Sequels: part of same SH series or a new series?

[KrakenRiderEmma]

I know not everyone "thinks" in volumes, some webnovels are just a chain of hundreds of chapters. For my main series, when I got about ~55 chapters in I reached a point where I thought "YES! This is totally where volume 1 ends." Then the second volume of the story, still in first draft state, kinds of starts its own action, at a reset "pace" and with some recap, slightly different themes and focus than the huge first "arc of arcs" etc. I'm going to hit the end of the first volume sometime next month, so I'm trying to plan the next steps now...

As ebooks or printed books, these would definitely be two different books. But in serialized form I'm not sure. Some authors on this site like to start a new series for a "sequel" and some don't -- curious if anyone has opinions either way.

Downsides to a new series: might lose some readers along the way, readers have to look at multiple series to really understand how big a series is, new readers might accidentally start on the later volumes instead of the earlier ones

Upsides to a new series: "fresh start" feel, can have its own title and cover like a printed book would, tags will be more accurate since they can be about just the current volume, number of people actually reading more accurate

I also see people indicating the start of a new volume in chapter titles, like "v2 Ch.36" or whatever, which gets across the idea that "this is a new volume" without starting a new series, but (usually) without the title and no new cover, new tags, etc.

What have you done / what would you do?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

If it's ~55 chapters then I would choose, Same series/Same Name, readers won't lose their way. If it's ~555 chapters I would choose, New series, it can have its own name that way

 

[KrakenRiderEmma]

Yeah I don't think any of the volumes (I have outlines for three) would be more than 80 chapters. So if there are three, it might be around 200, everything else would be side-stories / spinoffs. However, my chapters are average 3k words, which is probably 50% more than average.

Probably worth noting that ranking numbers on Scribble Hub favor really long series because any series would rack up more pageviews, readers, chapters, reviews, favorites etc by not starting a new series. But that seems like the "wrong reason" to decide, LOL

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Yeah I don't think any of the volumes (I have outlines for three) would be more than 80 chapters. So if there are three, it might be around 200, everything else would be side-stories / spinoffs. However, my chapters are average 3k words, which is probably 50% more than average.

Probably worth noting that ranking numbers on Scribble Hub favor really long series because any series would rack up more pageviews, readers, chapters, reviews, favorites etc by not starting a new series. But that seems like the "wrong reason" to decide, LOL

My chapters are usually around 2.2k words, still the same answer. Anyway, why do you even think of splitting the novel into separate series? It's not like you are writing a hardcover book that will go into printing. And if you ever do achieve the popularity and succes to print it, it will be like how they do it in Japan. Web novel version is well, on the internet, light novel version is divided into volumes and gets printed.

 

[KrakenRiderEmma]

Probably just because I've read a dozen web novels / light novels but hundreds of books that are split into trilogies or series, so my brain thinks of them like separate books, and there's a thematic/tone shift in the "new book." Just like a new season of a TV show, you could probably take a break from the story for a while and pick up.... or just keep reading. Just a slight aesthetic difference... it doesn't really really matter but I'm curious whether other people have an aesthetic preference.

Plus, print on demand is like $5-$10 per copy of a book these days, anyway. I have friends who want a POD copy so I'll probably do it for fun, why not. But I can just split the volumes at chapter 55, etc for that.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Meanwhile, the 'me' with four arcs (15 volumes) of different titles but same story uploaded...