I’ve been hard at work on “What’s Next” for the Space Rogues universe for a while now.
Book 10: Rogue Enterprises (available for Pre-order!) will be out in a few months. It doesn’t wrap up the Space Rogues story but does provide a place for folks who don’t love long/ongoing series, to gracefully exit.
I have no intention of ending the adventures of Wil Calder and the crew of the Ghost. BUT. I do intend to change things up.
A New Beginning
Enter, ‘Rogue Enterprises 1: Long Days, Short Knights’ I’m almost done with this one. I have about 20k words left to write. This book (the title is a teaser) focuses mostly on our friend Bennie. The rest of the team is there, but the bulk of the story is Bennie learning what being a Knight of Plentallus is all about. It’s been an absolute blast to explore this character more deeply than normal.
The Rogue Enterprises series will start as a new entry point for readers. I’ll introduce the entire team and provide some back story so new readers won’t be lost.
Strategy!
This is largely a tactical decision. Not everyone likes long series. Maybe the blurb for Space Rogues 1 doesn’t wow them, but the blurb for Rogue Enterprises 1 does. Maybe then they decide to go back and read the first 10 to better know the characters.
The other benefit of this is that it gives me one more “book 1” to advertise. I can’t advertise the 8th book in a series. It just doesn’t work like that. I can, however, advertise book 1, over and over, forever.
From a business standpoint, that’s invaluable. To survive, an author either needs a lot of series, with book 1’s they can advertise or lot’s of entry points into fewer, longer series.
A Different Approach
With the Rogue Enterprises series, my goal is to focus on small subsets of the team (Mostly). Book 1 is bennie and (Spoiler). Book 2… I dunno. I’m thinking Maxim and Zephyr need a story. As I said above, everyone gets some time in every book, but each book is going to have a bit of a focus, at least to start.
Eggs, Baskets, Yada Yada
Much like being wide is a part of my business strategy, so is having more than one series. The Space Rogues series is written in present tense and I can’t tell you the number of people who just can’t wrap their heads around it. Rogue enterprises is more traditional, past tense.
Not only multiple series in that universe but adding entirely new universes. I’ve slacked more than I’d like to admit on my Thriller series, but it’s still on my mind. The Grand Human Empire series thankfully, I busted out 3 books in rapid succession so that series can start getting some legs.
Next week, I’ll talk about my plans for these other two series.
