Series

There’s a reason readers love series: they want to stay in the world you’ve created. As an author, you know the magic of continuity—watching characters grow, plotlines deepen, and arcs stretch across books. But when it comes to managing a series on the backend? That magic disappears fast.

Series management is one of the most overlooked, underbuilt parts of the indie author ecosystem. Which is strange, considering how many of us rely on series for income, engagement, and momentum.

MetaShelf fixes that—because it was designed by someone who actually publishes in series.

We know it’s not just about numbering books. It’s about structure, clarity, and control across everything that happens when your stories extend beyond one title.

Series shouldn’t feel like a spreadsheet problem.

Here’s the usual workflow:

You write Book 1. Then you start Book 2. You try to remember what you called the series. You think it’s “Shadowfall Chronicles” but maybe you put “The” in front of it last time. You open Amazon, check the last book’s listing, copy-paste the name. Then do it again for Book 3. And 4.

Now you have four books with inconsistent metadata. One has “Book One,” another has “Book 2,” one has a subtitle that doesn’t match the others, and one isn’t even linked properly on retailers.

This happens to smart, organized authors all the time.

Not because you’re bad at tracking. But because you were never given a system that handles series like a first-class citizen.

That’s where MetaShelf comes in.

Series are a first-class part of your catalog.

In MetaShelf, a series is its own object. It has a name, a description, and—most importantly—a direct relationship to the books inside it.

You don’t create a series by typing the same name on multiple books. You create a series once, then assign books to it.

Each book knows what series it belongs to. The series knows which books belong to it. That connection is structured, not just visual. Which means you can do things like:

• Automatically number books in the correct order
• Display a sortable list of all titles in the series
• Track which books are missing from the lineup
• Link translations, box sets, and alternate formats without confusion

In short: MetaShelf doesn’t just show a list. It understands the relationship between books in a series—and helps you keep that relationship clean.

Flexible structure for messy reality

Some series are straightforward: one genre, one pen name, ten books, all numbered. Others? Not so much.

You might have:

• A trilogy and a prequel novella
• Two bonus short stories that aren’t numbered
• A spinoff series that shares a universe
• Translations and box sets that overlap books

MetaShelf is built to handle all of that.

Every book can belong to a series. Every series can stand on its own or be connected to a larger “story world.” And you decide how visible or connected those elements should be.

You’re not locked into a rigid format. You’re given structure that flexes when your creativity does.

One series, many versions

Most tools treat a series as a one-time label. But what happens when you’ve got that series in English, French, and Italian? Or in ebook, print, and audio?

In MetaShelf, your series is the container—but each book inside it can have its own formats, editions, and translations. That means:

• Book 1 in English and Book 1 in French are both recognized as “Book 1” in the series.
• The paperback edition of Book 3 doesn’t need a separate entry—it’s just one version of that book.
• You can track all versions without fragmenting your series into a dozen disconnected records.

Everything is clean, connected, and easy to understand at a glance.

Auto-numbering that actually works

You know the pain of manually setting “Book 2 of X” in every store, every time. You also know the danger: forget to update one, and suddenly Book 3 is listed before Book 2.

MetaShelf gives you proper series indexing. You assign a number to each book in the series—1, 2, 3, etc.—and MetaShelf remembers the order. Want to skip a number for a bonus short story? You can. Want to reorder them later? Just drag and drop.

This isn’t just a nice UI trick. It’s functional.

Because MetaShelf knows the sequence, it can show you:

• Gaps (e.g. Book 5 is missing)
• Duplicates (accidentally numbered two books “Book 3”)
• Progress (e.g. 4 of 7 books completed)
• Upcoming releases (e.g. Book 6 is still in draft)

You don’t have to maintain order manually. You just set it once, and everything aligns.

Descriptions, flags, and series-level metadata

Each series can have its own:

• Name
• Description or pitch
• Tagline
• Series-wide genres or categories
• Custom flags or labels (e.g. “Complete,” “In Progress,” “Rapid Release”)

You can filter your entire dashboard by series. You can sort books within a series. You can track how far along you are with each one.

And because this data is structured, you can eventually use it to:

• Display series pages on your author website
• Export full series data to pitch documents or distributor catalogs
• Share series progress with collaborators or assistants

All without manually hunting through files or trying to remember what comes next.

Why does this matter?

Because publishing a series isn’t the same as publishing a one-off book.

There are arcs. Timelines. Expectations. And the more books you write, the more likely it is that you’ll forget something—or spend hours cleaning it up.

MetaShelf is about building a system that reflects how authors actually work. You plan your books in arcs. You think in trilogies and box sets and “what’s next?” So we built the tool to match.

Series aren’t a bolt-on feature. They’re a core part of your publishing life. Now they have a place in your publishing tool.

Built for indie scale

You don’t need a publisher to manage your series like one.

With MetaShelf, you get clarity. You get confidence. And you get a catalog that’s scalable—one where every book in a series connects, updates, and grows with the rest.

No more guessing. No more retyping. No more wishing your dashboard could keep up with your output.

You’re writing the stories. Let MetaShelf handle the structure.