John Dean – Crime Writer

Best-selling crime writer John Dean has posted his latest blog, which is aimed both at helping emerging writers learning their craft and giving readers an insight into the way an author balances writing for fans of a series with the needs of new readers. You can read the article here and it is also on the Handy Hints – General  page, one of a number of such pages with lots more insights into the writing process. 

One of the big challenges when writing a long-running series is how do you cater for new readers? That question is constantly in my mind as I write this because Dead Hill, the first book in the DCI Jack Harris series (published by The Book Folks, a Joffe Books company) is on a time-limited free offer (Now closed).

When an author writes a series, each novel will have developments from the previous ones involving regular characters who are promoted, get older, start relationships, end relationships, not to mention villains who crop up from book to book.

Those readers who turn into series fans will appreciate the kind of changes outlined above. For instance, I am working on the latest DCI John Blizzard novel (for the Book Folks, a Joffe Books company) and, having promoted a couple of regular detectives at the end of the previous book, the new novel sees their roles change, which has allowed new and minor characters to force themselves into the story; they will  become more important in books to come.

However, none of this is obvious, or of particular interest, to the reader coming to your books for the first time and the Holy Grail is to produce novels in a series that work as standalones.

The way for an author to achieve that is to ensure that the plot retains precedence over everything else.

If there is a change in a character’s role it should be explained in a single line eg Detective Inspector Smith, who was in his early weeks in his new post having been promoted, walked into the office then get on with the story.

Regular readers of the series will appreciate the reminder and enjoy watching DI Smith tackle new responsibilities whereas first -time readers will appreciate a useful piece of character background which lets them know that this a detective to watch. Of course, sometimes a storyline from a previous novel will return in one of the books later in the series – for example, the new Harris novel finishes a storyline that began much earlier in the series and featured in several books, coming to a conclusion in the best-selling Murder in the Pennines in which the detective and his oppo DS Matty Gallagher find themselves confronting Jack’s past life.

That’s fine – in such a scenario, the author can provide some back story because, again, existing series readers will appreciate the reminder and first-time readers will thank the writer for some background, allowing the novel to work as a standalone, as long as it is kept as brief as possible so as not to slow the story down.

If you want to see the different approach of new and existing readers, pick any of my novels and read the reviews on the likes of Amazon and Goodreads.

New readers will comment mainly on the story and how the book’s characters and sense of place made them feel whereas series readers will refer to that but also comment on how characters are developing.

A review of the latest Harris commented that the DCI seemed to have let his past affect him more than is normal, another one suggesting that he is becoming more likeable from book to book (although I make sure to keep him challenging!) and a Blizzard review commented on how much the reviewer was enjoying watching the inspector’s young son grow up.

Of course, what the author and publisher are seeking is the conversion of the first-time reader to series fan and the global sales figures for both series would seem to suggest that that is happening in increasing numbers. However, an author faced with such a situation cannot take anything for granted and must work as hard on book 13 as they did on book 1.