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FOR READERS: Reading Series

Book Series

FOR READERS

Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer ‘Nathan Smith:

Do you wait for the whole series to be out—and do you know that can harm the series from a publishing point of view—or do you gobble and endure the long wait times? Do you like certain types of series more than others (ones where the b-characters in book one are the main characters in book two, or ones where you follow the same folk through the whole series, for example).

Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks!

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4 thoughts on “FOR READERS: Reading Series”

  1. There are, I think, two types of series in our genre: (1) the OBOS and (2) a “regular” series.

    An OBOS (my acronym for One-by-One Series) is where you start with a group of characters in the first book and “one by one” they find their HEA, or Book 1 introduces Book 2 characters, ditto Book 2 for 3, etc.

    A regular series is where the same characters have a series of adventures (detective stories with the same 2 detectives are the obvious example, e.g., the Nora Roberts In Death series with Even Dallas and Roarke, and the other homicide cops. (Sorry for the non-genre, but that’s what comes to mind for me for detectives/series).

    Whether “in genre” or out I buy the books as they come out. Speaking of long waits: 30+ years to finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time? Game of Thrones anyone?

    Whether the series is well-written is what controls, as I’ve enjoyed both OBOS and non-OBOS in and out of MM romance.

    And when I find a series I didn’t know about, I tend to buy all the earlier books at once. For example, when I finally decided to try In Death, I bought 31 paperbacks and started devouring. *s*

    Just my USD .02.

    Eric-the-never-humble-opinionator

    Reply
  2. As a reader of romantic books (since my standards are different for non-romantic ones)…If series follows different characters with each books, I’m going to read it. If not, if there’s a continuing storyline the outcome of which I’m not going to know until the end of the series, I wait for all books to be published to see if I’m going to read it. When I read MM romance, I expect HEA. Happy ending is in very definition of romance, right? So, with that in mind, many series in this very genre have been just left unfinished – with unresolved endings and very unhappy readers. So, while aforementioned approach may hurt publishing, I have to put myself and my money first.

    I prefer for each book to follow different couple in the same universe, but I’m also OK with the series following one couple only. But no more than 3, maximum 5 books. I usually get bored when there’s more.

    Reply
  3. Waiting for ‘Queen of the Damned’ to come out in mass media paperback when I was a teenager was hard, but I managed to do. Right now, I’m racing through Alexandre Dumas pere’s ‘D’Artangnan Romances’. I’ve read better books, but I can’t seem to put this series down. :)

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