I know the title of this entry might not make a lot of sense, but I have been e-mailed by some of you about mystery book authors who are being dropped by their publishers. Some of these authors have several books in their series and are not being given the opportunity to wrap up their existing series.
At the same time >>>
It also seems like some authors are being given the opportunities to start second and even third series. This, of course, is great for those select authors and their fans, but not so wonderful for the discontinued authors and their fans.
Another trend that seems to be VERY BIG is the omnibus craze. Again, there’s a positive for some: You can buy two or three of an author’s books in one book, but if you’re already the author’s fan, you have probably read all of those books. So, it’s not such a great deal for the author’s fans.
I guess I wish that rather than being treated to the omnibus selections of “select” authors, publishers would keep publishing the mystery books of the not so “select” authors. It seems like new and original mysteries should be given the opportunities that the reprints/reissues are given. Is it that much more profitable for a publishing company to rehash three books by an author in one tome VS putting out a new mystery by a lesser known author?
I guess the “buck” (as in “$”) stops here…
Bo says
I’m sorry to hear that the number of authors are being reduced by the publishers. Personally, my book purchases are mostly limited to new authors that I discover when I visit the local book store for that specific purpose. I don’t buy the books from established authors; there are plenty of those in the library that I can read at my leisure.
Maria BearMountainBooks says
I’m ever hopeful that some of those authors will just self-publish a finish to the series (Not a cozy author, but J.A. Konrath did it with “The List” when he couldn’t sell it. Though it was rather full of typos that I understand have been cleaned up some, I thought it was one of his best books–if not his best!)
Of course, for most authors, unless they have already written the work, they have to buckle down and try to start a new series that they can sell to a publisher, so it isn’t going to be feasible in all cases. It would be nice though–if they just sort of finished the series for all us old fans…
Rochelle says
I have to agree there, I read one of the cozy Authors and they republished the first book in hardcover as fans complained they couldn’t find it anymore. no problem there, but what they did that bothered me was they added a new short story (part of the series) to the back of that book and I already had a copy of the main part and didn’t want to have it twice. (Lucky I can read fast, and I read the short story in an hour or so at the store.)
Kristan says
Too bad authors can’t be told ahead of time “We want X amount for this series” or “ok wrap this series up in the next book”. I hate to read a series, and for it not to be finished, with no next book in site. I just found that out about the Samantha Shaw series by Jennifer Apodaca. If that’s the case, why even bother reading the books?
Danna - cozy mystery list says
I hate it when that happens, too!
-V- says
I’d hate that if I were an author. No one can see the future of anything let alone the publishing world and the perceived whims of the reading public. I do my part by reading the not so prolific authors. They have enough people buying their books and I prefer to read a well-written book by someone who is still doing it for the love of writing.