After the last post, I looked at the whole huge backlist again and thought: this is definitely a thing I should do. ‘This’ being to define some smaller groups within which the various titles could logically reside. What was involved:
Decide which novellas and novels have similar themes or settings, thus making them a coherent group to identify for the prospective reader;
Draft some short titles for those groups (‘series’ in Amazon-speak); check the Big AMZ to see if those titles are already heavily in use i.e. likely to cause confusion; if so, choose something else;
Go to each title on my bookshelf and change the series information, which meant writing a short description for each series, and which also gave me the opportunity to tweak the book descriptions a bit.
It took hours, y’all, and I crashed KDP twice, but I think (hope) this will make things easier for the reader.
There are still some titles hanging out under just plain ‘The L.A. Stories.’ A few of those have been or will be unpublished as they are re-released in collections. And all the unpublished stuff will be decoupled from the series.
The resulting sub-groups are (drum roll please):
CO-STARS: Includes the Andy & Victor novels EXPOSURE; THE GHOST OF CARLOS GARDEL; and NEVER ENOUGH. This is the one true series in the whole universe, though like all the others these can be read independently.
LEAD AND FOLLOW: Includes BEAT and SMOOTH. These are stories focusing on ballroom dancers.
AMBITIONS: Includes MILLION DOLLAR DEATH and INTO YOU. These are stories focusing on actors and theatrical professionals.
COMBINATIONS: Includes A SECRET CHORD and A BRAID OF LOVE. These are polyamorous romances.
SECOND ACTS: Includes FACE THE MUSIC; TAKE EVERYTHING; LOST & FOUND; and GIVING IT UP. These are stories focusing on career change.
PRIVATE CONTRACTS: Includes A FEW KISSES AGO; A LITTLE TURN; VINTAGE; MAKE ME; and PUBLIC OFFERING. These are stories featuring lawyers, agents, and other deal-making professionals.
DESERT STARS: Includes TODAY, TOMORROW AND FOREVER; HERE TO STAY; A WINNING HAND; and TAKE A NOTE. These are stories set primarily in Las Vegas.
There are new titles in the works for all of these categories. The objective: when the new ones get done, they will have a logical place to go.