Same Characters = Series?

Question - If I do more than one submission (non-comp stories of course) that have the same characters - does that automatically mean I need to connect them as a series/serial? or can I just leave an author's note so that readers know that the characters were mentioned in a story elsewhere?

Not at all. And the author's note is entirely up to you, but there's no need unless you want the readers to know.

I have at least a couple of characters that will be showing up in more than one series.

Quote by LuceDevlin

Question - If I do more than one submission (non-comp stories of course) that have the same characters - does that automatically mean I need to connect them as a series/serial? or can I just leave an author's note so that readers know that the characters were mentioned in a story elsewhere?

My novel Charlotte Sometimes has a young Irish woman, Fiona, 19/20 years old experimenting in being a Domme. Then an older Domme, also Irish, with a very similar history turns up in a stand alone story set twenty years later. They aren't connected stories but the characters are. I like putting in characters from one story as a background or supporting character in another. It makes absolutely no difference to the sorry but I get a kick out of including them

Quote by LuceDevlin

Question - If I do more than one submission (non-comp stories of course) that have the same characters - does that automatically mean I need to connect them as a series/serial? or can I just leave an author's note so that readers know that the characters were mentioned in a story elsewhere?

It definitely isn't necessary, especially if they are stand-alone stories. If one does decide to put them in a series, even if the stories aren't connected, I would recommend putting in the author note that they are stand-alone. That way, you reduce the risk of readers avoiding entry #3 for example. Because now they're like, "Oh, this isn't a serial story, okay. I will read this third entry."

There are really two kinds of series.

There's the serial story where all the parts form a whole. That's where I tend to use the series functionality.

Then there's the "ongoing adventures" type where the stories each stand alone but there are common characters, setting, etc. Some bits may carry forward but generally you can read them out of order without a problem. I might or might not make these a series. Would depend on how integrated I made the stories.

Of course, you also get ones in the middle, where some ongoing threads develop from story to story even if the individual stories otherwise stand alone. I would probably make these a series and did with one such series under my old account (The April Stories).

I really like stand alone stories that share a universe with other stories. I wouldn't call it a series or link them together. Maybe a hint the stories share characters and events, at most.

It's a tough call here for connected stories that aren't chapters or long stories split into parts by necessity due to the 10k submission limit. The response to long and multi-part stories falls off precipitously, so linking complete, connected stories risks feeding into that readership bias and hurting the overall performance of the linked stories.

I decided to go ahead and link mine up, because they're all Sci-Fi&Fantasy, Monster Sex, or Supernatural. Those categories don't get much traffic anyway, and the bias isn't nearly as strong with that readership. The benefit of the readership being able to quickly locate the connected stories is worth it for those, IMO.

Outside of that, I'd be hesitant. The series linking isn't noted in most listings, and isn't overly prominent on the story page itself. If something had a timeline where reading the stories out of order could cause someone to be confused, I'd seriously consider it. If someone gets married or has a kid in the second story for example, people discovering the first story after that would be thrown off-balance for at least a while. Major changes like that warrant a series listing to me.

Quote by Ensorceled

I really like stand alone stories that share a universe with other stories. I wouldn't call it a series or link them together. Maybe a hint the stories share characters and events, at most.

I feel like when I think of writing series - it is a lot like this model. I would call it a series or link them together though, in case someone wants to stay in the world and see other stories in that world, kind of like an an anthology or mini omnibus of a world - snapshots of different lives of people who live in the world thru the vignettes, and stories / poems type thing, is kinda how I imagine it.

I have plans to use secondary characters from one series as primary characters in another. I reason that some interesting characters emerge that beg to be explored more deeply, and it doesn’t feel right to switch focus onto them in the existing series. I imagine there are many other sound reasons for wanting to move characters between series.

Quote by deviantsusie

My novel Charlotte Sometimes has a young Irish woman, Fiona, 19/20 years old experimenting in being a Domme. Then an older Domme, also Irish, with a very similar history turns up in a stand alone story set twenty years later. They aren't connected stories but the characters are. I like putting in characters from one story as a background or supporting character in another. It makes absolutely no difference to the sorry but I get a kick out of including them

I'm with Susie and Scott on this issue. I have series that are really serials, and obviously, they are connected. But I've also linked up all of my comp entries, once the competitions are over, as much for my own convenience as for the readers.

And, like Susie, I will take characters from one series and use them in other stories. My favourite example is that I took the protagonist from my first comp story, Theseus, of mythological fame but in a female body – Thesea – and had her become the bodyguard for the main character of another series, James in The Quantum Slut. I didn't have to do that. I could have invented a hulking guy with a big jaw as the bodyguard, but it tickled me to use a character I had grown quite attached to. Besides, she's cute, quiet, and deadly.

And those were good enough reasons for me!

I have done several series where the parts are labeled as "Part One," "Part Two," etc. Although I make an effort to at least include enough setup in each chapter so that a reader coming into the middle of the series won't be blind to what's been going on, I have noticed the dropoff mentioned by RejectReality. I may continue numbering stories in series (like Midlife Renewal) where they really are immediately and intimately connected and involve most of the same characters, but I think I will try to limit the total number of numbered chapters to a half-dozen or less.

Quote by RejectReality
The series linking isn't noted in most listings, and isn't overly prominent on the story page itself.

On the other hand, where there there is less of a direct linkage from one story to the another (as in much of my Becoming a Man series, for example, where the primary connection is simply the central character over time), I'm shifting more to publishing them as standalone stories: a catchy title without chapter numbers, and the exposition written so that everything that happened in the past is just background. This should better appeal to people coming to the characters and situation for the first time. But where I do have some sort of a sequence (at least in my head) to them, I would still use the series linking for the benefit of readers (and I have had a few) who enjoy following a longer narrative. Fortunately, as RR mentioned, the series linking isn't by itself prominent enough to put off most readers who just want a hot standalone story.

My opinion is that having the same characters does not necessitate a series. To me, a series is a complete story broken up into digestible bits. I have several true stories that feature my friends and husband, but they are a continuing story, they merely involve the same people.

It’s about the complete opposite of erotica but if you ever read Isaac Asimov’s stories there are some characters that pop up again and again. Although some we’re definitely series many stood on their own and I always though of them as their own stories. The repeat characters often gave his overall set of work a sense of congruency and made for solid world building.