Quote:
Originally Posted by Darqref
Ya know, I remember reading some years ago that Isaac's publisher finally reached the point where they said "write another Foundation, or we're not going to publish anything else...." (because he had refused to write new ones...)
And Piers Anthony gets puns *sent to him by readers* to include in future Xanth stuff.
There really are authors who get told "we'll publish your other stuff as long as every other book is in the series."
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Not really, though publishers may suggest it. In the case of Anthony, for example. the stand alone novels do about half the sales volume of the series books.
Publishers like established series because the books
sell.
I have a friend in Britain who was dropped by one of her US publishers. The problem was, she didn't write series. Each book was stand-alone, and quite different from the predecessor, so she didn't build the kind of identity with an audience the publisher liked. Her editor was deeply unhappy about it, but it wasn't the editor's decision. Determinations of who isn't selling enough and should be dropped from contract take place higher up. And the publisher in question was a big one who requires big sales. She's currently doing a lovely series for a much smaller publisher who seems happy with her sales.
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Dennis