To Spoil or Not to Spoil -- the Problems of Publicizing a Sequel

Guest post for Faiza Iqbal by Karen A. Wyle

Since self-publishing my first novel in October 2011, I've had plenty of practice in publicizing my work. But now, as I prepare for the release of my third novel, I face a new conundrum. Novel Number Three, Reach: a Twin-Bred novel, is the sequel to Novel Number One, Twin-Bred. How do I tell readers what to expect without "spoiling" the first novel for those who haven't read it?

Here's a typical teaser for Twin-Bred:

Can interspecies diplomacy begin in the womb?

Humans have lived on Tofarn, planet of creeks and rivers, for seventy years, but they still don't understand the Tofa. The Tofa are an enigma, from their featureless faces to the four arms that sometimes seem to be five. They take arbitrary umbrage at the simplest human activities, while annoying their human neighbors in seemingly pointless ways. The next infuriating, inexplicable incident may explode into war.

Scientist Mara Cadell's radical proposal: that host mothers carry fraternal twins, human and Tofa, in the hope that the bond between twins can bridge the gap between species. Mara knows about the bond between twins: her own twin, Levi, died in utero, but she has secretly kept him alive in her mind as companion and collaborator.

Perhaps Mara should have expected the enigmatic Tofa to have their own reasons to support her project. Perhaps the ever-cynical Levi should have warned her that members of the human government might use her twins as weapons against the Tofa. Will the Twin-Bred bring peace, war, or something else entirely?

 

Once you've read that blurb, here's some what you don't know:

--Do the Twin-Bred (the fraternal twins in question) live to maturity?

--Does Mara Cadell survive until the end of the book?

--What, exactly, are the schemes that others outside the Project have for the Twin-Bred, and do any of them succeed?

--Do the Twin-Bred manage to bring peace, or at least reduce the danger of war, between their native communities?

--Does anything change in the relationship (if we can call it that) between Mara and her never-born twin Levi in the course of the book?

--How do the events of the book change the principal characters -- and who are those characters, anyway? . . .

All well and good. So how do I describe the sequel without answering at least some of those questions?

Well-established authors may be able to assume that most of those considering the purchase of a sequel will have already read the earlier book(s). But I can't realistically place myself in that category. Also, I've been learning about book publicity, as well as about the craft of writing, since I published Twin-Bred in October 2011. I hope to reach potential readers whom I didn't manage to reach with either of my earlier novels. Reach: a Twin-Bred novel will be my third published novel, and it will probably be the first one to come to some folks' attention.


Now that I've posed the problem, I should be able to present the solution. Sorry, folks -- if there's a formula, I'd love to hear it! All I've been able to do is keep my spoilers as few and as vague as possible.

On Smashwords, where Reach is already "live," there are two levels of description, one shorter and one longer. The shorter appears in "summary views," and goes to "some" retailers; the longer is distributed to "most" retailers. Both appear on the book page. Here's what I came up with for both. 
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Short Description :

In this sequel to Twin-Bred, scientist Mara Cadell and the Twin-Bred she helped to create embark on a new and perilous journey -- except for one pair who remain on Tofarn, attempting to live in the human and Tofa communities. Meanwhile, events on Tofarn approach a crisis, in which former host mothers Laura and Veda are deeply involved.

And here's the longer description:

Scientist Mara Cadell created the Twin-Bred -- pairs of fraternal twins, one human and one Tofa -- to bridge the profound and dangerous gap between the human colonists on Tofarn and the indigenous Tofa. Unexpectedly, it is the Tofa host mothers who now claim the capacity to bring peace between the two. The Twin-Bred themselves have been forced to abandon their mission and their planet, in the hope of finding a less hostile home. Only one pair remain behind, seeking to build new and separate lives with their own kind.
But Mara and the Twin-Bred should know by now that plans provide little protection. New challenges are in store for all the Twin-Bred, and for those whose lives they touch.

Links:

Author website

Facebook authorpage

Twitter handle: @WordsmithWyle

Reach'sSmashwords page

Reach on Goodreads