tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post3709292907362194823..comments2024-03-28T15:01:21.285-04:00Comments on SleuthSayers: A is ForeverLeigh Lundinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-7148447694904835992013-11-25T20:47:08.735-05:002013-11-25T20:47:08.735-05:00Thanks all for your comments and letting us know h...Thanks all for your comments and letting us know how you felt. Marcia Muller & Sara Paretsky & S.J. Rozan all have kept series going and fresh.<br />And not to be sexist, Bill Pronzini, Lee Child, and Michael Connelly also. All 6 of these writers do series characters but also write a stand-alone in between. I feel this has helped keep their series characters fresh and growing. Marcia says she gets bored easily so has to do something different. Ms Rozan said when she began her series she made the decision to write one book in Lydia Chen's viewpoint and the next in Bill Smith's viewpoint so as to keep the series fresh. So whatever works for each person is the best way to go.Jan Grapehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13323910083703514953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-65276748153057765582013-11-25T20:46:33.431-05:002013-11-25T20:46:33.431-05:00Thanks all for your comments and letting us know h...Thanks all for your comments and letting us know how you felt. Marcia Muller & Sara Paretsky & S.J. Rozan all have kept series going and fresh.<br />And not to be sexist, Bill Pronzini, Lee Child, and Michael Connelly also. All 6 of these writers do series characters but also write a stand-alone in between. I feel this has helped keep their series characters fresh and growing. Marcia says she gets bored easily so has to do something different. Ms Rozan said when she began her series she made the decision to write one book in Lydia Chen's viewpoint and the next in Bill Smith's viewpoint so as to keep the series fresh. So whatever works for each person is the best way to go.Jan Grapehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13323910083703514953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-55150105758834265082013-11-25T16:03:39.353-05:002013-11-25T16:03:39.353-05:00Great tile, by the way. When Donald E. Westlake w...Great tile, by the way. When Donald E. Westlake wrote THE HUNTER, about a very bad criminal, he dutifully ended it with the protagonist being caught, as was standard at the time. The publisher suggested turning it into a series, so Parker got away and Westlake (as Richard Stark) wrote a whole lot of books about him.Robert Loprestihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08844889305615182897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-5460227004538982262013-11-25T15:36:21.289-05:002013-11-25T15:36:21.289-05:00Jan, it might be a comfort zone, too, and probably...Jan, it might be a comfort zone, too, and probably more for the publisher than the writer. I've done stories that were meant as one-offs, and then I went back and used the character/s again. I don't really know, going in, whether I'll repeat or not. I think in Grafton's case, she obviously meant to set Kinsey up for a series, and I'm guessing she used this as part of her initial pitch. David Edgerley Gateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05302818835018859164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-10676947457974796442013-11-25T13:44:23.298-05:002013-11-25T13:44:23.298-05:00Jan, I think some books don't work well as ser...Jan, I think some books don't work well as series-starters, but others just beg for it.<br /><br />I remember a woman who spoke in one of my college classes, one time. She'd written a novel that was intended to begin a series. A really big publishing house was willing to buy it for a whopping advance -- if she'd tie things up at the end, eliminating the chances for a series. She turned them down, and went with a much smaller house for a much smaller advance. Her book hit #12 on the NY Times list, as I recall. Several other books in the series followed, but I don't know how well they did.Dixon Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11220791609338404147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-60013812488824894702013-11-25T12:16:43.987-05:002013-11-25T12:16:43.987-05:00Jan and Elizabeth, both of you make me feel very l...Jan and Elizabeth, both of you make me feel very lucky to have gotten the first book published so quickly with the firs three-book deal.A new editor changed the title on the third book, but the next two went back to the mutilated nursery rhyme title idea. The sixth one is in the line but is based on a song instead of nursery rhyme.<br />Series versus stand-alone? So far the only things published under my real name is the Callie Parrish series, but I'm seriously considering using my name on the coming stand-alone horror.<br />Personally, it's great to have an established audience for a series, but as a reader, it seems that most series reach a point where it's very obvious to the readers that the writer is TIRED. They lose their pop. A notable exception is Kinsey Milhone, but it happens too often. I just hope that I don't cross that line with Callie.Fran Rizerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08655783035179620991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-58483034896715414212013-11-25T10:55:21.165-05:002013-11-25T10:55:21.165-05:00Jan, I had every intention of writing a series whe...Jan, I had every intention of writing a series when I started DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER. I had a list of matching titles that indicated the theme of each novel, and once I got a contract, five years after I started to send the ms out, I lived in fear that they would change my title, thus destroying my hook for the whole series. What did change was the comfortable world of mystery writing in which, once you'd published the first and second books, you could be fairly certain your publishers would let you continue a series of indefinite length. But that was long ago in a galaxy far, far away....Elizabeth Zelvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13944424094949207841noreply@blogger.com