and visibility in that store
 
-I'm curious to see whether or not the lending program Kobo is beta testing will have an impact on sales.

-Rumors are circulating that Audible plans to roll out an audiobook lending service, which will also be interesting to watch.

-With the launch of the Dane Maddock Kindle World, I expect Kindle income to continue to rise in proportion to the other vendors.

-I am strongly considering going exclusive with Createspace, as the paltry sales through Ingram mean the annual listing fees for all books in my catalog aren't worthwhile.

Overall
 On the whole, 2016 was a solid year. I was disappointed that, for the first time in many years, my units sold decreased, as did my income. I can attribute this to a lack of new releases in 2016, especially no new Dane Maddock main series book, which is my bestselling series. (Xibalba almost made it in at the end of the year, but I wound up publishing it the first week of 2016 instead.) 
 I also had to wait for Cohesion Press to publish Primordial. Had it been an indie book, it would have been out in early 2016.

I expect this year to  be better. I've been more productive, my co-authors are working hard, and the Kindle World has done very well. Fingers crossed!