Submitting stories in a 'collection'

[DFWBeast]

I am getting ready to begin submitting several stories that occur in the mythical city of Brownwood. Each story will have crossover characters from other Brownwood stories. I'm trying to figure out the best way to submit them so potential readers will know that the stories are marginally related.

Would like the community's thoughts.

Note: I will put 'Brownwood' in each of the stories tags. Below would be how I'd expect them to appear if I just submitted them normally.

Submissions

A Cold Heart Aflame (?.??) The thin line between love and obsession Loving Wives 10/10/14
A Dragon's Gift (?.??) Can a cruel ex-wife ever change? Loving Wives 12/10/14
Dinner Party (?.??) An intervention gone bad Loving Wives 70/3/14
Hedge Funds : 2 Part Series
→ Hedge Funds Ch.1 (?.??) Love & Betrayal Loving Wives 6/25/14
→ Hedge Funds Ch.2 (?.??) Revenge & Epilogue Loving Wives 6/28/14
I Dreamed A Dream : 6 Part Series
→ I Dreamed A Dream (?.??) Complete Story Romance 8/15/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 1 (?.??) Bozo and the Brain Romance 8/3/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 2 (?.??) The Reunion Romance 8/6/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 3 (?.??) Past Sins Romance 8/9/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 4 (?.??) New Wounds Romance 8/12/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 5 (?.??) Paid In Full & Epilogue Romance 8/15/14
Long Drive Home (4.32) Vet gets BTB revenge on cheating wife Loving Wives 3/08/13
Silver Valentine (?.??) How to forgive a cheating wife Mature 1/15/15
Welcome To Brownwood (x.xx) Primer for the Brownwood Collection Letters and Transcripts 6/10/14


A possibility would be to clump them together. Certain benefits and drawbacks to this though. Below is a possible example.

Submissions

A Cold Heart Aflame (?.??) The thin line between love and obsession Loving Wives 10/10/14
A Dragon's Gift (?.??) Can a cruel ex-wife ever change? Loving Wives 12/10/14
Dinner Party (?.??) An intervention gone bad Loving Wives 70/3/14
Brownwood Collection: 10 Part Series
→ Hedge Funds Ch.1 (?.??) Love & Betrayal Loving Wives 6/25/14
→ Hedge Funds Ch.2 (?.??) Revenge & Epilogue Loving Wives 6/28/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream (?.??) Complete Story Romance 8/15/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 1 (?.??) Bozo and the Brain Romance 8/3/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 2 (?.??) The Reunion Romance 8/6/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 3 (?.??) Past Sins Romance 8/9/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 4 (?.??) New Wounds Romance 8/12/14
→ I Dreamed A Dream Ch. 5 (?.??) Paid In Full & Epilogue Romance 8/15/14
→ Silver Valentine (?.??) How to forgive a cheating wife Mature 1/15/15
→ Welcome To Brownwood (x.xx) Primer for the Brownwood Collection Letters and Transcripts 6/10/14
Long Drive Home (4.32) Vet gets BTB revenge on cheating wife Loving Wives 3/08/13


Thoughts?

Thanks,
DFWBeast

 

[MSTarot]

The only thing that I have that is close to this is the "Chronicles of the Black Swords"

http://www.literotica.com/s/chronicles-of-the-black-swords

I've used that as my main over all title and then used the description space to give the individual story's title. They are very much stand alone stories, with the only common element being the various swords.

I did it that way so I could add stories infinitely to it.

It's worked for me but then I only have 4 of them so far. I have three others in various states of finished.

 

[RejectReality]

Currently, you don't have the option to group stories yourself. You have to do things alphabetically to make them group.

That ability is supposed to be part of a future upgrade, but who knows how far in the future that is.

I use end notes of the stories to list the other stories in the series ( supplemented by my website, which has more detail ) and any chronological information.

The readers who are drawn in by the first story they read will find that information, so long as you provide it. The tag might be enough for some, but end-notes are more direct and informative.

Then, if the ability to group stories in our list becomes available, you can take advantage of that retroactively, and possibly edit out the end-notes if they're no longer necessary.

Relevant portion of the end note for the most recent story in my Magic of the Wood series ( in my LesLumens pen name ):

If you enjoyed this one, you might want to venture back in time by reading earlier stories in this series. Each story follows a new set of characters in a timeline that is mostly generational, which is as follows:

Steward of the Wood, Daughter of the Wood, Forever of the Wood, Secret of the Wood, Kindred of the Wood, Heart of the Wood, and Beauty of the Wood.

 

[RoyceConnors]

Best way to keep them in order and have cross-over is to start each title with Brownwood: the title and use the description to inform if there's a cross-over.

 

[RejectReality]

Best way to keep them in order and have cross-over is to start each title with Brownwood: the title and use the description to inform if there's a cross-over.

You've just used 11 of your 32 available characters doing that, though. 10 if you don't put a space after the colon.

( If I'm remembering right and title is 32 with description at 64 )

You quickly run into problems with creative titles when you have to preface them with some sort of series descriptor, and this one is 1/3 of your available characters ( spaces count against you )

To me, eye-catching titles are far more important than linking stories. End notes will serve the linking purpose, catch the people who would be interested in following the full series, and not limit your ability to use your title to draw in readers.

 

[NaokoSmith]

If you make clear that they are chapters of the same story, the other chapters will appear as links by the side. So while people are reading Chapter 5, they will see a list of all the other chapters and be able to click on them and go to read them.

I'm not sure if you have to have the stories named: blahdiblah Ch. 01, Ch. 02. Laurel does this for you when you submit a story series with the minimum of characters so long as it's in any way apparent that they are a collection.