Should I continue my story, or start a new one?

[E.Z.KAI]

I've now finished the first arc of my story Monster Girl Bet! and started Arc 2. However, there's a change in the protagonist (the main character's son), as well as a 20-year time skip and the main goal changed too.

Should i treat it as a new book?

 

[CinnaSloth]

if it is a new plot, new characters, new basis except same world, -- new book.
there is a spot in the synopsis page to say its a side story/ side branch of the previous.

 

[YukieSama]

I've now finished the first arc of my story Monster Girl Bet! and started Arc 2. However, there's a change in the protagonist (the main character's son), as well as a 20-year time skip and the main goal changed too.

Should i treat it as a new book?

Prob side story imo. I think smut readers would be disoriented to suddenly having sex scenes with a different man as the lead. Unless of course you've made that clear but your tags doesn't have multiple POV or multiple protagonist. So it might risk alienating your current readers.

 

[E.Z.KAI]

if it is a new plot, new characters, new basis except same world, -- new book.
there is a spot in the synopsis page to say its a side story/ side branch of the previous.

Old characters will be appearing, but mainly as side characters, while their children steal the spotlight.

Prob side story imo. I think smut readers would be disoriented to suddenly having sex scenes with a different man as the lead. Unless of course you've made that clear but your tags doesn't have multiple POV or multiple protagonist. So it might risk alienating your current readers.

Ah! Ty! I should add multiple pov nonetheless

 

[Hal82]

Hmm, in my primary project there are several time skips later on. Since the series deals with multiple timelines and layers, I’ve switched to using a simple time marker (year xyz / era xyz).
Because the series was planned as multi-book from the start, I don’t split it by time periods, protagonists, or their successors—I structure it more by volume length, roughly 90–100k words each.

 

[MFontana]

I've now finished the first arc of my story Monster Girl Bet! and started Arc 2. However, there's a change in the protagonist (the main character's son), as well as a 20-year time skip and the main goal changed too.

Should i treat it as a new book?

As a reference point, Utawarerumono did something similar.
The first visual novel (re-released under the subtitle Prelude to the Fallen) takes place about 20 years or so before the second and third.
Each VN is its own story, and the they are all part of the same series.
My suggestion would be to indicate the difference as part of the chapter titles.
Volume 1, 2, and so on, and restart the chapter count with the new story arc/volume.

 

[RicoLiemanto]

Me personally, I'll create a new story on it.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Well, here's what I plan to do, if I ever get back to it, with Between Earth and Pyrroth:
Book one or maybe two (kind of started a second with a new plot thread and a few new characters added in just before I ran out of free time to write) ends with the death of one MC; there's a transitional period with characters dealing with the loss, the children of four of the characters growing up, etc., and then the second book begins on the night of the 19th birthday of one character, who is just about to start her first year of college - as well as do other things. It will remain as a single "book" and will introduce the three characters who form the core of the final book in the series (one is 17, one 15 and the other 14 when book two starts), but they will only have minor roles (at least as planned). I don't intend to have a transitional phase between those two books but ... have only written one chapter of the first of those two...