I published a fourth book in the series in May called AURELIA. She was an important secondary character in the first three books as the heroine’s ‘wise’ grandmother. But as I wrote the first three books, I found Aurelia Mitela increasingly intriguing, so I knew I had to write her full story. She was a pivotal figure in the Great Rebellion, so I wanted to know more about her.

Of course, I had too much plot for one book, so it had to be a second trilogy! I call it a second cycle of books within the series. AURELIA (Book 4) is out and INSURRECTIO (Book 5) will be out in Spring 2016. I’m 6,000 words into Book 6…

I wonder if you will do a follow up illustrated book with maps as well as continuing the series?

Good question! Yes, I *did* mention that INCEPTIO was designed to be part of a trilogy; I don’t think I knew any better! Each of the books works as a standalone story, but of course, you have to get the agent to read the whole thing to confirm that.

A good tack might be to just add a quick sentence at the end of your book description along the lines of ‘because of the breadth of the story/setting/world-buiding/importance/cultural significance/high-concept (choose as appropriate), [book title] would make a solid start to a trilogy or even a series.’

It sews the idea in the recipient’s head without overdoing it. This is how I would approach it now if I were unpublished and submitting to agents.

As a self-published author about to launch book 4 in May, I would take an entirely different path, but that’s another story! Good luck.

I have a question, if you don’t mind sharing your insight! When you sent out query letters for INCEPTIO, did you mention is was part of a series?

While researching query letter advice in preparation for shopping my first book, I’ve found most columns recommend NOT mentioning that it is part of a series, or at most, that it COULD be a series, but is solid as a standalone. I am interested in how you tackled this! Thanks!

It’s a fine line, isn’t it, Jean? I wrote the second and part of the third whilst I was in my “rejection” period. And this was a very good thing. Good luck with your ‘fore ghosting’. I find it’s a lot of fun as well.

Look forward to reading all three of them, Denise!

I’m writing a trilogy, but Books 1 & 2 started life as one book. And when I began sending it off to agents several said it felt as though I’d jammed two books into one. I was already writing what I thought was going to be the sequel, so instead, I separated the first book into two, and the sequel became Book 3 of a trilogy. Point to be made is, I had no idea I was going to end up with a trilogy. So I definitely didn’t have the whold thing worked out at the beginning. It just evolved. Which, of course, means I have to be even more careful, making sure everything dovetails. Working on that aspect at the moment!

Very pleased to share what I found out. 😉