No, I'm not talking about children without parents. My topic today is books that stand on their own, that are not part of a series, that do not have sequels. The kind of books that I seem to write, alas.
Maybe I should call them "only children".
A couple of days ago Google Alerts informed me that my erotic thriller Exposure had been reviewed by Kanti Burns. It's a fabulous review that had me on Cloud Nine for a couple of days. (You can read it here.) I of course thanked Kanti for her kind words and we started a conversation. She wanted to know whether I'd written any more books with characters like Stella.
I had to tell her no. And disappointing enthusiastic readers is not necessarily recommended practice.
This is not the first time this has happened to me. Readers and reviewers of Necessary Madness wanted a sequel featuring the villain Stefan (who seemed to be even more popular than my heroes). Several reviewers raved about Fire in the Blood and begged me to write another book featuring the trio of Etienne, Madeleine and Troy.
I recognize that when a reader finds a book he or she likes, there's the natural desire to read more of the same. The trouble is, I can't seem to settle down and write just one genre. I always want to try something new. So now, for example, I'm working on a science fiction erotic romance novel featuring a brand new set of characters.
Maybe I should be writing sequels instead. I have the stories in my head, but they're not screaming loud enough to drown out my current characters.
Am I shooting myself in the foot? Probably. Let me ask anyone who happens to read this: do you get frustrated when you read and love one book by an author and then discover that his or her other books are in a very different genre?
3 comments:
If I love the author and their voice comes through I don't care what the genre is. Perhaps that's because as a reader I'm not locked into loving just one or two genres :shrug:
Falling in love with characters, wanting to visit them again, well, that's the mark of a well-written story. Yes, there are times when it'd be nice if the story I read, fell in love with characters, had a sequel but there are so many more stories to read and characters to meet :)
A note about sequels though, if you're going to write them don't leave it too long. Nothing is more frustrating as a reader to have to wait years and years between related releases.
Continue to write and the readers will come :)
Thank you, Raelyn,
Your comment is very encouraging. But I'll take your warning about sequels to heart!
I'm having the same problem. I know all about how readers love sequels and I have PLANS for them but actually doing is difficult. I even plant the clues and the characters for the sequels but I seem to pour out all my ideas in the first book. Then I look back and can't decide how to do the next.
Glad I read this though -- I now know to get the sequels out there sooner rather than later. Vital piece of info.
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