Everyone loves a good trilogy don’t they?
Tracy Anne Warren’s first book of her second back-to-back trilogy just released. Monica McCarty’s first trilogy is out now and she is working on her next trilogy to be released back-to-back. Nicole Jordan, Celeste Bradley (Heiress Brides), Susan Mallery (Bakery Sisters), and Brenda Novak (Last Stand) each have a series releasing back to back in 2008.
This doesn’t even count the back to back release of the next two in Christina Dodd’s Darkness Series, Virginia Kantra next two in the Children of the Sea and Sabrina Jefferies was talking about maybe having back to back releases in 2009. (wasn’t it nice of her to make Let Sleeping Rogues Lie cover go so well with the blog… tis a SHAME I haven’t read said book yet… just saying).
I don’t think I like this back to back trend thing. I am all for whatever gets us more romance novels and it is good for my OCD. You close the book and can’t wait for the next story, only to find out ‘next’ comes out in a year. But I hate a trend. The need for everyone to jump on it until they kill it.
I hate the hurry up and then wait. After the author spends a year or so killing herself to get three books out back to back, then what? Another year or so before we see her again? Will that be ok because we always buy more books than we can read, so even if the books come out back to back, we won’t get to them that quickly.
Which leads me to the thought how fast will it be before used book stores kill this trend? Or will they? It is one thing to have been waiting forever for a book to release. Readers will rush out and buy the book new so they can finally spend some time in a favorite world again with favorite characters. But what if you just finished the book and well the next one is out now. Do you go on to the next book in the TBR mountain and wait or rush out and buy it new?
And how long until the authors can’t keep up with the pacing. Will the quailty of the novels drop? Will interest in the authors work fall off in the long ass wait for the next rush of books? But most of all isn’t it time for a western trend in romance? I mean really that would rock! Unless the books sucked then all bets would be off.
So what do you guys think of the feast or famine? A trend a coming in romance? Or one that will burn itself out quickly?
In the past if an author wrote one book in two years, that was amazing. Now they are trying to write one every 6 months or so and also short stories in anthologys and other series under other names! Yikes!
This trend will keep going for a while but then burn out it bound to happen.
I definitely prefer having a bit of a wait between series releases. I think 4-6 months between books is ideal. Any longer and I start losing interest. Any shorter and the thrill of anticipating the next installment is… well…. not thrilling. Besides… if an author, especially a newer author, releases her (his) whole series so close together, how does she (he) establish a decent reader base? Or is that not usually an issue?
My bottom line is that I guess I’m a bit like a Goldilocks when it comes to my series reads… not too fast, not too slow… I want the releases juuust right! 😉
I don’t mind the fast releases, if I am into the series then I am quick to read the next book. I was fortunate enough to start reading Suzanne Brockmann after she wrote 12 of her Team 16 series. I wasn’t jonesing for a fix.
I don’t like the release of two books and then you have to wait an entire year for the next in the series, I think you kind of lose the ‘need’ that book feeling. I would much prefer, they release them every six months. Keeps you at a nice pace.
I’m with Katiebabs, I worry this is the road to burnout. Back to back releases are fine for us as readers as long as quality stays consistent, but can such a pace be sustained? If an author needs more time to create a DIK story I’d rather give it to them than have more books that are mediocre. Just saying.
I am also surprised how many fans are upset about the next book in JR Ward’s BDB series is coming out at a later date then original stated. I think this is a good thing because as you said Jane, we want an author to make their work the best it can be and if they have to rush to get their books out quicker, their work goes downhill.
But I had to admit I am a totally fan of the JD Robb series and having those books come out every six months make me squeel! 🙂
I agree with the burnout. I love Suzanne Brockmann’s SEAL books, but she was putting out about 2 a year for awhile and you could tell towards the end of that. The books were still great but suffering. She took some time off and you could tell when the next book came out b/c it was better.
I agree with Christine, it’s a delicate balance. If the books are too close together it can be too much but if they are too far apart, when you can loose interest or forget!
THEN you can loose interest or forget. *sigh* I forgot to proofread before hitting “submit”
I found my first taste of patience with Judith McNaught and the long wait between books. However, the flip side to all the wait was that I found myself really getting in to other authors with different sytles, and once she actually had a story come out I had grown out of her.
Now I’m being patient for Patience by Lisa Valdez. It doesn’t really matter to me anymore when an author puts a book out. I’d like it to be sooner, but I’m not a writer. I don’t know how easy or how hard it is, so who am I to judge how fast they should produce? There are others out there to read too.
I think I’d rather have good and maybe a little longer between releases than so so and faster.
I don’t think the push back on LEn JR Wards next in the series has anything to do with the quality. I think alot of people were blaming the editor for inconistancies in the world she created. She broke the rules in that book to get herself out of the corners she wrote herself into. IMO, she is taking this series in another direction no more DL, LE, LA we are now all about the angst. The love story taking second fiddle to the secondary characters she shoves down your throat. Is this a quality issue or an issue with starting a series one way and going in another?
As a Reader, I love a shorter interval between books in a series.
Besides the obvious reason of “I want it NOW, dammit!”, the fact is, particularly for a new(er) author, I may completely forget about their previous book and not think to look for the next one. There’s just soooo many books that release in a year and, unless that first book was slap-yo-mamma good, I may not remember the author, the series, or even what the book was about!
But, on the other hand, I don’t want to read a book that was thrown together because of a deadline. If a story isn’t ready to be told, it will be obvious.
So, maybe the solution is to get the first 2 or 3 out there fairly close together to give them a better chance of being established in the readers’ minds. Assuming we’re not talking about a one-hit wonder, the books immediately after that first one are probably already simmering in the author’s mind anyhow. Then, once the author has us hooked, she can take her time with subsequent books in the series.