What is an Interconnected Standalone Romance Series?

Before I started writing romance, I read romance for years.

I never paid much attention to the specifics. I didn’t follow particular authors, sub-genres or even themes, although a lot of bakery and beach romances somehow managed to land in my hands. That was about the extent of my categorization.

It was because I had a busy job and hardly any time to read that my reading interests changed over the years. I didn’t have time to delve deep into thousand page fantasy novels any longer. Grabbing a quick romance book and enjoying it around those work commitments was enough of a commitment for me.

But when I stopped working that busy job and found some free time in my life again, I dove straight into the world of Romancelandia.

Not just as a reader, but as a writer, too.

I’d always dreamed of writing a romance novel, but I quickly learned that writing romance is not the same as reading romance. I discovered there were sub-genres, classifications, tropes, definitions, phrases and acronyms that I knew nothing about.

One of those phrases is Interconnected Standalone Series.

When I first decided to write a romance series I ran across that term.

I wasn’t sure what exactly it referred to, and the way it was presented felt like a little mystery, just for me.

When I saw the phrase for the first time, an old Sesame Street song started rolling through my head, ‘One of These Things is Not Like The Other’.

Didn’t the very nature of the word standalone mean that it couldn’t coexist peacefully sandwiched between the words interconnected and series? Interconnected would imply a connection. Series would imply a connection that is maintained.

The word standalone though. It lives antisocially somewhere on a desert island. It’ s not interconnected. It’s not holding hands with a series. I was curious about what this phrase actually meant.

So I did a deep dive into the term, and into the different concepts of series in the romance genre. I discovered that the term interconnected standalone series actually is the prevailing term in Romancelandia that describes the type of series I was interested in writing.

So, what does standalone mean anyway?

Merriam-Webster is my one true love in life, a friend I visit on a daily basis, so I asked them. They had several definitions, with the pertinent ones saying:

Standalone:

-complete in itself : self-contained

-not being part of a larger work or series

-a stand-alone film/novel

Ah. Clear as mud.

So how does that label get attached to the concept of a book series, which by its very definition appears to be the opposite of the definition above?

Seeing as I was interested in writing a small town romance series set in one location with a different love match in each book, I started searching for what such a series would be called. Because definitions are important. They’re how we speak a common language.

And the majority of series I’d read in the past had been in different genres. Detective series, cozy mystery series, sci-fi series, even fantasy series. Most of them centered on the same main character book after book after book.

The concept of a series with a different main character in each book, was a slightly unique creature to behold. But it also seemed more common for romance series to be set up this way.

I wasn’t ready or interested in writing a romance series that followed one FMC (female main character) and MMC (male main character) through book after book.

But I did want to feature a group of single friends in their thirties who would weave through the different books as supporting characters until it was their time to bask in the light of a happily ever after written just for them.

So I needed some categorization. Was interconnected standalone series the best term out there? Or had the English language found a better method to describe such a phenomenon?

I went to the internet to find some answers. Here’s what Holly from Book Binge had to say, followed by some comments after the blog post that show others think the phrase lacks clarity, too. Sara from Heart Breathings had some great definitions on different types of series and the names used for them. Thank you Sara! And I found the terms interconnected standalone series and standalone series bandied about on dozens of romance author websites, showing that the term is in fairly widespread use in the Romancelandia community.

So, what is the definition of an interconnected standalone series? Alas, my one true love Merriam-Webster has failed me by not providing a definition for this phrase, so I’ve pieced together my own.

Interconnected Standalone Series:

-A series of books that connect in some manner and can be read individually or in any order.

Ah. That feels nice. A definition.

Interconnected standalone series seem to be especially prevalent in romance genres. And the most common way it seems to appear is as a shared location. The characters in the books could be connected by work, friendship, family, hobbies or community.

In the case of my Deer Springs romance series, its a group of books that are written in chronological order, each featuring a new couple and their happily ever after story. But each book is crafted in such a way that readers don’t need to read the entire series or even read them in the order they were published.

The connecting feature between the books is a circle of close friends in their thirties (found family trope) who live in a tiny mountain town deep in the Ozarks (small town trope) as they go about their messy, modern lives (drama llama trope).

So as an example, Willow from book six, is a side character in book one. She doesn’t make a big show of herself in book one, because its not her book, but you get to know her along the way. And Brook from book four is quite close to both Lauren and Gabe from book three. They appear in her book a lot as a result of that.

The joy of an interconnected standalone series is that you can pick and choose your tropes and interests without needing to read through every book in a series. As an example, maybe you don’t like sneaky MMC’s with a streak of morally gray in them. Easy to skip book two. But maybe you love enemies to lovers. In that case, books three, four and six are for you!

I’m contemplating starting a second series right now. If I move forward with it, it would also be an interconnected standalone series, although of a different nature. There would be one unifying theme between the stories (paranormal romance) but they wouldn’t necessarily be connected by place.

I haven’t decided how tight to drill down into the sub-genre yet, but I’ve already written the first novella in that set. I just know fall is coming, which means Halloween is almost here, and I have a ghost story I really want to tell you.

It’s called Haunted Love and its the story of Stella Rose and the ghost who haunts her rental home, Oliver Laurent. Let me know if you think that sounds interesting!

So, do you like reading interconnected romance standalone series? Spill the tea below. What do you love and hate about them?