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Fantasy
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Series vs. Individual book
i love kay scarpetta, gives me a chance to wonder about a character flaw or strength from book to book.
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That bothers me if I have to wait for the next book. Although, I usually only begin a series when most of the books are out already. That way I can go to the next book right away...
I love series because you can read longer with out looking for a knew book all the time.
It depends on the book. If it is engaging and the characters are nicely developed-- of course I will be happy to have the story continue. However, I don't think I could stand the wait. I always try to read series that are already complete. Haha. I agree with the people who are saying that some go on for too long. That's my problem with series-- the author will not let it die, and it can ruin the experience.
Also, there are times when I like a book, but not enough to buy the next six. If there is no conclusion at all, I come away either dissatisfied, or feeling the need to force myself to read the rest. Either way, it is aggravating.
I guess I prefer either solo books or series that have three to four volumes.
I wrote a book called Second Chances and its sequel The Threads That Bind. It isn't the same people in the second novel but rather the next generation. I classify it as paranormal suspense while others classify it as fantasy. There won't be any more books in the series, and they're both available now.I agree that waiting is not fun, which is why I published them one right after the other.
To be honest, it feels like there's too many series out there now! Sometimes, I just want a stand alone book that I can enjoy and not be left wondering 'What happens next?'. That being said, I have to admit I enjoy quite a few series and the suspense of not knowing.Now, if I start a series and then it just starts getting bad *coughAnitaBlake*, then I just get annoyed, lol. I hate not finishing a series I've started but, sometimes, you just gotta know when to throw in the towel.
If I may add that I agree w/Kerri. There are too many series out there..I do try & avoid them because usually the author can't maintain the 'Thing' that got you hooked on the 1st book. I read Lisa Lutz' "The Spellman Files" shortly after it was published & Loved it :) However, the 2nd surprise volume that came out just couldn't do the same for me. I've also read "The Strain" by Hogan & Guillermo before I realised it was a 1st of 3 & worry that the 2nd volume will be a disappointment :( And Now Scott Nicholson's book "The Red Church" has suddenly spawned a sequel I spotted on Amazon... OMG :0Anyone have any idea why this is happening?
I prefer an individual book so I won't feel obligated to read the others or read the first book. And because I don't want to leave a story unfinished and wonder what happened to the characters.
I write series books but I always have a specific end in mind after being driven crazy by some series that just seemed to go on FOREVER. And each book has to stand by itself. If you have to read book one before you read book two, but book two is what you bought - that's frustrating. So the author has to consider that, and the end. As Eleanor said, You can only maintain "the thing" for so long...
As a fantasy author, I can say it's easier to write a series than a stand alone. So much effort goes into world building, mythos building, magic building and character building. Once you've done all that, to then say, "Done now. Let's go do all of that again, from scratch, without overlapping what I did before." is really, really hard.So, just from a work perspective it's easier to keep going. Plus, like anyone else, we fall in love with the worlds and people we create. It's hard to say goodbye to a character.
However, the mark of the professional writer is the ability to kill the thing you love. Usually that means the little scene that makes you smile but does nothing for the story, or the character that really doesn't need to be there anymore. But in the end, it also means the ability to end a series when the story is done.
Thank You Keryl for clearing up my issues of confusion about why so many authors are doing series now. It's rather sad though. IMO.
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It's rather sad though. IMO."
I like to read series, but there's a point when I really start to feel that the author is only writing to make money. That's usually when I give up on the series. I'm happy with 3-5 books, but past that... enough is enough! I almost never read individual (stand alone) books. I always want more when I do. It is fun when the author builds an entirely new series off an old one though... Richelle Mead is doing that and I am excited.
eleanor wrote: "Thank You Keryl for clearing up my issues of confusion about why so many authors are doing series now. It's rather sad though. IMO."
What can I say? We're all human. The kind of relationship you develop with your characters is in many ways similar to the sorts of relationships you develop with your friends. Imagine trying to let go of a relationship with one of your friends, that's what it feels like to put a character away.
That's part of why I'm a firm believer in not writing an open ended series. If you know where your plot ends, then you have much less temptation to just keep going and going and going.
J.D. wrote: "I like to read series, but there's a point when I really start to feel that the author is only writing to make money. That's usually when I give up on the series. I'm happy with 3-5 books, but past that... enough is enough! I almost never read individual (stand alone) books. I always want more when I do. It is fun when the author builds an entirely new series off an old one though... Richelle Mead is doing that and I am excited. "I'm also a fan of spend the time to create a world, and then hop to entirely new characters doing new things. There's no reason to toss a perfectly good world aside because your first set of characters have finished up what they were doing.
As for writing just to keep the dollars flowing... Well, I loved Dragonlance. I had like fifty of the books. The sometime in the mid 2000's they brought Hickman and Weis back to muck around some more in the main story. It was a bad, bad mistake. Those main characters were done, there was no need to get them out of retirement and kill them all off. Letting new authors play in the playground with new characters was a much better idea.
I've read the last few books of "Harry Potter series" & I've discovered that 'Rowling' is "No Slouch" when it comes to writing & I liked that the books became darker in content. My ? is: Will J.K. Rowling Be Doing Anything New? I'd love 2 see her go someplace new :)
eleanor wrote: "I've read the last few books of "Harry Potter series" & I've discovered that 'Rowling' is "No Slouch" when it comes to writing & I liked that the books became darker in content. My ? is: Will J.K...."
she announced an 8th harry book but the focus won't be on harry, it will be on Dudley & his family & an acceptance letter to Hogwarts for one of his kids.
She is also starting a site called Pottermore. From viewing the video on the site www.pottermore.com I got the idea that you will be allowed to go through the story interactively, I'm guessing, and also more information on characters will be available. And for the first time ever the ebooks.
Said 8th book could be a really great example of an author who's got a perfectly good world set up and decides to get some more use out of it.I'd like to see what happens in the Dursley family when an owl shows up at the stoop.
I was so late going into 'Harry Potter' but I Love the Fact that Ms. Rowling can Write. IMO, there's not alot of great writers out there. And an 8th H.P.? I just really Hope she can put as much Love & Care into it as she did w/the 1st H.P.
I enjoy both. Three of my favorite fantasy authors---Jim Butcher, Jacqueline Carey and Roger Zelazny---have all written three of my favorite series. But I also like stand alone books as well.
Keryl wrote: "J.D. wrote: "I like to read series, but there's a point when I really start to feel that the author is only writing to make money. That's usually when I give up on the series. I'm happy with 3-5 bo..."I read the original Dragonlance series, but all the offshoots just got to be too much for me so I gave up.
One of my enduring favorite fantasy series is Xanth :) It's totally different from ANYTHING out there, it stays fresh, it stays funny, & the characters as they grow & develop, get married, etc, brings you into the next book feeling like you've gone to visit old friends :)
I had never heard of this 8th HP book...wow. I knew she was going to write something, but I thought she said she wasn't writing anything related to Potter anymore. Are you sure about this?
Lisa wrote: "One of my enduring favorite fantasy series is Xanth :) It's totally different from ANYTHING out there, it stays fresh, it stays funny, & the characters as they grow & develop, get married, etc, br..."My husband loves the Xanth novels. He claims that's where he got his love of puns.
I like my fantasy in short series or trilogies, rather than stand-alones. Whenever I read books, but especially fantasies, I tend to get emotionally connected with the characters and I want them to do well and be happy. If that means to read more about their troubles before getting one more moment of happiness, then that is fine with me, lol.
J.D. wrote: "eleanor wrote: "Thank You Keryl for clearing up my issues of confusion about why so many authors are doing series now. It's rather sad though. IMO."
I like to read series, but there's a point whe..."
J.D. You sure have me confused. You don't like standalone books because you want more of the same, then you say you don't want more than five books in a series because it seems to you the author is focused on making money. Duh, I just don't get it. A probably starving writer finally gets a hit, writes more to satisfy the wants of readers like you, then you want him to stop at five books because you're now satisfied? If writers followed that practice there'd be no Tom Clancy, Evan Hunter, John D. MacDonald, Rex Stout, Robert B. Parker, Janet Evanovich or Lester Dent.
OF COURSE they're trying to make money. Deservedly so. If Daimler Benz stopped making cars after proving they could, we'd still be using horses and buggies. For professionals, writing is a business not a recreational activity.
There was a writer once, whom I cannot remember the name of (I want to say it was Dashiell Hammett, but I could be wrong), when asked by an interviewer why he was a writer, said, "To make money." Yes, people write for the love of it, because it's what they were born to do, but as you said, Larry, a writer's business is to write. And when you're in a business you're there to make money. To think so otherwise is being naive about the writing business.
Mod
It's rather sad though. IMO."
I like to read series, but there'..."
lol I like stand alone novels, but I usually want more. I love series, but I don't like to lengthen a series if it is JUST because the author is
a.) Reluctant to end their baby
or
b.) want to keep it going to make more money
However, there have been some series that I wanted to continue. lol I just feel that if an author extends a series too much, the books lose their luster...
I get what you're saying but, after 45 years as a professional writer, it's not about seeing a byline, it's about continuing to make a living now that I'm unable to work fulltime due to health issues. The second part is, of course, that there are always new readers coming along and many like having characters that have become old friends. As an example, one of the longest lived series was Doc Savage. It started as magazine stories in the 1930s. Eventually the author wrote more than 100 books. The were reprinted as paperbacks in the 1970s and 80s and were hugely popular as reading entertainment. One reason, for me, was that I became quite familiar with the characters and didn't have to mentally wrap my head around a new set of characters for each of the books I read. They had become friends.That's my take on the situation. If you're looking for a series with less than five books. INSIDE STORY is my new series. The first book is out and it's called Murder in the Pinelands. It's a police procedural with elements of political corruption, espionage and warfare in Iraq.
Nancy wrote: "There was a writer once, whom I cannot remember the name of (I want to say it was Dashiell Hammett, but I could be wrong), when asked by an interviewer why he was a writer, said, "To make money." Y..."Nancy, you're so correct. The greatest artists in the world all worked for money not because they were "born" to do so. That's a romantic concept from today's affluent. Among the many who wrote, painted or sculpted to earn a living: William Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, Claude Monet, Renoir and numerous others.
As many professionals in writing will tell you, nothing stirs the creative juices like the risk of being fired. Editors, not muses, drive creativity. :-)
Oh my favorite topic why single books are better than series. How shall I count the ways? Series books are usually getting old by book three or four. Even Sookie Stackhouse peaks on book 4 Dead to the World. With single books you have to make up all new characters and an all new story line. Mainly you can devote your time into writing one truly great book. Instead of a string of middle of the road readable but not truly great books.
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I don't think it's just you. I know that some romance authors do series, but they are usually a lot shorter than the fantasy ones.
Sonya wrote: "i love kay scarpetta, gives me a chance to wonder about a character flaw or strength from book to book."I made the mistake of reading Book Of The Dead first. Not a good idea. I just couldn't get into the characters mostly because I just didn't know enough background information. I went back and started the series from the beginning. I then liked the series much better.
What frustrates me is writers like Christopher Paolini. It has been such a long time since Brisingr, that I will have to read at least that book, if not the whole series to reaquaint myself with the characters.
Well if you looked at my bookshelf, it's obvious I have a lot more series than stand-alone fantasy books. That being said; I'm a slow reader, and sometimes I just want a stand-alone.However, I absolutely love the series I've read, so in the end I guess I prefer them! But yes, waiting for the next book sucks. And I've read an urban fantasy series where I enjoyed the first 3 books and the 4th one killed it for me that I just haven't even tried to pick up the 5th. I still like the characters, but the 4th one had no plot that I had to slog through it. I think the author ran out of ideas at that point.
I LOVE series! I think it allows the story to develop so much more! I don't know what I would do if I didn't always have another book to wait for!!!!
Not to mention if all books a stand alone, where would I be able to find a 2,500+ page stand alone fantasy novel?!?!
I like a good mix. Series are terrific for submerging myself in a new world, learning the characters and enjoying a more detailed and lengthy plot.Stand alone books are perfect for that quick fix, a nice time filler while waiting for the next book in a series.
I think both have their place and are equally enjoyable. As a writer, I am working on a series because the story was just too big to fit into a stand alone. I do think it is important to have a definite end. There is nothing worse than a series that just seems to drag on with the same characters with no resolution. I think if a world is well built in any series, you can tell many tales, and have many series take place in it.
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I enjoy reading series, but as a college student I have currently been looking for Individual books in the science fiction&fantasy genre.
J.D. wrote: "In my case, I think I prefer series that build off one another. In other words, repeat characters but different main ones. I've notice a lot of romance authors do this. :)"I did it, or am doing it, but I'm not a romance author...or maybe I am. I guess it depends on what you mean by romance. Mine starts with a marriage, then adds twins six months old, then they're seven years old, then twelve, and most recently fifteen. Next (probably) seventeen. (The catch is that while the husband is a Mexican-American from New Mexico, his wife comes from another planet....) Can the story of a family be a romance? I sure hope so.
I prefer series, because as the books advance, we get to feel attached (hopefully) with the characters and greet the newest books like old friends.
I like both, but it depends on the author. For instance, I love Robert Crais' standalones, like Hostage. But I also like his series featuring Elvis Cole, PI extraordinare! :)
I do not have a preference between stand alones and series. It all depends on the story.
I like them both. My only real problem with series though is the wait. It's not like I'm waiting a month or two for a new episode, it's a year or more. Way too long for my liking.
At one point I only read stand alones. There are more of those then the series. I've read series such as the Sookie Stackhouse series, the Harry Potter series, and Anne Rice's Vampire series. But most books I read are stand alones.
It depends...In my opinion, standalone books have their charm in that in just one book you can read a great story, and if the ending's good, it'll leave you satisfied. On other hand, you may want more of it when you finish it, and the sadness of knowing there's no continuation will transform into conformism and longing.
On the other hand, series give you that extra and they continue on other books, you get to see a more credible character growth, but some books of the series are better than others, or in the final part of the series it may just go terrible (in my opinion, that's the case of HP series). Also, if the serie's not completely out yet, you'll have to wait!
I love series, I hate having to give up the character after one book.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Something Witchy This Way Comes (other topics)Brisingr (other topics)
Book of the Dead (other topics)
Self-Promotion for Authors (other topics)
Lover Mine (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Christopher Paolini (other topics)Tamora Pierce (other topics)
Tamora Pierce (other topics)
I like some series that are set in the same "world" but are often very different, Iain M Banks culture novels are a good example of this. Or Ian Irvine.
But I like an ending too. Guess it depends on how involved I am with the characters as to whether I'll follow a series through to the end or not.