Series numbering, and getting the books to find each other
Your series exists twice, the same way each book does. On a shelf it is four spines with matching type. In a store's database it is four records that agree on two fields — a series name and a volume number.
When they agree, the store builds a series page, orders the books, and puts book two in front of the reader who just finished book one. When they disagree by a single character, you have four unrelated books by one author and no series page at all. Nobody tells you. The books simply sit apart.
The visual half of this is Series covers: the same shelf, three books along. This is the mechanical half.
The series name is a matching key, not a line of copy
Stores group volumes by comparing the series name string across records. A string either matches or it does not, and near enough counts as different.
- "The Ash Cycle" and "Ash Cycle" are two series. So are "Ash Cycle" and "Ash Cycle " with a trailing space you cannot see in the box.
- Punctuation counts. A straight apostrophe and a curly one are different characters. So are a hyphen and an en dash.
- A changed subtitle can break the grouping too, because some systems match on more than the series field alone. If book one is Nightfall: An Ash Cycle Novel and book three is just Duskfall, you have introduced a difference that did not need to exist.
- Decide the exact string before book one goes live and keep it in the same text file as your title and author name, the one Metadata: the fields that decide who ever sees your book tells you to keep. Paste it. Never retype it.
The volume number has to be a number
The second field is a position, and the store sorts on it. Give it a plain integer: 2. Not "Book Two", not "Vol. 2", not "II". A field expecting a number and handed a word either rejects the record or sorts it somewhere strange, and a series that sorts wrong sends readers into book four first.
Every volume needs one. A set where three books are numbered and one is blank will list the blank one last, or first, or not at all.
Where the series name belongs, and where it does not
On the cover: yes. Under the title, smaller than the title, in the same position on every book.
In the series field: yes. That is what the field is for.
In the title field: generally no. Authors pad the title with the series because they can see it working on other listings. What it produces is a search result reading Nightfall (Ash Cycle Book 2) (Ash Cycle 2) — the store appending the series it already knows about to the one you typed in. Put the title in the title field, exactly as it appears on the book.
In the back matter: yes. The last page of book two is where a finished reader is sitting. It should name the series, list the volumes in order, and say which one is next.
In the tools. The Cover Maker keeps the title, series and author lines as live vector text, so changing Book Two to Book Three is an edit rather than a redesign. The Interior Formatter builds back matter from fields, including the also-by-the-same-author list, so the series list at the back of each book comes from the same data instead of being retyped. Start a book → · about the tools
Numbering decisions that are cheap now and expensive later
- A prequel numbered 0. It sorts first, which is exactly where a new reader should not start. Many authors leave prequels unnumbered, or give them the next whole number and say "a prequel" in the description, so the entry point stays book one.
- A novella numbered 1.5. Decimals do not always survive a field that wants an integer, and readers who buy strictly by number will skip it. Treat side stories as their own thing rather than fractional volumes.
- An omnibus that takes a number of its own. It is not book four. Given the next number in the sequence, a collection puts a book the reader already owns where the one they are waiting for should be. Box sets and omnibus editions has the rest.
- A series you decided not to number. Unnumbered volumes read as interchangeable, and readers who cannot tell reading order guess wrong and blame the book. Number from the start, even if you are only sure of two.
When book one was published before it was a series
This happens to most people. You published a novel, it did well enough to continue, and now book one has no series name and no number.
You can usually add both — series fields are among the editable ones, unlike a title or an author name. Do all the volumes in one sitting from the same pasted string, and expect a store to take some time to rebuild the grouping. Then fix the parts that are not metadata: book one's back matter ends without mentioning a sequel, and its cover has no series line. The interior is a re-export; the cover is an edit to a live text layer.
What all of this is for
One reader, finishing book one at midnight, should reach book two in a single move. The series field does it inside the store. The back matter does it inside the book. The cover does it on a page of thumbnails. Three separate mechanisms aimed at the same moment, and the metadata is the one that fails silently.
Make yours
Everything here is built into the tools, and they are free to use: name your book, bring your manuscript or your artwork, and work as long as you like. You only pay when you want the files without the preview watermark.
Next: Taking a book out of print, and what survives it · More: Metadata: the fields that decide who ever sees your book · Series covers: the same shelf, three books along · The back of the book is where your next sale is