I had a great chat tonight on Twitter with @JonathanStrahan, @charliejane, @charlesatan and others about fantasy and the way that publishers are reacting in different ways to the reader resistance phenomenon: readers turning their back on extended fantasy series, and in some cases refusing to start reading a series until it’s complete, so that they can happily get invested in the characters without worrying the author is going to drop dead, or make them wait.

Some of the techniques publishers are using include letting the author finish the whole series/trilogy so they can assure readers it’s all going to be there, and in many cases releasing the books much closer together, rather than the more traditional one volume a year. This is happening with my Creature Court trilogy, where the third book will be delivered around the time the first will be published, and they’ll be coming out six monthly. Meanwhile, Rowena Cory Daniells has a new trilogy coming out this year through Solaris at once a month! As Jonathan pointed out, this is a method the romance industry has been employing for years.

I get pretty angry about the most problematic method publishers use to overcome the reader resistence phenomenon: that is to say, fraud.

I still remember the fury I felt when I got to the end of Gwyneth Jones’ Bold as Love. There was no sign on the book that it was a continuous series, but ten pages from the end, I had suspected there was a lack of finality. Sure enough, “to be continued in Castles in the Sand.” There are other examples, quite a few of them documented across the web, of series which the publishers have, for whatever reason, chosen not to represent as a series from Book #1.

Here’s the thing: there are many things you can do to try to persuade readers that is going to be worth their while to pick up Book #1. But it’s not okay to pretend the book is something other than what it is. A reader who doesn’t want to read a lone Book #1 is going to be PARTICULARLY angry if they are tricked into buying a book under false pretences. They will tell their friends. And you know, if they don’t (as most readers don’t) know much about the industry and how it works, they’re not going to blame the publisher. They’re going to blame the author.

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Rowena Cory Daniells writes for both children and adults. Her new Fantasy series ‘King Rolen’s Kin’ will be published by SOLARIS in 2010.

http://ripping-ozzie-reads.blogspot.com/

1. King Rolen’s Kin will be released From Solaris in July, August and September this year. What can you tell us about these books?

This is the kind of series that you read on a Saturday afternoon after you’ve worked hard all week and you just want to be swept away to another world!

2. Since the last Snapshot, you have completed an MA in creative writing. What did you get out of the experience? Are you glad that you did it?

Turns out it was a Masters in Arts Research. I met a great bunch of fellow writers, wrote a book and discovered that I hate academic writing. Two out of three isn’t bad.

3. What’s next for Rowena Cory Daniells? What are you working on now, and what are your career goals for the next five years?

I have the first books of 4 new series with my agent. I’m a ‘serial lover’ — I fall in love with each book series as I write it, love it, love the world and the characters passionately then I send them off to my agent and, rather than pine for them, I start another series, which I fall in love with. Ideally, I’d like to know that those series have a publisher to call home and a readership looking forward to reading them, as much as I look forward to writing them!

4. Which Australian writers or work would you like to see on the Hugo shortlists this year?

I’m a big fan of Glenda Larke’s work. I don’t think she gets the recognition she deserves. I’d call her the Thinking Fantasy reader’s writer, just as I’d call Marianne de Pierres the thinking SF reader’s writer.

5. Are you planning to go to Aussiecon 4 in September? If so, what are you most looking forward to?

I wouldn’t miss AussieCon 4. I plan to catch up with old friends and make lots of new friends.

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Previously in Snapshot: Marianne De Pierres, Richard Harland, Karen Miller, Margo Lanagan, Ben Peek, Narelle Harris, Paul Collins, Damien Broderick, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Angela Slatter, Dion Hamill, Garth Nix

Snapshot interviews will be blogged from Monday 15th until Sunday 22nd Feb.

To read them hot off the press, check these blogs daily:
http://random-alex.livejournal.com/
http://girliejones.livejournal.com/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/
http://www.mechanicalcat.net/rachel
http://tansyrr.com/
http://editormum.livejournal.com/

Will we beat 83 this time? If you know of someone involved in the Scene with something to plug, then send us an email at 2010snapshot@gmail.com.