[John Jarrold]

Shouldn't be any issues re. stories with characters they've used in novels, as long as the novels were their own invention - not 'shared-world' work like Star Trek!

As a publisher, I never cared whether or not the writer had been published previously in short form - nor do the bookselling chains. Only the novel counts.

Pitfalls? Not really from my point-of-view, just a lot of hard work involved - and I assume it'll be self-published, since I can't see any mainstream publisher being interested, for reasons already stated...

Good luck!