Just as a throw-out, some games I've played that're based on ongoing series use a trick of being based on a book or two prior to the currently available book, in which the DM will work in immediate events of the books, while the characters are stuck trying to deal with the events without knowing why they're happening. That way, you feel like a part of the series, and bend the gameplay in a way to guarantee the characters are in the proper position for the next book.

For instance, say you're running a Dresden game now. You've got a wizard or two, maybe a Red Court vampire, and an ectomancer based in Montreal. The DM could work into the ongoing story side-events from Dead Beat (consequences of events in book, etc.), but offer no reason for these events to the characters beyond what they can figure out from their own abilities and make sure that the storylines that are developing can flow freely into events based around Proven Guilty.

The last one I was in actually crashed, because it was based on Jordan's Wheel of Time, and it's hard to keep the timeline frozen for the five years between books! Not a problem with Jim coming out with a book a year (And keep them coming, Jim! I'm already having semi-naugthy dreams about White Night).