pudgygroundhog
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,648
Location: The Grand Canyon
Jun 25, 2014 20:18:39 GMT
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Post by pudgygroundhog on Jun 2, 2016 1:22:06 GMT
To me there's a difference between a trilogy where all three books are necessary for the story and a series that has books that are more standalone, but revisit the same characters and has some continuity in story. I think the best series are ones where each book has it's own story that has a natural arc to a conclusion, but also contains elements of a story that arcs over the whole series and continues to develop and flesh out the characters. For me, excellent examples of this are: Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series (excepting the first book), CS Harris's Sebastian St. Cyr series, Karin Slaughter's Will Trent series, and of course Harry Potter. And I think Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series has done a good job of this near the end. In the end, I don't care how many books are written - one standalone, a trilogy, a series - as long as the writing, stories, and characters support the number of books and it's good reading. I think it's interesting that the current model has writers having to write/submit at least three books before getting published. I'm guessing that's more for self-published or genres? Agree with everything you said. And I'm sorry, I've been referring mostly to self-publishing but didn't make that clear. It's extremely difficult to get a publishing deal these days and even when you do, the author is responsible for much of the publicity and interaction with fans. Some years ago we had a local author come to our book club (he was a friend of a friend that worked at our company) and it was super interesting to hear about the industry and his writing process. He got in the door before the self-publishing boom really hit and he also sent a manuscript directly to a publisher. He said shortly after he did that, it was soon impossible to publish with an agent (this was before self-publishing really took off). I don't know how it works with self-publishing now, but at that time he said authors made maybe $1-2 off a hardcover and 50 cents off a paperback. That's why he was still working at our company - he needed health insurance for his family. He said romance was the the best selling genre. Social media has definitely changed the game these days - I can see how it's a full time job for an aspiring writer just to keep up with all the social media platforms!
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Post by myboysnme on Jun 2, 2016 1:28:39 GMT
I have always wanted to tell Danielle Steel to stop beginning every other sentence with the word 'And.' Book after fluffy book has far too many sentences beginning with 'And.'
She has written about 100 books so I don't imagine that she cares a fig what I think.
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pudgygroundhog
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,648
Location: The Grand Canyon
Jun 25, 2014 20:18:39 GMT
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Post by pudgygroundhog on Jun 2, 2016 1:29:11 GMT
Do you feel like the review processes at Amazon and Goodreads help with this? If a book is a stinker, not only will its Amazon ratings be low but it'll sink so far to the bottom, it won't show up in searches well. Do you trust other readers' reviews or only those of professional reviewers? (I re-read that and it sounds snarky but I don't mean it that way; truly curious . I'm learning a lot about readers' preferences in this thread). I'm amazed at the Amazon e-book stats. There are millions of self-published books and consumers are eating them up. Granted, I have 400+ books on my Kindle and have probably read only 1/4 of them! No worries, it didn't seem snarky. We were talking about this on another post, how trustworthy are the reviews on Amazon. I usually pick a book based on word of mouth, or a review that I read in a newspaper or magazine. I always check out the "Kindle Daily deals" and if the book sounds interesting to me, for $1.99 I usually just go for it. In those cases, I MIGHT look at the overall rating but I take them with a grain of salt, especially if there are only a few, as I suspect they were written by the author's friends and family. I don't want to seem like a book snob. I am a devoted, constant reader, I was an English major and I admire and appreciate great literature, but I don't expect everything to be Shakespeare. I enjoy all kinds of books, including well written chick-lit or murder mysteries or any other genre. And I certainly don't blame anyone for giving it a shot to make a living as an author. But it REALLY bothers me when I read something that is just absolute garbage. This isn't limited to the self-published world. I believe that some authors get a "name" and then people will just flock like sheep to buy ANYTHING that they put out. A case in point is Danielle Steele. Back in the day, she wrote some really good, fun, trashy novels. I hadn't read anything by her in a long time, and I picked up "Big Girl" more recently because it sounded like an interesting premise. OMG, it is possibly the worst thing that was ever written. I don't even think that Ms. Steele bothered to write it; I think she hired a semi-literate 8th grader to throw it together for a few bucks a page or something, and no editor bothered to read it because if it says "Danielle Steele" people will buy it. Okay, rant over. I'll be honest - I don't read self-published books and don't see myself doing so unless it's a rare case like The Martian (which was first self-published, then published traditionally) or a book that is recommended to me by trusted sources (friends that I know have similar tastes as me). I read a variety of books - mostly what is considered literary fiction, but also non-fiction, mystery/suspense/thriller, and some sci-fi/fantasy and my source for what I read is mainly friends recommendations on Goodreads, critic's reviews (I consistently read reviews in Entertainment Weekly, a reviewer for the Washington Post I follow on Goodreads, NPR, NYT reviews, and "best of the year" lists), and some newsletters like from BookRiot. I try to filter what I read carefully so I don't waste my time (although invariably I do read a few books a year that I only give 1-2 stars). I'm sure there are some good self-published books out there, but it seems like you have to sift through a TON of books to find them or find a way to source them.
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GiantsFan
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,456
Site Supporter
Jun 27, 2014 14:44:56 GMT
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Post by GiantsFan on Jun 2, 2016 1:32:46 GMT
Dear Authors, Did you all get together at some "How Not to be a Hack" Convention, and agree that the Rules of Great Writing are: a.) Never, under any circumstances, tell a story from only one person's perspective; and b.) At all costs, avoid chronological order. Jump back and forth in time, preferably every other chapter. I just finished, "The Son," and it was probably the fifth book in a row where I almost hurled it across the room in frustration because it adhered slavishly to rules a and b. I think it MIGHT have been a great book, if I had the slightest idea who was who, or how they related to each other, or could keep the timeline straight. Also - and here I believe I am speaking to a different audience of authors, who do not strive for Great Writing - not every freaking book needs to be part of a series or trilogy! Just try to write ONE book that is good, or even decent. Yours Truly, Faithful Reader I agree with everything you wrote. I am so over the back and forth and every chapter is told by a different person. Yeah I enjoyed it four years ago, but enough already. Oh, and The Son. It's pretty high on my worst read ever list.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 7, 2024 13:42:37 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2016 22:45:55 GMT
Just saw this and it reminded me of our discussion J
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