I have always wanted to do a sequel to Do You Know the Monkey Man. And I’ve been getting a lot of letters and e-mails from kids wanting to know if there was going to be a sequel to Do You Know the Monkey Man. Well, guess what? I got an e-mail from my editor yesterday morning that said there had been a “growing groundswell of support for a Monkey Man sequel in-house” and would I like to write up a proposal? Would I!!!
I had always thought I’d write book 2 from another character’s POV, and I always assumed I’d start book 2 at the point where book 1 leaves off. But lately I’ve started thinking about beginning earlier, so readers could see the climax of book 1 through someone else’s eyes. So in the last couple weeks I started polling kids who have e-mailed me. I’ve been asking them where THEY think book 2 should begin. So far, the results are mixed. But I told my editor I’d been doing this…and she seems to think 1) I should begin where book 1 ends, and 2) I should consider staying with the same main character I had in book 1.
I can’t really work on this right now anyway…I need to finish the proposal for Albert Whitman first…but now that it looks I’m really going to do this, I’m going to have to figure out what exactly is going to happen in book 2 (and who is the better character to tell the story). Sequels CAN be tricky…not only do you have to be sure you’ve got enough material to tell another story, the new story needs to be just as compelling (if not MORE compelling) as the first one.
That is so great! “Growing groundswell of support” is just what one wants to hear from ones publisher. Very cool!
How exciting, Dori!! As a reader, I can attest to the fact that I prefer my sequels to focus closely on the main character(s) in the first book. But a secondary character can work, too. I’m curious to read your book — if you want to trade for any of my books (I prefer autographed books) let me know.
Good luck and have fun writing!! ljs
Well, that’s pretty darned exciting, Dori! Yay!
Thanks. Yeah, I’m pretty excited. But actually, the character I want to focus on IS still a main character…she’s just not the point of view character from book 1. I don’t know…I just never thought about sticking with the same main character. I switched characters when I did the sequel to Trading Places with Tank Talbott. I’ll just have to think about who has the better story to tell this time around.
I’ll e-mail you about trading books in a few weeks…I THINK there’s a paperback of Do You Know the Monkey Man coming…