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BigJohn said: I've seen this kind of thing in other book series, but ultimately have not found it very useful. At some point, something is going to get written that needs to be squeezed in between some existing books, and a divergence will need to be managed.

In the Elfquest Readers Collection, the collected comics were put into their original order and broken into 6 volumes, numbered 1-6. Additional volumes collected additional material, and were number 7-10 or so. Then more stories were written and took place chronologically between existing numbered volumes, so they started adding "a" and "b" to the numbers. so we had published books 1-10, then 8a, 9a, 9b, etc.

The books are not published in chronological order, so there is no way for a fan who buys the new books as they come out to read them in their intended order.

Let's pretend I'm a future junkie. I see these books with these esoteric numbering schemes on them, and i have to figure out whether they are just part of the title, or if there is some significance to them. If I realize there is some significance, I need to try to decode what the formula is and how I can use it. To do that, I'll either need some kind of explanation printed in the book itself, or I'll go to the website of the author to find out more. Nevermind trying to follow it all in audio form if I buy the audio book. (Matters of chronology are hard enough to read, must less listen to. Remember the Author's Note in the All-Pro?)

I've had the same problem with the Jack Ryan books by Tom Clancy, and the Pendergast books by Preston & Child. I know there is a particular order, and I know that it's not necessarily the publish date. I do not hold it against the author that they do not provide the tools for me to put the stories in order just by looking at the book itself. My (obsessive) need to read things in order is my own cross to bear, and I use the tools available to me to make that happen.

As I mentioned above, that tool is most often the internet. Wikipedia and the authors' sites are places that I feel I can find definitive timeline and suggested reading orders for ElfQuest, Jack Ryan, Pendergast and even Dragonlance (which also splits their titles into core books written by Hickman/Weis and those written by others). I'm sure the same things exist for Star Wars and Star Trek novels, or any other anthology series.

Anyway, my point is that while I understand what you're trying to do, I don't know that it is a particular problem that needs solving in that manner. Maintaining a part of your own website, and a page in Wikipedia, accomplishes essentially the same thing, and is easily updated. No crazy decimal system for the reader to decode, and no stress for the author over how to number a new book.

My $.02, humbly submitted.
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