Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion
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When to start a series?
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I usually come to a lot of series later on(4 example just started reading Harry Potter this year), but if something intrigues me enough, I will read it right away from the first book and just wait impatiently for the next installment.
I have loved it when I found a series that was already finished. But if something sounds really good I don't have the will power to wait a year or two or three (or more) to wait for it to be done....which is pretty much what Anne said above. LOL
I think I'm seeing this. I don't think people really hear about the book until 3 or 4 due to marketing too. Nothing gets popular fast but it looks like it does.
I don't like waiting for the next installment, but I'm learning to read a book or two of something different in between so I remember what happened in that book rather than have it be a huge file in my mind of what happened but I don't remember which book.
I REALLY don't like waiting a year or more for the next book! But I am doing it now. I find I have to re-read the previous book to really do them justice.
I don't really mind when I find a series. Some I found at the first book, got hooked and had to wait for more while others were waaaay into the series (like 18-20 books in) so I ended up with a ton of books to read.I guess I'd rather find a series quite early in unless it's a short (5-6 books) series when any point is fine with me.
I get the problem with a long series Melanie. After 7 or so I'm just like wait, when did that happen?I also think if the writer does a good job of the mentioning of the previous book and what happened I don't have trouble. But you can't over do that. Referencing is difficult because you have to make it such a balance of not too much not too little
Some do a good job of that and some don't. I just waited what, three years for the final Eragon book and the previous one was far from my favorite so I didn't want to re-read it. I was impressed with the overview of the story at the beginning of the final one. But they don't all do that as well. And I suppose it is easier to do with an 800 page book like that as it doesn't really take up a lot of the total book! LOL
I've stumbled on series from the first book to the last book. It never mattered to me, if I liked the idea I'd just start at the beginning. Of course, that means there are times I've waited years, Jean M. Auel's Earth Children Series, for the next book to come out. If it's been too long between books, it just gives me another excuse to go back and re-read the others.
I usually like to wait until there are at least a couple out and another on the way soon but that doesn't always happen. It is hard waiting sometimes for the next book to come out if the series isn't done yet and I tend to forget somethings that happened in the last book and have to re-read them.
That's why I'm happy my TBR pile is always so gosh darned big, I always have something else to read while I wait!
I prefer reading established series. But, these days I've read most of the ones I want to read and it's difficult to find established PNR series that are new to me. So, I'm having to start new series with the first book. I hate waiting 6 months to a year for the next book, though.
I'll buy the first in a series if the others aren't out yet but I try to wait to read it until at least the 2nd book is out because I have a problem with remembering some books sometimes and I feel like if there's a big gap between the time I read the 1st and 2nd then I won't know what's going on because I'll have forgotten some really important details. (Plus the whole cliffhanger thing) But if I read the 1st AND 2nd before the 3rd and so on come out, then I'm more likely to remember the storyline enough to read the next ones as they come out.
I started out with Twilight and Anita Blake.. Twilight was finished and the 2nd movie had come out by the time I read them.. and Anita Blake had over 10 books out already.. since then, I've tried to start series that were already a few in... but now I'm running out. I keep waiting for books and I've actually forgotten some stuff that has happened. Sort of annoying. I just started BDB so I should be good for a little while at least. :)
I have about come to the point that there are so many good books out there that when I read the first of a series if I don't REALLY like it well enough to be excited about re-reading it when the next one comes out, I just consider it a single book and forget about it as a series. But I do love to re-read a really good book and also love audios of favorite books so I can pick up on little things I may have missed the first time. Speaking of Twilight I did read the first three in 2007 and didn't even know they were popular - and kept reading them over and over again for a year. Crazy.
I like having all the books on hand when I start reading a series. I hate having to wait around for the next one to come out! That doesn't always work, of course, and then I must wait impatiently for the next one.
I truly can't decide which I prefer. If a series is complete I read them all in one go and then I'm disapointed its over when I finish the last book. If I can only get the first book I get all frustrated that I have to wait for the next one, but I don't feel as displaced when I finally get to finish the series.Yeah I'm starnge, I know.
It's funny because I have friends who can't understand how I can read an 800 page book. Yet they will read a series of 3 or 4 300 page books right in a row. We are all strange in our own ways, Katie. I don't mind waiting six months or so for another book but this waiting for YEARS is kind of tough.I also hate cliffhangers in series. If I like the chracters and story well enough I am going to read the next one. I don't need to hate the end of the one I am reading! That's rather a pet peeve of mine right now.
I tend to read series books out of order especially if I don't know whether I'll like the author's work. I'll pick up whatever sounds good to me (especially in the UBS) and just jump in. The only series I can remember actually starting with the first book is the Psy-Changling books by Singh (purely an accident since Slave to Sensation was the first one I found in the UBS when I went looking) and the Pride series by Laurenston. OTOH, if I like the book, I'll pick up everything I can find by the author and eventually work my way through the backlist. And I loathe cliffhangers. I read the end of the book first to make sure there isn't one. If there is, I won't read the book.
I'm surprised about the comments on cliff hangers. I love a great cliff hanger! It makes me hungry for the next book and anticipate it more. I guess I like and dislike the waiting game. But it's hard for some authors (depending on popularity) to come out with books unless it is a year apart.
But Sandra J brings up a new question. If you read the first and second book in a series but have to wait for the third will you go and find other works by that author to hold you off?
Liz ^_^
It depends on what that other author has written, but sometimes, yes, I will do that.
I wish there was a like button on here...lol. I guess I normally see an author write in the same genre. Sometimes they go off to something a little different but always contains the same elements. Like if an author writes PNR they might go to Horror but it will still involve the Paranormal element. In my humble opinion of course.
But, I have seen some authors just go to a whole new place. :)
Generally if I like an author's writing, I tend to like all of his/her books regardless of genre. There are some exceptions, of course, but if I like the characters the author creates, the books also tend to appeal to me.
How much do you love/hate novellas that go off of a character in the main book? I am finding that (and I'm not trying to promote myself in any way I swear) for my series I HAVE to for at least one of the characters.
Then you have Jeaniene Frost who is doing it for so many of her characters if not all of the main side characters. "Main side characters" that just sounds weird. lol.
Any opinions on that?
Sometimes an author will start a series with a novella, which is what I think I am going to have to do.
I like novellas that go off and look at side characters as you get great stories that don't mean a "main series" book goes off on a tangent.Anne said: "Sometimes an author will start a series with a novella, which is what I think I am going to have to do."
There is a downside to that - Patricia Briggs started her Alpha & Omega series with a novella and some people really hate that. Loads of people refer to it as a prequel (which it isn't - the books were spun off the novella at readers' request) and just on Goodreads I've seen some people be really rude. I love the fact that the author listened to all her fans and made it into a series but I'm in the minority :(
I agree with you. As to people being rude, well, you'll find that all over the 'net.
I can't stand when people are rude about an authors work. That's like me going to their office and saying, hey you suck. hehe. Biggest issue is you can't please the masses as an author. It's sucks the majority thought that though. You would have thought she got so many requests that people would have liked it.
I think it's the people who picked up the first full length book and then rather than kicking themselves for not knowing about the anthology, chose to kick the author. I loved the anthology and was psyched when she said the characters would get their own series.I agree you can't please everyone, but there will be people out there somewhere that will love your work :)
Nairabell wrote: "I like novellas that go off and look at side characters as you get great stories that don't mean a "main series" book goes off on a tangent.Anne said: "Sometimes an author will start a series wit..."
I like novellas too. There are a couple - Patricia Briggs and Eileen Wilks - that their short stories were so great they eventually expanded them. And I love when authors listen to the fans and will extend the story into something full length. If we're asking for it, you have a read made market based upon the current fans who can then tell people (like I've done with the above) not to forget to read the short story first. Wilks ended up changing a lot when she moved it into a full length novel, but the meat of the story was still there.
Terry (Ter05 TwiMoms/ MundieMoms) wrote: "It's funny because I have friends who can't understand how I can read an 800 page book. Yet they will read a series of 3 or 4 300 page books right in a row. We are all strange in our own ways, Ka..."It's the same with my friends and family, Terry. lol. They wonder how I can stay interested in a 1000 pg book and explaining that those are actually my favorite books is pointless.
As far as series go, I usually don't even have my interest piqued until I've read reviews on a few of them. I prefer to read an entire series through from beginning to end all at one time, but I'll still pick up the series if it sounds good even if it's not finished. I just usually have to go back to the last book and skim through it to get the storyline back into my head. I love series' but some of them end way too soon with alot of questions unaswered.
I wish I had more will power, but I usually dive right in when I'm interested in a book and suffer the long wait for the next one to be released! The only time that it really bothers me is if I think the series will be 4-5 books long and it is actually like 20 books long, and then your stuck. If a series is longer than 6/7 books, it needs to be really really good for me to keep reading because after a while I just get annoyed with the cliff hangers. Do any of you feel the same?
It will depend on when I discover the series.I know I ignored Yasmine Galenorn series The Otherworld for a long time, I thought it was another series I'd read and didn't like. Boy was I wrong.
If I like the sound of book, even though it's the first of a series I'll dive in as soon as possible. Others like Karen Marie Moning Fever serier, I read the first three books, geting frustrated with having to wait so long between books, that I waited for the last two to come out then I went back, reread the entire series. It made all the difference, for me reading it all together.
Others I can wait until the new one comes out and I don't have to reread them.
Then there are those I enjoyed so much I want to reread them when the new one comes out. Not every time, I'm doing it right now with Karen Chance's Cassie Palmer series. I know Hunt the Moon came out last year, but I wanted to the reread the four books before I tackled the newest, it had been 3 years since I had read them and I wanted to refresh my memory.
I don't know about length of a series bothering me so much, as long the author keeps it fresh. There are some that I have been reading for years J.D. Robb's In Death, I'm a bit behind with that one but I really do enjoy it when I want a Mystery.
But there are definitely series that have their shelf life and when they're ended hopefully the ending is what we need to be happy with it, but others are kind of left in limbo, for me that's Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. I think there's supposed to another book, I hope so, I would like to see things wrapped up a bit more, so it would feel finalized rather than left hanging.
Cliffhangers are a great way to wrap up a book if the next book is already out and you can read it right away. I was reading a series by Matthew Reilly, The Six Sacred Stones, he ended it with a cliff hanger that I have to admit had me screaming at the book and author for having done this to me. I had to wait for two years before it came out in paperback. I have since lent the first two to my brother, I want to reread them so I still haven't finished this series and I still think about that cliffhanger.
So cliffhangers can be good to keep the readers wanting the next book, but use them too often and readers will get frustrated and annoyed. You need to keep things fresh with each book that is the best way to keep people interested I think.
I'm terrible at remembering minor details sometimes and prefer to read a series straight through. However if a story rates high 3.8+ and the title/artwork/plot/reviews grab me, I'll start reading with 2-3 books released.My biggest dread is im going to snuff it and end up as a ghost haunting people at a bookstore trying to finish a series reading over peoples shoulders!
Elizabeth wrote: "Ok, so this is off topic I think. When is a good time to start a series? Do you dive right in the first or do you wait for it to be more established and wait around when, i dunno, the third comes o..."I prefer to as you said "dive right into the first"
if i wait past that, i won't be able to get on goodreads without seeing spoilers EVERYWHERE!
I'm one that usually comes to a series after it is established, because I'm to busy trying to catch up on ones I've already started.Then I have the ones that are super long series and I have to wait for the next one. There are times I will even skim over previous books just to refresh my memory before the new one comes out.
Tiffany wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Ok, so this is off topic I think. When is a good time to start a series? Do you dive right in the first or do you wait for it to be more established and wait around when, i dunno,..."I agree with Tiffany. If you wait, you take a chance you might see spoilers on GR while I'm waiting for other books in the series. Of course, I'm usually slow to discover a series and many of the books are already released so at that point, it's not an issue and I have all the books to devour at once! (Read Twilight and FSoG in a week (a week per series, that is).
It completely depends with me! If I discover it when only one book is out and I want to read it badly, I will do so. If I'm intrigued about it, but not desperate to pick it up I can wait a while until it's more established. :)
I like both so it mainly depends on my mood when I find it! It's super awesome to have them all at once when reading (especially with cliffhangers), but at the same time it's so fun to be caught up and be in that anticipation before the release date of the next book... ;) Plus if you have them at once the story ends quicker! Lol
I like both so it mainly depends on my mood when I find it! It's super awesome to have them all at once when reading (especially with cliffhangers), but at the same time it's so fun to be caught up and be in that anticipation before the release date of the next book... ;) Plus if you have them at once the story ends quicker! Lol
Bex wrote: "It completely depends with me! If I discover it when only one book is out and I want to read it badly, I will do so. If I'm intrigued about it, but not desperate to pick it up I can wait a while un..."And, having time in between books gives you a really good excuse to go back and re-read previous books in the series (like you need an excuse)!
Some books I've stumbled across haven't had many in the series already released and it does bug me as when i really get into a book I just want to keep going to find out more. I can demolish a whole book in a day just to find out what happens next, so when it comes to a series I'm even worse. I usually like to start a series knowing there's quite a few books already out there, however I find that I catch up pretty quickly and end up waiting the year for the next one anyway. I don't mind waiting sometimes but does it really have to be an entire year most of the time?!
This is an interesting topic. I will not even consider a series unless all of the books are out. Having said that, I read the Outlander series and the Fever series, and those both have new books coming out! So, I didn't realize that they were not complete series. But if I know it’s a trilogy but the third is not out yet, there's no way I'm picking it up. There are so many other choices out there, I'd rather read a complete series, or one with 4 or 5 existing books, while I wait for the author to finish the series. I am the type to pick up the next book within minutes after finishing the previous one (spoiled!), or if I'm really good, I'll sit on it for one night and then start the very next day.My only complaint with this method is that it can get annoying hearing the author re-establish the story in the beginning of the next book, but I'd rather deal with that than lose the experience of being absorbed in a story for weeks at a time.
Shari Kay wrote: "Ever since 
, I hate reading series that are unfinished."Why? It gives you the liberty of creating your own version within your head before the next book is out and the satisfaction when the next book comes out and your theories are correct
At times i do enjoy if the series is finished, but at other times I like reading just a couple books and taking a break. that way I am totally excited when the new one comes out, because I have usually forgotten about it and I feel like I'm getting a surprise early birthday present!
I usually wait for the series to have at least 5 released books (if it's an on-going series) that way I won't have to kill my self with anticipation every year.After I get tired of reading a series I take a break with stand alone books and?or trilogies.
If it's an uncompleted series then there's a 70% chance that I won't read it. Unless it sounds like something super special I often just say forget it, because I only have much time to pleasure read and why spend that on half a story instead of a whole one? But if I know from reviews that say the original plot arcs and relationship drama has been resolved in book 5 and now all new plots have started and the couple are together but working out their relationship then I generally will go ahead and buy up thru book 5.
I always think it's best to start a series from the beginning. It's the only way to get the history of the characters and to understand their personalities better. Not only that, but they'll be references in other books about events that took place in previous books that you won't have the full details on.
I wait for the whole series to be released or I get annoyed to wait and then I forget and have to read it all again once the last one is released !
As a reader I like to dive in when I hear about them. That might be the first book or some I looked at recently had twenty in the series with some 'half' books like '2.5'. Then I read from the first on through. If you get in early on a good series you can follow with the other readers anticipating what will happen.As an author I understand a lot of people like to know the whole story is there. And because the writing takes longer than the reading it can be a wait. So my last trilogy about vampires I released all three books at the same time. The complete story is there with no hanging developments. It's a trade off though and always a struggle.
Just a question off the top of my head! Can't wait to see the replies,
<3's and fangs,
Liz ^_^