My problem is, I didn't expect the prequel to take on a heartbeat of its own. I could easily turn this into another 99k novel instead of a prequel.

Why can't it be both? No need for a prequel to be anything less than the original work.

 

I am actually writing a prequel myself right now, so I understand what you are saying. I think it sounds like your story has fleshed itself out enough to be it's own book. Maybe a magnet could be a different side story of what happens with one of the characters, or something told from a different point of view than how it is told in the original book. In my experience, those stories that take over and demand to be written are usually the best ones, so I don't think you should shut it down. (But that's just my opinion.) Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

Who says a prequel has to be short? Sounds like your prequel is on par to be equivalent to Robert Jordan's prequel to the Wheel of Time (417 physical print pages which is very likely 100k words).

If your story is screaming to be written, go with it to the end. Your readers will enjoy having another book in the series, even if it's a book 0.

 

My suggestion would be to finish this as book 1, try to tie in the gap with the second book, but be sure it can stand alone. But when you publish it, don't put it into select. If you do that, you can still use it as a reader magnet giveaway. In fact, it often works better, if the giveaway is something that is up for sale for say, $4.99. People think they are really getting a free gift.

 

I'll be the voice of dissent, and say that a prequel as a child jumping to something different as an adult wouldn't bother me. So long as the backstory of how she got here is explained in the first book, I don't see an issue.

Of course, if you want to write the full story, go for it, but only if you have something that really needs to be said.

 

Hi Laurie,

I found myself in a similar dilemma. I was in the midst of writing the sequel to my first novel about Alexander the Great and his first wife Rhoxane, when I decided I needed to do a magnet read too. I thought I could dash off something, say 30k at most.

Well, I got quite ambitious in scope and theme for a novella      Now I'm  one-third through an extended  outline and the  former "quickie" beingwritten from ATG's POV shows every sign of becoming another 100k novel  That's too much work to give away free IMO. So the duology is becoming a trilogy and I'm writing it so to fit into the overall arc I envisioned when I had only two books. I do acknowledge there is a problem with the ending of this new book though because the next book (which was the first book in the duology) tells the story of the Macedonian conquest from the Persian point of view and starts with the invasion too.

For a magnet, what I am considering now is using an excerpt from this or one of the other novels. I also thought of an original never to be published short story or a book club guide (though a guide might not be the most popular).  I suggest you make the 'magnet' part of the series and fill in the gap. More money for you, right? Write an original  short story, use a deleted scene, or an excerpt that ends at a logical conclusion as a short story for the magnet.  JMHO. YMMV. Hope this helps!

 

As a whole that was what I thought, everyone has said basically what I felt as far as finishing the story. To leave it now would feel like you fell off a clifff when you read the next book. Alone there would be no issues, and I know in fantasy there are often threads that tie back in later to explain things. I just think the rest of the "prequel" story is too big of a thread to work that way.

I am excited that it turned into a much better story than i intended, but also disappointed that I need to throw more time into it ! Lol

 

Congratz on getting near launch. And I think it is great that you already have a novel length prequel.
I would see it as a great investment in your marketing..

 

I know the feeling! The fourth book I planned out for my current series around a year ago is currently looking like it's going to wind up being three separate novels thanks to various subplots taking on lives of their own and demanding more room to breathe (not to mention working better as their own thing rather than being crammed into another story).

It's hard to say what would work best without having read your books, but if the jump from the prequel to the first novel leaves a lot of big questions dangling then it might be a jarring shift. It's not a big deal for the heroine to be in a completely different situation from one book to the next (in fact, it can be a pretty compelling hook!), but it shouldn't leave the reader scratching their head and feeling like they missed a novel in between.

Does the prequel wrap up its own self-contained story arc and put the heroine in a position where she could feasibly hop into book one? Or does it leave loose ends hanging that get wrapped up off-page between the two novels?

As very general advice I'd suggest keeping the prequel as a prequel if you can, since changing a novel's place in a series after you've finished writing it can lead to some subtle rough edges here and there. For example, if you introduce a character, idea, or concept in book one expecting the reader never to have heard about it before, only to later cover the same ground in a prequel and turn book one into book two, then you can end up with some questionable bits of prose here and there that might feel off to the reader. If they're reading book two, but the author's voice is telling them that it's book one, then the overall tone and consistency might suffer. And that's the kind of thing that's really awkward to thoroughly fix in editing.