Once upon a time I decided to write a young adult fantasy novel. I spent hours plotting, writing, editing, rewriting. There were dozens of beta readers, five major rewrites of the entire story (and countless minor rewrites), and the help of a professional editor. The result was a decent book that I’m proud of, the first book in The Conjurors Series.

I’m now writing the fourth (and last) book in the series, and to say that my writing has evolved would be an understatement. Reading the first book makes me shake my head and sigh at how naïve I was. I’m not claiming to be Shakespeare now, but the act of spending hundreds of hours writing thousands of words has made me a better writer.

The only problem is that readers’ introduction to my writing is the first book of the series – which is the weakest. Below are some of the ways I’ve seen this problem tackled.

Give your first book away for free.
I’m a follower of Lindsay Buroker’s blog, and she was one of the early self-publishers to make the first book in her series, permanently free. She feels that it was a great way to build her fan base and gain the significant following that her writing now has. In my opinion, though, the first book in her series is actually pretty great – her writing just gets that much better. So this option works if your first book is at least good enough to hook readers and get them to continue to read an become more invested in your writing. Also, with so many freebies out there now, having a free book doesn’t have the same impact that it did in the past.

Give your series away for free.
This may sound crazy, but it’s a bolder move. Lots of people give away a book, but an entire series? If you already have your next set of books in the works, it can be an aggressive way to build a fan base. If you’re in the self-publishing route for the long haul and are a fairly prolific writer, consider giving a huge incentive to readers for trying your writing.

Rewrite your first book.
Rewriting (yet again) your first book will be acute torture, take it from someone who has been there, done that. I had limited success with rewriting the book to bring it up to par with the rest of the series, because too many plot points were already embedded through the series. Any changes I made had to be threaded through the rest of the books, and it was exhausting. The end result was a story that was marginally better, but still not as good as the rest of the series. However, if your first book is freestanding, bite the bullet and rewrite it. If there are scenes you can rewrite, go for it. I also recommend cutting as much as you can to make the story short and sweet.

Cut your losses and start a new series.
I considered pulling my books off Amazon, abandoning my heroine and starting a new series, but something is compelling me to finish telling the story that I started. Even if this series never amounts to anything more than a lot of my time and sweat, and a few readers who enjoyed it (thanks, Mom!) Valerie’s journey must be completed. I’ve learned a lot, and as excited as I am to start the next series, it feels right to close this chapter first. But if you are less attached to your story, keep in mind the idea of sunk costs – sometimes it’s better to look forward at what you could be accomplishing instead of investing more time in a series that isn’t going to benefit your writing or your career.

Is anyone else in the same boat, with a series that has gotten progressively better, but is held back by a weak first book?