Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What else are you reading? (June 2010 - May 2013) *closed*
Heather C wrote: "Anne wrote: "Heather C wrote: "I finished 
. what a great book!"This is a great book. Have you read Shades of Gray? Earlier someone made the c..."
I had a hard time deciding which one I liked more, but the only one I've reread is Shades. When I thought about rereading Zero it just seemed like such an undertaking.
Mod
Do they have weak results because they don't know how to handle series books?..."
I know LB Gregg's series for AMP and Samhain have done well. I know KA Mitchell's series for Samhain has done well. Samhain has great success with series in general, and I believe Carina is encouraging series books. To be honest, series books do really well for *most* publishers, which is why they're so hugely popular -- both in mainstream and indie.
I think LI's stance is not the usual. Maybe they just had bad luck with a couple of series titles and it colored their opinion of series.
I will say this -- to qualify my earlier comment -- series books do well when they do well. A lot of writers begin a series without really having a strong enough premise or any kind of larger story arc. So those books don't do any better than a standalone would do, and in some cases they do worse because if a reader was meh on the first of what turns out to be a series, there's a good chance she won't bother with the next series book -- whereas she probably would try another standalone from a writer she likes.
Anne wrote: "Heather C wrote: "Anne wrote: "Heather C wrote: "I finished . what a great book!"This is a great book. Have you read Shades of Gray? Earlier ..."
Yeah, Zero is on my mind since I just read it. Ask me again in a few weeks and you'll probably get a more accurate answer
It's interesting, because when I'm trying a new writer, I always look for a stand-alone -- for your work, Josh, I started with
. Totally hooked. It's still one of my very favorites.
Josh wrote: "I love your reviews, ns. :)I concur."
Is there an emoticon for "blushes hotly, steps backwards, trips over a pile of books, drops her tea mug getting tea over everything, including printer paper, forced to reload printer, clean keyboard, pick up broken tea mug pieces, take a shower, and forced to start laundry as that was a favorite tshirt? I need that one....
Elena wrote: "What an excellent and felt review!You are also perfectly expressing my feelings for Ginn's books. I deeply envy your ability to put these feelings into words!
Thank you"
Isn't she wonderful? You're very welcome. Thanks, Elena.
At the moment, I have RJ Scott's
and Lisa Worrall's
on top of my TBR list. Kids and pets, I love them
Ami wrote: "At the moment, I have RJ Scott's and Lisa Worrall's on top of my TBR list. Kids and pets, I love them"Doggies! :D
Ami wrote: "At the moment, I have RJ Scott's and Lisa Worrall's on top of my TBR list. Kids and pets, I love them"I was planning to buy those, but then I bought The Fitzwarren Inheritance (one of which RJ Scott wrote) and my budget was gone ...
both are on my wishing list
Ami wrote: "At the moment, I have RJ Scott's and Lisa Worrall's on top of my TBR list. Kids and pets, I love them"I got Deefur Dog picked for a challenge. Cute cover & I like the concept of the untrainable dog--sort of like Marley & Me. I haven't read too many with kids though, so I'll add A Nanny for Nate to my very large tbr shelf.
Josh wrote: "I will say this -- to qualify my earlier comment -- series books do well when they do well. A lot of writers begin a series without really having a strong enough premise or any kind of larger story arc. So those books don't do any better than a standalone would do, and in some cases they do worse because if a reader was meh on the first of what turns out to be a series, there's a good chance she won't bother with the next series book -- whereas she probably would try another standalone from a writer she likes. "I gotta say, I love a series. But I'm particular about reading them in order. A lot of times the connection between books in a romance series, mainstream or m/m, is pretty tenuous, but I was burned pretty badly by getting a book out of order once. It scared me for life! So I just don't do it.
Anyway, sometimes I'll spot a book that looks interesting, but it turns out to be part of a series. If book one of the series also appeals to me I may end up reading the whole series, which of course works to the author and publisher's advantage. But if book one of the series doesn't appeal, I may end up skipping the whole thing, which of course does not.
I won't pretend that everyone shares my weirdness about series, but I can see how they could work both for and against you, even with a reader who is predisposed to like series. I do think though, that it would be smarter for LI to be upfront with what a book is, whether stand alone or first in a series. The expectation is different. If I hated series, and I accidentally read book one of a series believing it to be a stand alone, I would not be best pleased.
ns wrote: "Josh wrote: "I love your reviews, ns. :)I concur."
Is there an emoticon for "blushes hotly, steps backwards, trips over a pile of books, drops her tea mug getting tea over everything, including ..."
LMAO
Oh, sorry, emoticon. IDK. I'm still looking for one for feeling ashamed.
Yvonne wrote: "Ami wrote: "At the moment, I have RJ Scott's and Lisa Worrall's on top of my TBR list. Kids and pets, I love them"I got Dee..."
There should be more with kids, but I'm always a little hesitant to try them. Sometimes they come out too sweet. Actually, I think there should be more with adopted kids.
Becky wrote: "I won't pretend that everyone shares my weirdness about series,"Until I joined GR, I thought we were a minority, Becky, but I'm starting to think most people want the series in order. I spend a lot of time making sure I'm not jumping into the middle of a series. And all those authors who say "You can start reading at any point in the series,"? Um, no, I can't.
Anne wrote: "Becky wrote: "I won't pretend that everyone shares my weirdness about series,"Until I joined GR, I thought we were a minority, Becky, but I'm starting to think most people want the series in orde..."
Yeah, and I am a sucker for waiting for the next one to come out, especially stories that cannot be read as standalone like the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini. I am dying to know what's next.
Becky wrote: "Josh wrote: "I will say this -- to qualify my earlier comment -- series books do well when they do well. A lot of writers begin a series without really having a strong enough premise or any kind of..."In general, I'm a little more likely to pick up a less-than-stellar book if it is the next in a series I've already started, than a second less-than-stellar stand-alone. So I think it works just slightly in the author's favor with me. In my case characters are the driving force for liking a book, and if I'm already involved with the characters I'll tolerate a little poorer style/plot for the sake of finding out what happens to them next.
Anne wrote: "Until I joined GR, I thought we were a minority, Becky, but I'm starting to think most people want the series in order. I spend a lot of time making sure I'm not jumping into the middle of a series. And all those authors who say "You can start reading at any point in the series,"? Um, no, I can't. "I belong to that same minority then.
It's only logical to want to read them in order. If I start in the middle I'll always wonder whether I missed something that might have appeared or was explained in earlier books. I hate that feeling.
Kaje wrote: "In general, I'm a little more likely to pick up a less-than-stellar book if it is the next in a series I've already started, than a second less-than-stellar stand-alone. So I think it works just slightly in the author's favor with me."It works like that for me too. I always give a second chance to a book in a series because I want to know what happened to the characters.
Kaje wrote: "Becky wrote: "Josh wrote: "I will say this -- to qualify my earlier comment -- series books do well when they do well. A lot of writers begin a series without really having a strong enough premise ..."Oh, I'll definitely stick with a series long after it goes south. (Laurel K. Hamilton and J.R. Ward are two prime examples.) But if the series doesn't start out strong, I won't give it another shot later. If an author writes stand alones and a later book gets good word of mouth, even though I didn't like an earlier book, I'll still give them a second try. I guess what I'm saying is that a series author gets one chance-- that first book-- to hook me on the world and most importantly the characters. If they do that they've got me for a while. If they don't they've lost me until they start another series or start writing stand alones.
On a slightly related topic, it makes me absolutely bonkers when series books aren't clearly labeled with their order. Goodreads helps a lot. But there have been times in the past when I walked away from whole series that I really wanted to read, because I couldn't figure out which book I was supposed to read next. I quit reading J.D. Robb, and I very nearly gave up on Jim Butcher, too, because the publishers were doing a poor job of labeling the books.
Emanuela ~Zstyx~ wrote: "Becky: have you tried http://www.fictfact.com/?It helps keeping the books in order."
I've never heard of that. Thanks!
You're welcome! Mind you: it is not very accurate with m/m series. I keep sending them books and series and authors to add, I think they hate me by now, lol
Becky wrote: "On a slightly related topic, it makes me absolutely bonkers when series books aren't clearly labeled with their order. Goodreads helps a lot. But there have been times in the past when I walked away from whole series that I really wanted to read, because I couldn't figure out which book I was supposed to read next. I quit reading J.D. Robb, and I very nearly gave up on Jim Butcher, too, because the publishers were doing a poor job of labeling the books. "Completely in that bucket with you, Becky. I hate the Amazon author pages for that reason alone. Drives me nuts. I've started relying on GR now, but it's a giant pain when you're buying directly from your Kindle. I'm almost never online when I'm buying books, so the only place I can check is Amazon.
ns wrote: "Becky wrote: "On a slightly related topic, it makes me absolutely bonkers when series books aren't clearly labeled with their order. OK, I'm interested in this because I'm about to bring out a sequel to Life Lessons, but I also have a third as yet unsold one about the same characters in the wings. Would you recommend labeling the second as #2 in a series if there's a chance it's going past two? I don't want to seem pretentious getting started here, but my publisher wants to know if I want a series name printed on the cover.
Kaje wrote: "ns wrote: "Becky wrote: "On a slightly related topic, it makes me absolutely bonkers when series books aren't clearly labeled with their order. OK, I'm interested in this because I'm about to bri..."
I would definitely prefer something like "Fabulous Fiction, Life Lessons book #2". As ns said below, that would make Kindle shopping the easiest. But at a minimum I like to see "book #2 of the Life Lessons series" somewhere in the blurb. And then be sure that they're grouped together in order on your website, the way Josh does.
Kaje wrote: "OK, I'm interested in this because I'm about to bring out a sequel to Life Lessons, but I also have a third as yet unsold one about the same characters in the wings. Would you recommend labeling the second as #2 in a series if there's a chance it's going past two? I don't want to seem pretentious getting started here, but my publisher wants to know if I want a series name printed on the cover. "Kaje, this is just my opinion, but it definitely helps me. I go to most Amazon author pages and from the top level there is usually nothing that helps, and I don't have the time to go read every sample of every book. I have little spare time and I like to maximize it reading. I hate spending time looking up stuff like "is this a series? Which book is first?"
To me, it's a simple matter of respecting the reader's time and making it easier for them to buy your books.
If it's not obvious off the Amazon author page, or the book title itself, chances are, I won't make the effort to buy the book (unless it's an author I know very well -- which is true for very few authors).
Sure some readers visit publisher sites and author websites and other review sites etc., but I suspect that's a minority, and I'm one of the majority of general readers who mostly get their information off Amazon, and increasingly, buy directly from the Kindle (which limits what searching you can do).
Becky wrote: "On a slightly related topic, it makes me absolutely bonkers when series books aren't clearly labeled with their order. Goodreads helps a lot."Wikipedia often lists longer series in series order as well as giving other info.
ns wrote: " I hate the Amazon author pages for that reason alone. Drives me nuts."It's often in the meta-data on Amazon. Not that I can always figure out how to get the meta-data...
Kaje wrote: "Would you recommend labeling the second as #2 in a series if there's a chance it's going past two?"Incidentally, the fact that it's gone past *one* should be the triggering factor to label it "two", right? :)
We may not have heard of the previous book, much less read it yet, so assume we're clueless dolts when we come across your name, with no knowledge of anything that's gone before, that's safest!
OK, so my author likes "Mac & Tony #2" and hopefully etcetera. I do too, although someone said it made them think of a food item (not saying here, so I won't put that image in people's heads). But those are the main characters in the first one and not in the title. Will that be an issue when scanning Amazon? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but it is my first time with this and the book is in the works now (and also a free short Mac & Tony #1 1/2 that I'm on the verge of putting out.).
Josh wrote: "It's not that they won't do series, but they don't encourage them and they try to cap them at five books."I wish more series were capped at five books.
Like The Wire. That series was brilliant, and it could have gone longer, but the five seasons capped it off beautifully.
Kaje wrote: "OK, so my author likes "Mac & Tony #2" and hopefully etcetera. I do too, although someone said it made them think of a food item (not saying here, so I won't put that image in people's heads). Bu..."Kaje, so let me understand you correctly. You would then have, say, under Kaje H:
1. Life Lessons
2. Mac and Tony #2
So that would tell me "Mac and Tony #2" is the second book in the series, which is helpful, but my next question, of course, would be, which is Mac and Tony #1? Is it "Life Lessons"? I'd have to know Mac and Tony were the names of the MCs in that book. And I won't buy #2 until I've read #1, goes without saying...
I wouldn't assume that because you have only two books listed, the other book is likely to be the first of the series -- Amazon doesn't necessarily sell all the backlist of an author, and the book might have been published elsewhere. And not having a "Mac & Tony #1" in a subtitle or something would be very confusing...
You see my point? Sorry, I don't mean to make life difficult for you. But speaking as a random reader who's likely representative of other lazy-ass, impatient, looking-for-instant-gratification idiots with money to spend out there, your publisher is not doing you any favors, and is making it less likely someone like me finds your book.
Really, I can only reiterate. Assume we know NOTHING. It's true of the vast majority of Amazon readers. Especially us Kindle babies.
ns wrote: "Not having a "Mac & Tony #1" in a subtitle or something would be very confusing..."I find that a very cogent and compelling argument. Thank you.
Kaje wrote: "OK, so my author likes "Mac & Tony #2" and hopefully etcetera. I do too, although someone said it made them think of a food item (not saying here, so I won't put that image in people's heads). Bu..."Hi Kaje. First I want to say that I read Life Lessons and enjoyed it trmendously.
Re: your question - is Mac & Tony #2 the actual title for book 2 in the series? I wasn't sure from reading your posts if that was definite yet. In any case, IMO if you could indicate some place on the cover that the new book was Life Lessons #2, and have that information also included in any blurb about the book, that could be helpful for readers. (I don't mean to indicate that s/b be the title.)
The title is Breaking Cover and you all have pretty much decided me on "Life Lessons #2" as the series designation, so hopefully it will be clear. Incidentally, I will be posting a free short story And to All a Good Night Life Lessons # 1 1/2, on my author page today, if I can make it download right. Thanks for the input.
I'm definitely digging anything by Mary Calmes. I love her work :)
Anne wrote: "Sylvia wrote: "JI just found out that this is the first in modern times. The first documented same sex marriage took place in Spain in the year 1061. According to Wikipedia they were married by a p..."Sorry for the late response, I was offline a couple of days. According to Wikipedia:
The first documented same-sex marriage was between the two men Pedro Díaz and Muño Vandilaz in the Galician municipality of Rairiz de Veiga in Spain on April 16, 1061. They were married by a priest at a small chapel. The historic documents about the church wedding were found at Monastery of San Salvador de Celanova.
Sylvia wrote: "Anne wrote: "Sylvia wrote: "JI just found out that this is the first in modern times. The first documented same sex marriage took place in Spain in the year 1061. According to Wikipedia they were m..."I can't help wondering if it was really a land exchange thing. I've heard of similar things happening in the medieval period and before. It's interesting.
Lori wrote: "I'm definitely digging anything by Mary Calmes. I love her work :)"Hey Lori,
I loved quite a lot of her work, especially the "Tooth and Nails" book (Warders), and the Guardian series, and of course, A Matter of Time sereis.
The latest in the Warders series, Heart in Hand, however, I couldn't finish. Strangely, hit a run of DNF with several authors some of whose other books I've liked. Here's a snippet from my reading log :( :
Bless Us With Content -- Tinnean [DNF]
Bad Company -- Mitchell [DNF]
AJ's Angel -- Witt [DNF]
Duty of a Beta -- Dare [DNF]
Heart in Hand -- Calmes [DNF]
And this is on my new policy of trying to stick to authors I know or that I'm sure I'll like, given my book budget is close to done for the year! Sigh...
As it is, I had passed up Jim Butcher's latest as well as JR Ward's, given their $14.99 price tags. Too pricey for me. I've noticed ebook prices going up a lot (why am I paying so little for a Lanyon, then?)..I shudder to think of how I'm going to manage my daily fix if it's going to be twice as expensive now..
ns wrote: "Lori wrote: "I'm definitely digging anything by Mary Calmes. I love her work :)"Hey Lori,
I loved quite a lot of her work, especially the "Tooth and Nails" book (Warders), and the Guardian serie..."
I'm really looking forward to the next Jim Butcher, but I'm going to have to get it from the library. $14.99 for one book just isn't in my budget.
ns, now that I'm committing to an ereader, I've been noticing ebook prices - I was looking at a book (I wish I remembered the title, but it was in the area of physics or some such) and the paper version was MUCH cheaper than the ebook on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Made no sense to me at all. The "mainstream" publishers need to get a handle on that. They could learn a few things from m/m.
ns wrote: "Lori wrote: "I'm definitely digging anything by Mary Calmes. I love her work :)"Hey Lori,
I loved quite a lot of her work, especially the "Tooth and Nails" book (Warders), and the Guardian serie..."
Darn it, I just bought that Tinnean a couple weeks ago.
In case anyone missed it, a few years ago St. Martins decided to start pricing all their ebooks at the same price as their print run. I think they pushed all the prices of the mainstream publishers higher.
I could be wrong -- I haven't been paying a lot of attention to them since then.
mc wrote: "The "mainstream" publishers need to get a handle on that. They could learn a few things from m/m."I'm sure they could. But will it help them figure out anything about e-publishing?
Good point, Anne. They'll have to get to the point that the music industry is now, with respect to pricing content. Sadly, not there yet.ns, I was going to buy that Tinnean book - like you, I love the way he writes. Not that I'm asking for one of your lovely long reviews, but in a nutshell, what about that book didn't satisfy - you're such a prolific reader that I can't imagine what might disappoint (or bore) you that much.
mc wrote: "ns, now that I'm committing to an ereader, I've been noticing ebook prices - I was looking at a book (I wish I remembered the title, but it was in the area of physics or some such) and the paper ve..."mc, Really? You made a decision? You're caving and joining us heathens in electronic land? :) Welcome!! :)
Yeah, although my days of buying $70 physics texts (shudder) thankfully are long gone, I'm still buying some hardcopy science books -- although I have a growing original physics treatise/text library now (all mostly free or pretty cheap).
I'm quite upset with Jim Butcher's publishers because the ebook costs more than the hardcover. They aren't doing *something* right.
Of course, the little I know wrt the mainstream publishing industry and software leads me to believe they are still in the dark ages of computing, with no excuses. If they'd been in the tech industry they'd have been run over in a microsecond flat like obsolete dinosaurs.
Anne wrote: "Darn it, I just bought that Tinnean a couple weeks ago."Well, it's perhaps not that bad, not compared to the other books I listed, but still, nowhere near as good as the Mann of My Dreams series, sadly (regency historical).
Becky wrote: "I'm really looking forward to the next Jim Butcher, but I'm going to have to get it from the library. $14.99 for one book just isn't in my budget. "Yep, my county/state has a blessedly good library system, although they don't stock much m/m. I just did a search for Josh Lanyon and they helpfully asked if I was searching for Nosh Canyon. Sigh.
They do have a wonderful online reservation and lending system for ebooks, though, which is awesome. I also dearly, dearly love my closest primary county library itself -- it's an absolutely beautiful location and building. Paradise on earth. I just wish they stocked more of the books I want to read now.
ns, I committed to something, but may be returning it. I've gotten so used to reading off my laptop that the e-ink, which I realize is better on the eyes, seems very odd to to me. Which may make me exchange what I have for something else, perhaps this week.The lovely Anne, patient and wise, has had to hear my whining and general confusion about the whole thing, I'm very embarrassed to say.
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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This is a great book. Have you read Shades of Gray? Earlier someone made the comment that t..."
Yes. I read Shades a few weeks ago too and I also saw where a lot of readers compare them. They are similar a little. But I think Zero has just a little more story in it because there were twists and turns and more mystery. Where Shades was a little more predictable. I loved them both and its hard to say which one I loved the most.