07-25-2010, 11:03 PM | #1 |
Wizard
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Request for authors who write series books
I would love it if authors who write series books can make more of an effort to easily indicate series order in the book descriptions. Twice in the last week, an author was recommended to me and when I went to Smashwords to check them out, they had many books listed. It was not clear to me which to read first, so I did nothing. A simple indicator, either in the title itself (e.g. Title of Book, Book 1 in the Bookseries Series) or in the book description itself would be a huge help. It would be a shame to lose a reader just because they didn't know where to start!
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07-25-2010, 11:09 PM | #2 |
Curmudgeon
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I have a certain fondness for authors like Sue Grafton for that very reason.
Besides, it will make life much easier for future researchers. I've been working on a major project -- compiling a list of every boys' series book (think Tom Swift, etc.) prior to 1940. Mostly, this involves spending a lot of time on Google Books and the Internet Archive, rummaging around in the backs of bad scans, looking for the lists of other series by the same publisher so I can figure out where "The Boy Geniuses Save the World" fits in its series. So, series authors, think of the future! Don't make your future fans suffer like I have! (if I could call up Edward Stratemeyer's ghost, I'd scream "you should have numbered the damn things!!!" at him). |
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07-25-2010, 11:33 PM | #3 |
Gadget Slave
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No problem! As a series author, I put the book number in the subtitle of the book. I know the frustration you are talking about. I often have to dig through a couple pages of front matter to find out if a book is a first in the series or 2 or 3 and so on. I don't know why this info is often so hard to spot.
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07-25-2010, 11:46 PM | #4 |
Geographically Restricted
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Could not agree more. I often have to use Fantastic fiction to determine order of ebook series. Then I rename the ebook file and the metadata to reflect my chosen naming convention;
[series name book number] - [book title] Lost Fleet 03 - Courageous Here is an appropriate Fantastic Fiction link for the example above; http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/jack-campbell/ It would be nice if the original downloaded ebook title reflected some form of series order. |
07-26-2010, 01:34 AM | #6 |
Busy Read'n
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I also agree that this is frustrating. Even if it doesn't really matter and there isn't much of a continuing story, I still want to read them in order.
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07-26-2010, 03:49 AM | #7 |
It's Dr. Penguin now!
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Ooh, I totally agree with this sentiment. Even for those who list the books on a page inside the book, they're not always in the order they were written. Sometimes it's the opposite.
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07-26-2010, 09:31 AM | #8 |
Evangelist
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The listings at Goodreads.com usually indicate the volume number of books in a series. Just go to the page for author.
I'm usually at Goodreads anyways before I buy, to check out the reviews. So it's a logical place for me to go to get that info. |
07-26-2010, 11:27 AM | #9 |
Connoisseur
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I totally agree.
One of my favorite authors, CJ Box does not number his "Joe Picket" Mysteries. Janet Evanovich used witty numbering in her titles when creating her "Stephanie Plum" series. |
01-07-2011, 06:20 PM | #10 |
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Authors of Series
In response to a few comments made, a librarian gave me this website to use to find out about authors that write series, and they are in chronological order.
http://ww2.kdl.org/libcat/WhatsNextNEW.asp My new favorite site, since I like to read series, and also like to start at the beginning. The website is done by Kent State, and there is also a book available for about $32. |
01-07-2011, 06:48 PM | #11 |
cacoethes scribendi
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I always figure that first-published-date is as good as anything. Even for those series that end up writing prequels or inserting in the middle of a series, it often makes more sense to read in the order they were released than any inner story chronology. ... Of course if you are looking at older books, they were not always very good at providing first published dates which can make life difficult.
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01-07-2011, 08:47 PM | #12 |
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01-07-2011, 09:27 PM | #13 |
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Just adding my voice. Annoys me when I actually have to research to work out what the order is supposed to be.
Regards Caleb Last edited by caleb72; 01-07-2011 at 09:30 PM. |
01-07-2011, 11:00 PM | #14 | |
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Quote:
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01-08-2011, 12:25 AM | #15 |
kookoo
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Thank you for pointing this out. I am only on my second book of a series at the moment, but I've made no mention of mentioning series order. Honestly, I haven't figured out what the name of the series is yet. *sigh*.
From this point on, I will note that each book is in a series and where it's at in the series. For books not in a series, I will state that they are 'stand alone' books. Thank you very much for the advice. |
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