This isn’t a blog post so much as a really long thought! It’s not even a rant or an opinion and I’m genuinely interested in an answer to the following question: “When did people stop writing books?” (You know, single title, stand-alone books.)
It just seems like every book I see nowadays is part of a series of books, and that they start that way from Book 1. I’ve seen several awesome blogger friends get book deals recently and they all seem to be for series, with books 1 and 2 already completed.
I’m between books right now – I mean, writing them – so I went into the bookstore the other day to stock up on YA to feed my brain and check some trends and just get my general YA on and it was just walls of series everywhere I looked. Yes, certainly, I could *find* single, stand alone titles but few were faced out and not that many were getting “heat,” if you know what I mean.
And I can’t prove it scientifically, even statistically, but there was just this wall of books and they were all part of the This series or That series and the covers all matched up and even if it wasn’t from a “famous” series like Cirque Le Freak or Morganville Vampires or Vampire Diaries or whatever, it was Book 3 or Book 7.
Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE a good series. It was an awesome experience watching Harry and Hermione and Ron grow and evolve throughout the Harry Potter series, and I’m currently hooked – I mean, HUH-OOOKED!!! – on the Hunger Games series right now and eager to see where that takes me.
And who am I to talk? I have sequels to two of my books in the works right now, so I guess that qualifies them as a “series,” but it makes me a little sad for the single-title, one-off books because it seems much harder to bring them to anybody’s attention if they’re not “Book 1” or “Book 2” of the So and So Series.
Still, I really enjoyed writing them and think, in their self-contained worlds, they’re really good. Then again, I’m enjoying the opportunity of seeing what’s in store for Maddy, Dane and Stamp as I wrap up the sequel to Zombies Don’t Cry.
And I can absolutely see the allure of extending their story, taking them different places, even “growing up” with them as they experience and learn new things and even change and evolve in this next book and, hopefully, beyond.
But I dunno. It just hit me all of a sudden as I stared at those bookstore shelves how many, many series there are and it made me wonder, “Where did all the books go?”
Again, know this: I LOVE SERIES! I LOVE SERIES AUTHORS! This is not a dig, a rant or a “ding” against series and their authors. I get it; really, I do. It’s just a comment on a trend that seems to be getting stronger, not weaker, and wondering what you all think about it well.
Comment boxes are open; I hope you see fit to fill them!!!
Yours in YA,
Rusty
It just seems like every book I see nowadays is part of a series of books, and that they start that way from Book 1. I’ve seen several awesome blogger friends get book deals recently and they all seem to be for series, with books 1 and 2 already completed.
I’m between books right now – I mean, writing them – so I went into the bookstore the other day to stock up on YA to feed my brain and check some trends and just get my general YA on and it was just walls of series everywhere I looked. Yes, certainly, I could *find* single, stand alone titles but few were faced out and not that many were getting “heat,” if you know what I mean.
And I can’t prove it scientifically, even statistically, but there was just this wall of books and they were all part of the This series or That series and the covers all matched up and even if it wasn’t from a “famous” series like Cirque Le Freak or Morganville Vampires or Vampire Diaries or whatever, it was Book 3 or Book 7.
Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE a good series. It was an awesome experience watching Harry and Hermione and Ron grow and evolve throughout the Harry Potter series, and I’m currently hooked – I mean, HUH-OOOKED!!! – on the Hunger Games series right now and eager to see where that takes me.
And who am I to talk? I have sequels to two of my books in the works right now, so I guess that qualifies them as a “series,” but it makes me a little sad for the single-title, one-off books because it seems much harder to bring them to anybody’s attention if they’re not “Book 1” or “Book 2” of the So and So Series.
Still, I really enjoyed writing them and think, in their self-contained worlds, they’re really good. Then again, I’m enjoying the opportunity of seeing what’s in store for Maddy, Dane and Stamp as I wrap up the sequel to Zombies Don’t Cry.
And I can absolutely see the allure of extending their story, taking them different places, even “growing up” with them as they experience and learn new things and even change and evolve in this next book and, hopefully, beyond.
But I dunno. It just hit me all of a sudden as I stared at those bookstore shelves how many, many series there are and it made me wonder, “Where did all the books go?”
Again, know this: I LOVE SERIES! I LOVE SERIES AUTHORS! This is not a dig, a rant or a “ding” against series and their authors. I get it; really, I do. It’s just a comment on a trend that seems to be getting stronger, not weaker, and wondering what you all think about it well.
Comment boxes are open; I hope you see fit to fill them!!!
Yours in YA,
Rusty
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