Some authors prefer to write standalone books. Others (it me!) prefer to write a series when possible. Why? Let’s talk about that!
What Does It Take to Write a Series like The Record Shop Mysteries?
Some stories are more suited to a series than a standalone. Sci-fi, for example, is great for a series, and can go on for decades. Mysteries (my personal favorite genre to write) make a great series. Romances make for a good series if there are plenty of single friends, co-workers, and siblings that deserve their own story arc. Suspense/Thrillers aren’t designed for a series because usually the Big Bad is caught at the end of the book or the Secret is Revealed, but sometimes a copycat killer can pop up in a follow-on book. Cozies are tailored for the series format because readers come back time and time again to hang out with their favorite characters or visit their favorite locations. In the Record Shop Mysteries, sisters Juni, Tansy, and Maggie run Sip & Spin Records, which is at the center of each mystery. Readers know they’re going to get hot drinks with the punniest names, cool music anytime they visit, and murder is always the special of the day.
Series or Cliffhangers?
But wait! I want my story wrapped up in a neat little bow. Maybe a series isn’t for me!
Not necessarily. A book (or TV show, or movie) that ends on a high tension note without any resolution isn’t necessarily a series. That’s a cliffhanger, and they’re two very different beasts. A cliffhanger is designed to draw you in and make you have to start a new book to get a resolution. It’s a technique some writers and some readers love because they know there’s always something more. Personally, I’ll end a chapter with a character literally hanging off a cliff so the reader is enticed to start a new chapter, but I’ll never end a book without the main plot coming to a conclusion. Will I leave some questions up in the air? Abso-freakin-lutely. But if you’re reading a murder mystery, by the end of one of my books, you’ll know whodunit (and why).
What to Expect in an Olivia Blacke Mystery
Aha! Readers will always walk away satisfied!
Exactly. Except, not really. First off, no one book (or series) can satisfy everyone. If it could, it would be a very bland story indeed. I write mysteries that are laced with clues – some real, others not so much. I give you a set of suspects, and then slowly reveal bits and bobs until the killer is exposed. Maybe you picked up on the killer on page 3, or maybe you only figured it out on page 300, but there’s always fighting chance for the reader to solve the crime along with (or before!) our intrepid sleuth.
And, as far as the series goes, each book in the Record Shop Mysteries will be solved but I’ll leave loose ends because if there are no stakes in a series, you might as well read a cookbook. Will Sip & Spin Records ever turn a profit? Will Cedar River ever get taken over by Big Box stores? Will Juni decide between #TeamBeau and #TeamTeddy? Stay tuned…
Small Town, Big Troubles
One series challenge unique to mysteries, especially cozy mysteries, is the Cabot Cove Syndrome. This is named for the uncanny ability of Murder, She Wrote‘s Jessica Fletcher to find a new dead body (and new killer!) every week in the tiny town of Cabot Cove. Cozies are usually set in small, quaint villages. If you’re living in a town of 500, and within the first season, 50 people die and 50 people are arrested for murder, traffic might not be a problem anymore but you’d be good to move far, far away and lock your doors anytime an amateur sleuth comes to town. Overcoming this is easier if your setting is a place with seasonal populations (a beach/resort town), a touristy location, or somewhere close to a much larger city. In the Record Shop Mysteries, Juni and her sisters live and work in the small Texas town of Cedar River, but their proximity to Austin opens up lots of possibilities!
Let’s Have Some Fun!
Personally, for me, the best part about writing in a mystery series is hanging out with the main cast of characters. Whether it’s Odessa Dean and her friends/co-workers in the Brooklyn Murder Mysteries or Juni Jessup and her sisters in the Record Shop Mysteries, I want to spend time with these lovely folks as much as readers do. Plus, I get to hide little Easter eggs between the pages. Did you catch the reference to …. oh wait, no, I’m not giving anything away! But I will tell you that the coffee drinks with the punny names that Juni and her sisters serve up at Sip & Spin Records almost always have something to do with the scene. They might be red herrings or might be obvious (like Juni preparing an All My Ex-pressos Live in Texas right before her date with her ex, Beau Russell, in A FATAL GROOVE. What else might happen? Might I slip in a throwback to Baby Shark in RHYTHM AND CLUES? Find out March 2024!
The Downside of A Series
I get it. We’ve all been burned. I’m looking at you, George R.R. Martin. You start a series and then have to wait years (or decades!) for the next installment. Sometimes a series will end abruptly in the middle of a plot arc. It sucks. And often, the writer has no control over it. Maybe the muse stopped speaking to them, the pressure got to overwhelming, or someone pulled the plug. Life happens. But a word of warning — if readers wait for a series to be complete before they buy any books in the series, they often find that the series dies on the vine. If Book 1 in a series (or 101) doesn’t sell well, there may never be a Book 2 (or 102). And that’s often out of an author’s hands.
What can you do? You can buy books in a series when they come out and then wait for them all to come out to binge them. You can buy (or loan from your library) books as they come out, read and review them, and then when the next book is coming out, re-read the last one (or the whole series if you want) so you’re ready for the new book. Preorder books as soon as they go up for sale so the publisher knows there’s interest in them! Follow your favorite authors on social media (like Instagram, FaceBook, and Twitter), join their newsletters, and favorite them on Amazon or BookBub so you always know what’s coming next. And keep reading, because you never know what’s going to happen next in a series like the Record Shop Mysteries!
