Chapter 10

Series

When you write more than one book in the same world, keep them together as a series: one Story Bible for every book, one history, and a click to move from book to book.

What a series shares

A series is a folder holding its books, each in a folder of its own, with one Story Bible beside them. The books share:

• One Story Bible. Every book reads and adds to the same entries, and each entry shows which books mention it.
• One history. Every save, in any book, is a version of the whole series, so a snapshot or a restore covers every book and the Story Bible together.
• A word count for the series, on the Statistics page (Chapter 7).

Everything else stays with each book: its manuscript and Stash, its Title Page, outline, notes, front and back matter, targets and build configurations. With Septangular Publish, a series can also be published as a box set.

Making a series

A series starts from a book you already have. To make one:

1. Open the book that will be the first, and choose File → New Series from This Book…. Septangular saves the book first.
2. In the dialog, name the series, and choose where its folder goes. It offers “title Series” beside the book’s own folder.
3. Click Create Series.

Septangular makes a folder with the series’ name, moves the book’s folder into it, and makes the book’s Story Bible the series’ Story Bible. The book’s history comes too: every earlier version, snapshot and session is kept, with the book’s files now inside its folder, and the first version of the series is “Made the series …”. The book reopens in its new place as book 1, and the series bar appears at the top of the sidebar.

The series’ folder must be new or empty, and can’t be inside the book’s own folder. A book already in a series can’t start another: the command is greyed out.

Because the book’s folder moves, anything outside Septangular that pointed at the old place, such as a backup rule or a shortcut, needs pointing at the new one.

The series folder

A series of three books looks like this:

A book knows it’s in a series when the folder above it has a series.xml that lists it. Septangular writes series.xml itself as you make and change the series; Appendix C describes it and the rest of the folder.

To open a series, choose File → Open Project… and choose either its series.xml, which opens the book you last had open in it (or the first book), or a book’s own book.xml.

The series bar

When the book you’re in belongs to a series, a bar at the top of the sidebar, in every section, names the series, and below it the book: its number, such as “Book 2”, and its title. Hold the pointer over the series’ name to see how many books it has.

Click the book’s title for the series’ menu:

To switch books, choose one from the menu. Septangular saves the book you’re leaving first, as a version, then opens the other in the same section, and the status bar says “Saved, and opened …”. If the save can’t be made, you stay where you are. Moving between books of a series doesn’t end your writing session, since the session belongs to the series’ history.

Adding books

A new book

To start the next book, choose New Book… from the series bar’s menu, or File → New Book in Series…. A field opens in the series bar: type the book’s title and press ↩, or Esc to change your mind. Septangular saves the book you’re in, then makes the new book at the end of the series and opens it, in the same section. The status bar says which book of the series it is.

The new book has:

• the title you typed, and a short title for the running header made from its longest word, in capitals (“The Storm Season” gets “SEASON”), which you can change on the Title Page;
• your name and details, from the book you were in;
• that book’s build configurations, so the new book builds the same way. Output files named after the other book’s title are renamed after the new one’s (build/the-lighthouse-submission.pdf becomes build/the-storm-season-submission.pdf), and editions don’t bring the other book’s ISBNs: give each edition its own;
• one chapter, “Chapter One”, holding one empty scene;
• the series’ Story Bible, with every entry you’ve made so far.

Its folder is named from its title, inside the series’ folder. It doesn’t take the other book’s front and back matter, outline or notes: those belong to each book. Pages kept in your profile, such as About the Author, start from your profile when you add them (Chapter 9).

A book you already have

To bring in a book you’ve already started or finished, choose Add Existing Book… from the series bar’s menu, or File → Add Existing Book to Series…, and choose the book’s book.xml. Septangular saves the book you’re in, then:

• moves the book’s folder into the series’ folder, if it isn’t there already;
• moves its Story Bible entries into the shared Story Bible, keeping their categories. An entry whose file name is already taken there gets the book’s folder name added to it, so nothing is overwritten;
• adds the book at the end of the series, and opens it.

The book’s earlier history isn’t joined to the series’: it stays in the book’s own folder, and the series’ history records the book from the moment it joins.

A book can be in only one series. Septangular won’t add a book that’s in this series or another one already, or one whose folder has the same name as a folder already in the series: rename the book’s folder in the Finder first.

Ordering and renaming

A book’s number is its place in the series. To change it, open the book and choose Move This Book Earlier or Move This Book Later from the series bar’s menu: it swaps places with its neighbour, and the two books’ numbers change.

To rename the series, choose Rename Series…, type the new name in the series bar, and press ↩. The series’ folder keeps its name; only the series’ name changes, wherever it’s shown and in {series} on pages of front and back matter.

Renaming and reordering are written to series.xml straight away, not at the next save. The order decides what the generated pages say: Also By lists the books in it, and Next in the Series shows the book after this one.

The shared Story Bible

Every book in a series reads and writes the same Story Bible, kept in the series’ folder. An entry made while writing book 3 is there in book 1, and an alias added in one book is recognised in all of them. Chapter 5 describes the Story Bible itself.

In a series, each entry in the Story Bible’s list shows the numbers of the books whose scenes mention it, by its name or an alias: “1 · 3” for an entry in the first and third books, or “—” for one no book mentions yet. Hold the pointer over the numbers to see them in words.

Deleting an entry deletes it for every book in the series, and Septangular says so before it does.

One history

A series has one history, kept in its folder. Every save in any book is a version of the whole series, and Versions (Chapter 8) lists every book’s saves together, with the series’ own changes, such as “Started …” for a new book and “Added a book to the series”. A snapshot keeps every book and the Story Bible as they are at that moment; restoring one brings them all back together.

The series’ history leaves out each book’s built files, as a single book’s does.

Also By and Next in the Series

Two pages of back matter make themselves in a series (they’re part of Septangular Publish; Chapter 9 describes front and back matter):

• Also By, added to a book in a series, lists the series’ name and every book in it, numbered in order, this one among them. Add a book to the series, and every book’s Also By lists it the next time it’s built.
• Next in the Series is the next book’s first chapter, as a teaser after the story, under the heading “Read On”. It’s offered only in a series. In the last book there’s no next book yet, so the page is left out, with a warning, until there is.

Neither has a file: they show “made when built” in the sidebar, and are made fresh every time the book is built, so they’re always up to date. Click one to see what it will hold.

Box sets

A box set publishes several books of the series as one: one ebook, or one printed book. Box sets are part of Septangular Publish; without a licence they build as a sample of the first three chapters, as ebooks and print books do.

To make one, click + New Box Set under Box Sets in the Publishing sidebar, which shows below the book’s configurations in a series, or choose New Box Set from the series bar’s menu. Septangular adds a box set of every book in the series, as an ebook, named after the series (“The Skerry Light Books: Books 1–3”), and shows it under Box Sets. It belongs to the series, not to any one book, so it’s the same in every book’s Publishing section.

Click the box set to see its page: the books it holds, its outputs, and Build. Build it as you would a configuration (Chapter 9); its files go in the build folder of the series’ folder. In the box set:

• Each book opens with a title page of its own (“Book Two: The Storm Season”), and its chapters are numbered afresh, from 1.
• Each book’s scenes go in as that book’s own configuration for the same format includes them, so if a book’s ebook takes only final scenes, so does the box set. A book with no configuration for the format goes in as its default configuration does.
• The copyright page is the first book’s, filled in with the box set’s title and ISBN. The first book’s other front matter isn’t included.
• The back matter is the last book’s, without Next in the Series.
• In the ebook, the contents list each book with its parts and chapters beneath it. In print, the running head on right-hand pages is the title of the book being read.

The box set takes your name and details from the first book. A box set’s build can’t be marked as published.

Choosing books, and a print edition

A new box set holds every book, as an ebook. To choose which books go in, give it an ISBN, a cover or a print edition, change it in series.xml in a text editor. A box set there looks like this:

<boxSet id="complete" title="Skerry Light: The Complete Series" books="all" isbn="978-…" cover="cover.jpg">
  <output format="epub" file="build/skerry-light.epub"/>
  <output format="print" file="build/skerry-light.pdf" trim="6x9"/>
</boxSet>

Paths are from the series’ folder. Since books names books by number, moving a book earlier or later changes which books a box set of some of them holds. A box set can also have a <style> with its own chapter heading, as a configuration does; Appendix D describes configurations’ settings. Septangular reads series.xml again when you switch books or change the series, and keeps your box sets as you wrote them when it writes the file.