Crafting A Series
Considerations for writing a long-running series
(First published in Writers’ Narrative Magazine – March 2026)
If you want to learn how to write a memoir, a literary novel, or a once-off, then this article isn’t for you. If you want to learn how to plot and build a series in a commercial fiction genre, then keep reading.
Readers love series. They like to know, when they start a book, that there’s another one to follow. That they can binge the next, and the one after that.
They fall in love with the characters. They begin to think of them as old friends. They love the familiarity of the world you’ve created. They keep coming back for more.
That is the power of a well-built series.
From a commercial standpoint, it means you can funnel readers through your entire catalogue and maximize your royalties. It justifies spending more on ads for book one because by book three, you’ve earned it back. More ad spend means more visibility, and more visibility means more sales — if you’ve done your job right.
So how do you create a compelling series? There are several angles to consider, so we’ll tackle them one at a time.