Writing Multiple Series – 11/6/2021

BAIPA monthly meetings are now exclusively on Zoom, at least until we get through this COVID-19 crisis. The Zoom links will be provided to you via email on the Friday evening before, around 9 PM.
Therefore, all non-members MUST register in advance in order to participate. However, all current BAIPA members will get the Zoom info for the morning session automatically.

Please scroll down to the bottom of this page for the list of available tickets. Members, please log in first.

The general meeting begins at 9 am, the speaker presentation is at 11 am, after Q&A, networking time, introductions & announcements, followed by a lunch break from 12:15-1:00 PM, and then our Afternoon Workshop from 1-3 PM.

(Click here for the schedule for the day)

MORNING PRESENTATION:

Writing Multiple Series

Edith Maxwell,
Agatha Award-Winning Author

Award-winning author Edith Maxwell writes and promotes at least three books a year in different series from different publishers, and sometimes more, plus short stories.

In this talk, she provides tips for series and time management, how to juggle due dates and release schedules from different series and publishers, and a few tried-and-true ways to maintain author sanity while still writing the best book she can – and promoting same.

Series management includes keeping careful records and making series maximally distinct from each other.

Time management involves authors find their creative time and sticking to it, finding a group to check in with, setting manageable goals, stowing the editor brain during first draft production, letting first drafts gel, and getting away for retreats.

She also discusses ways to juggle competing priorities, offloading tasks, and staying healthy.

Takeaways:

1. Discover ways to manage a busy schedule.
2. Learn how to stay productive.
3. Gain tricks for writing more than one series at a time.

As Maddie Day, Edith Maxwell writes the bestselling Country Store Mysteries series with nine books out. Two more are completed and in production along with her second novella in the series, and she is under contract for more. In other series she has seven books, five books, and in the ongoing Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, two books are out with two more in production.

In this workshop, she discusses how to design a series from the start and how to keep readers hooked. Topics she covers include keeping a series “Bible,” naming characters, deciding on the recurring group of characters who support the protagonist, and keeping things fresh over the course of the series so readers keep returning to each new book.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own series ideas to share.

Takeaways:

1. Understand how to keep series characters distinct.
2. Learn how to keep records for a series.
3. Hear how to keep a long-running series fresh.