The danger of writing a series

We're told that publishers need to know that we're not a one-book wonder.  Agents and publishers are in a relationship with an author for a long time.  They want to be reassured that we have more than one book in us.  So they feel reassured when we say we are writing a series.

But there are dangers for an author in writing a series of linked books.  Because if we lose a reader at the first book we might never get them back.  As a reader I have decided not to read past book one of a series several times.

There is a wildly successful young adult series which I have only read the first book of.  That book ends with a description of the main (teenage) character's parents being gunned down.  The author very graphically describes the scene in great detail.  It isn't a short scene, but a long one, filled with precise  and gory details of their deaths.  Reading it made me feel like some sick voyeur.  I was shocked that a publisher would consider this level of violence to be acceptable.

And so I have never read anything else by that author.  I do not trust her any more, and cannot be persuaded to do so.

I have also recently read the first of a series of adult SF novels set in the same city.  My first objection to the book - a personal one - was that the main character was a prostitute, and that he stayed one throughout the book.  But the thing that really turned me off this writer's work was a graphically detailed scene of the prostitute with a client.  I don't know if this was meant to tittilate, but it left me feeling sick, angry, and used.

So I won't be reading any more of that author's series of books.  Which is a pity, because she is an author I really wanted to like.  But I just can't like her work after that first book, and I don't want to buy her later books.

I think it's worth considering these dangers as a writer.  Many series writers also write standalone novels too, and I think that's a good idea. You have one chance to win a reader over with a series.  Writing standalones gives you a second chance, and maybe even a third, to get readers to like your work.  And as writers we need every chance we can get to encourage people to read our work.