Simon asks: “I’d like to tell new stories in the same universe that I’ve just completed a five book series. Should I expand the first series or write a new, related series?”
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Resources Mentioned:
The Xanth Novels series by Piers Anthony
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Harry Bosch series by Micheal Connelly
The Lincoln Lawyer series by Michael Connelly
Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
Conan the Barbarian series by Robert E Howard
John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
James Bond series by Ian Fleming
Hadrian’s Flight
Suave Rob
Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
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Some other variants on the models you provided:
Wine of the Gods series by Pam Uphoff. They form a long plot line with several continuous characters over centuries. The first book is actually not the best to read up front as it ends…oddly (I doubt it was written first). Most are fairly stand alone, but they are all related and reading one adds to the others. There is a long arc and mini-arcs over the various stand alones.
Drey Prescot series is another thing built of multiple internal cycles. It is Barsoom on steroids featuring a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars taken to planets around the star Antares. All the books are narrated by him but all but a handful fit into eleven cycles which are mini-series. These have tighter links within the arcs than the Wine of the Gods mini-arcs (IMHO).
Plus, both are cracking good reads (to the degree I have read…I have yet to finish either series with the shorter at 20 books).
There are also the Dumarest saga which is a linear series of stand alone books with each leading the main character forward on a quest. The latter books (especially the last) don’t work well as stand alones but dipping in at random points prior works just fine.