Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
Such a laundry list should always start out with: Write well.
That said, we have examples of writers who have done these things, and it hasn't guaranteed success for them (though, in some cases, due to the one item you omitted).
I would question the value of your recommendation to start with a series, because if the first book isn't received well, there isn't much likelihood of the other books being picked up. I think a better recommendation would be to make sure your first book is as good as it can be as a standalone product... just in case it is destined to stand alone.
At the beginning of your writing (career? hobby? masochistic mania?), you may still be searching for and later refining your genre, your voice, your style. Maybe you can continue your first book with a sequel; or maybe a better idea will come to you in the meantime, or you'll discover that your heart is in another type of book, genre or writing style. Either way, don't force yourself into a corner you might not want to write yourself out of later.
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I think if what you're selling isn't self-contained you're just ripping people off, or at best expecting them to trust you enough to write the ending. I wrote a lot of setups for sequels, but they didn't really detract from the story and would just be seen as throwaway comments until the sequel came along. But then I stripped most of them out because I realised I had no interest in actually writing those sequels.