Book series with in-between books

There's no way to add the ".5" but I just included the series title in the appropriate field.  It seems to have worked so far as my novella gets almost as many paperback sales as the full-length novels.  You should also mention in the product description where the book falls in the series.  That should be enough for readers to figure it out.

I'm doing this at the moment with Star City, Space City and the Transhuman War. If it's important in the timeline that you place them between novels, then you need to renumber the series so that readers understand the relevance. Otherwise call it a 'parallel series' and let it run concurrently.

Denise Grover Swank does it with her Rose Gardener Mysteries. She makes the title something like 'Picking Up the Pieces: Rose Gardner Mystery Novella 5.5', but it doesn't show up on the series page.

I can't speak for Createspace because I've never used it. But when uploading an ebook to Amazon, you can list it within a series as an unnumbered entry.

In my series, for example, I currently have books one and two plus a short story that's unnumbered.

Listing your series this way and then making the book's placement within the series clear on the cover and in the description is probably your best bet.

Simply Unbound said:

I can't speak for Createspace because I've never used it. But when uploading an ebook to Amazon, you can list it within a series as an unnumbered entry.

In my series, for example, I currently have books one and two plus a short story that's unnumbered.

Listing your series this way and then making the book's placement within the series clear on the cover and in the description is probably your best bet.

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Yes, that's a good solution. I also placed a line in the blurb indicating that it was a 'between' book and quoted the books concerned.

Thanks for your responses. I had a feeling it was like that. It's a shame there's no way to input the .5 like there is with the full number titles. I'll just have to depend on the description then. I have a lot of .5 books.

BTW, Susan, my husband enjoys your series. 

I've gone for not numbering them, but it doesn't feel like an ideal solution.

Ella Summers said:

Thanks for your responses. I had a feeling it was like that. It's a shame there's no way to input the .5 like there is with the full number titles. I'll just have to depend on the description then. I have a lot of .5 books.

BTW, Susan, my husband enjoys your series.

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Glad to hear that, Ella!

Why not just renumber them?  You can update the description for your books without changing the content in just minutes.

Just renumber the books in the series so they are numerical in order.

thewitt said:

Why not just renumber them? You can update the description for your books without changing the content in just minutes.

Just renumber the books in the series so they are numerical in order.

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I don't know if this is the case for OP, but a lot of authors use .5 to distinguish side stories from the main plot. So while book 2.5 may technically happen between book 2 and 3, it's not directly related to them, and renumbering it to be book 3 could confuse the reader. (Similarly, television shows and comic books may have "spoof" or "fanservice" episodes/chapters that aren't a part of the main series but are listed at .5 to separate them as "specials".) Sometimes they're also used as short story gateways into the next book, which means labeling them as the next full book would be misleading, etc. There're quite a few situations where just renumbering does unfortunately not work.

Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be.

Inside your flysheet you can list your books and the order of preferred reading. You can also have a brief explanation of the changes. Readers aren't worried so long as they know there is an order as opposed to disorganised chaos.

To answer the purpose of my .5 books...

I have a .5 book between almost every book. Each one is a collection of stories that are connected to the main book. For example, Book 2.5 has stories that relate back to Book 2. I may do a novella now and again instead of a collection.

It's not necessary to read the .5 books, but they do provide greater insight into the plot/characters. I decided to write the stories mainly to keep the forward flow of action in the novels (i.e. not bog them down with flashbacks).

In the books, I list the series order including .5 installments.