Sometimes I write and come up with characters that I could see playing out into a whole series. In my mind, those characters have personalities that are bigger than just a single book, and have so much potential for more adventures. But, I am yet to learn how to decipher which ones would really work as a series. I wonder, when writing and submitting, if an editor is the one who pitches the idea of extending a character beyond a single manuscript; or, if the author comes with this already in mind. It’s probably a combination of both.
Something I’m trying to think through is: what if you have a story that seems like it could be a series (I’m talking picture books, not novels or middle grade books), but you have only written book two in the series, and you have not been able to figure out how to properly introduce those characters in book one? It would seem backwards to try to publish the second one first, before you even get the first one out. But then again, what if it doesn’t pan out to be a series? You wouldn’t want to not send out a manuscript when it may be something that an editor is interested in.
Oh well, I guess I’ll ponder this some more. Who knows, maybe book one will pop into my head after all.
Here are a few popular picture book series that I enjoy:
Mo Willems and Knuffle Bunny:
Caralyn Buehner & Mark Buehner and their Snowmen Series
And my absolute favorite, Ian Falconer and the Olivia series
