# How do you feel about authors that publish a lot of books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112 "2013-01-14T00:05:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/21 "2013-01-14T19:16:12Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > In a good and just world, someone would have given Piers Anthony the choice between giving up his word processor or his fingers long ago. Holy crap! I had no idea he was still writing; I haven’t read anything since the series that started with “On A Pale Horse.” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/22 "2013-01-14T19:22:38Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Holy crap! I had no idea he was still writing; I haven’t read anything since the series that started with “On A Pale Horse.” He’s not as prolific as he was in my youth, but he’s still publishing. I can only assume that God is still angry with us. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/23 "2013-01-14T19:40:31Z")
I feel more generous towards writers I love who publish too much and hit sour notes (I’m looking at you, Stephen King), then I am towards authors who I love and just won’t publish with any kind of regularity (screw you, George RR Martin). ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/24 "2013-01-14T19:49:09Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > Actually, it occurs to me that the defining quality of high-productive authors is reliability. Can anybody come up with a highly-productive author with widely variable output? Some masterpieces and some utter dreck? Dick Francis. Very prolific, most of his work was a good, entertaining read. A few of his books were really damn good, to the point where I couldn’t put them down (Wild Horses and To The Hilt come to mind) and a few were real dogs, which I read out of a sense of loyalty and probably won’t re-read again (Bolt and The Danger). ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/25 "2013-01-14T19:51:36Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I feel more generous towards writers I love who publish too much and hit sour notes (I’m looking at you, Stephen King), then I am towards authors who I love and just won’t publish with any kind of regularity (screw you, George RR Martin). Opposite for me. I’m willing to deal with a slow writer with consistent quality, though I have a kind of masochistic enjoyment of long waits between sequels because they allow you to ponder and speculate what might be for longer before it becomes fixed. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/26 "2013-01-14T19:52:39Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Holy crap! I had no idea he was still writing; I haven’t read anything since the series that started with “On A Pale Horse.” The Incarnations of Immortality series was his last “decent” effort, and I use the term loosely. I loved Xanth when it first came out. I got to where I bought them out of a sense of obligation and I finally quit buying them. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/27 "2013-01-14T20:13:43Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I feel more generous towards writers I love who publish too much and hit sour notes (I’m looking at you, Stephen King), then I am towards authors who I love and just won’t publish with any kind of regularity (screw you, George RR Martin). > [@Sevencl](#): > > Opposite for me. I’m willing to deal with a slow writer with consistent quality, though I have a kind of masochistic enjoyment of long waits between sequels because they allow you to ponder and speculate what might be for longer before it becomes fixed. I’ll split the difference. I’ve got no problem with someone that simply writes slowly, like Thomas Harris. I’ve got a problem with someone that starts a series and disappears for years like GRRM. Before \*\*A Song of Ice and Fire \*\*even started, he should have had all the books outlined, so that year to year he’s basically just fleshing it out. This should be first draft, second draft, out, first draft, second draft, out. There’s no waiting for an idea, no getting bogged down in research, and I’m seeing nothing in the books so far that says he’s trying to elevate High Fantasy with a more literary take on it ala Gene Wolfe, that would lead to him polishing every sentence endlessly. That’s the real kicker, and why I’ve pretty much dropped the series - it’s a decent tale, but not worth the emotional investment of anticipation. Once he’s done, I might re-visit, but I’ll likely spend my time on something more worthy by then. ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/28 "2013-01-14T20:23:28Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I’ll split the difference. I’ve got no problem with someone that simply writes slowly, like Thomas Harris. I’ve got a problem with someone that starts a series and disappears for years like GRRM. Before \*\*A Song of Ice and Fire \*\*even started, he should have had all the books outlined, so that year to year he’s basically just fleshing it out. This should be first draft, second draft, out, first draft, second draft, out. There’s no waiting for an idea, no getting bogged down in research, and I’m seeing nothing in the books so far that says he’s trying to elevate High Fantasy with a more literary take on it ala Gene Wolfe, that would lead to him polishing every sentence endlessly. > > That’s the real kicker, and why I’ve pretty much dropped the series - it’s a decent tale, but not worth the emotional investment of anticipation. Once he’s done, I might re-visit, but I’ll likely spend my time on something more worthy by then. I like Brandon Sanderson’s blog for this very reason. He keeps a semi-regularly updated list of what he’s working on and where he’s at with it. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/29 "2013-01-14T20:28:41Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The Incarnations of Immortality series was his last “decent” effort, and I use the term loosely. > > I loved Xanth when it first came out. I got to where I bought them out of a sense of obligation and I finally quit buying them. Every once in a long while I find myself agreeing with you, Clothy. That last sentence expresses my sentiments admirably. The last few I read were ones I was given free, and I’ve not even looked to see if there have been any more since. I’d never call J. T. Edson anything more than a pulp Western writer, but I enjoyed his characterisation and the more tightly-written of his stories, and I’d say he managed about sixty good ones, maybe sixty-five, before the wheels really started to come off. The whole “Floating Outfit” story arc hung together surprisingly well for something assembled in such random order over the years. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/30 "2013-01-14T21:25:42Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > Mystery authors tend to produce a large number of books. Look at Agatha Christi. Almost all of hers were top drawer. John Dickson Carr, on the other hand, had a very much weaker batting average. Tony Hillerman’s books are consistently high quality. I can only think of one or two that really were not high quality. Erle Stanley Gardner were consistent. I suppose you have to be a Perry Mason fan to decide where that consistency falls. Funny you should mention Christie and Gardner. I think of both of them as hacks. I far prefer Marsh to Christie, and Stout to Gardner. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/31 "2013-01-15T01:49:30Z")
The prime example of this, and, I think, the record holder, was [John Creasey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Creasey), who published over 600 books under about 28 different pseudonyms (as well as his real name). Considering he lived to about 65, that is about one whole book every month! It is not great literature, but many (probably most) are a fun read. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/32 "2013-01-15T02:08:26Z")
Personally, I’m waiting until George R. R. Martin finishes the whole series before I pick up any of them. I don’t feel like waiting a decade for the next book, and given his health, it’s quite possible he won’t ever finish. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/33 "2013-01-15T02:18:24Z")
There may be a few exceptions, but many more that ‘prove the rule’, such as James Patterson, Alastair MacLean, Anne McCaffrey, the list goes on. Nice to read that someone else remembers John Creasey. I don’t really think Tony Hillerman belongs in this discussion, he didn’t really crank them out (and I wish there had been more). ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/34 "2013-01-15T02:47:49Z")
In Martin’s defense, maybe he didn’t know that anything he wrote after _Game of Thrones_ would be published. Heck, the first edition of GoT was remaindered. _Armageddon Rag_ was a failure. He was known among horror/SF fans for (_Fevre Dream_, marvelous short story collections, and _Wild Cards_, but he was at the Dan Simmons/Peter Straub level (if that), not the Stephen King level. He didn’t get mainstream crossover readers like King did. So maybe GoT was an experiment. The most prolific authors I’ve read are King, Simmons, Straub, David L. Martin, Larry McMurtry, Don Robertson, Joe R. Lansdale, and GRRM. Robertson and GRRM are the only ones who haven’t disappointed. Except for King, none of those guys are as prolific as Patterson, Steele, Clancy, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/35 "2013-01-15T03:00:32Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > I don’t really think Tony Hillerman belongs in this discussion, he didn’t really crank them out (and I wish there had been more). I think he belongs. There are 18 books in the Navajo series, and he wrote 30 books total. I haven’t flown into Albuquerque for a long time – I used to live there and have visited since – but it used to be that when you stepped off the plane, you were confronted by a wall of his books right there in the airport, waiting to be sold. I’m going through the entire [Michael Connelly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Connelly) series of mysteries now and am finding him pretty consistent. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/36 "2013-01-15T04:09:42Z")
The first thing I think is that even if I were given Stepehn King’s manuscripts in a folder, and my only job was to write them up on a word processor, I still couldn’t do it. I don’t understand for the life of me how someone can crank ohm 500-1000 page books in such rapidity. Frankly, it boggles my mind. This thread has caused a question to occur to me… I thought it was difficult if not next to impossible to get a book published. So for a Stepehn King, J.K. Rowling, Louis L’amour, Tom Clancy, Danielle Steele and similar authors, is it universally true that there first book was a home run? Because if not, I’m guessing they wouldn’t get a chance to write that second, third or fourth book, correct? I don’t think King is a great author. But he IS prolific. As is every other author on my list and in this thread. I can’t think of one author that cranks out books like these people do writes a great story every time out. But after the reputation is established, it is just a matter of profit, is it not? I mean, many people will buy the next John Grisham book or Stephen King book without giving it a thought. I assume that if this wasn’t the case, publishing houses wouldn’t crank these books out as fast as possible. Instead, the book would probably go through a much more rigorous edit and review process before being published. When I think of great literature… Great novels that will be read forever, two jump to mind. Margaret Mitchell’s _ **Gone With The Wind** _, and Harper Lee’s _ **To Kill A Mockingbird** _. As most of us know, both of these books were the sole effort of their authors. I don’t think that any of the prolific authors listed in this thread thus far will ever be confused with being great writers… Some are good to very good writers who, for some reason or another, strike a chord with the masses, which permits publishing houses to profit from their works to such a great degree that the work will never be sharpened into a masterpiece of literature. Just write them, print them, and sell them as fast as you possibly can. If anyone here has ever actually sat down to read GWTW, I wonder what your thoughts were. I remember sitting down to read the book, and by the end of the first few pages, I was completely immersed in the world that Mitchell was describing. Some of her paragraphs or sentences are so detailed… So perfectly written… I don’t think they could ever be improved upon. I’ve never felt that way after reading a standard bulk novel, created by one of our McWriters. Not that I haven’t enjoyed a few books from the list of authors here from time to time. I just don’t have the same kind of reverence for them that I do for someone like Mitchell, who wrote a book that will always stand the test of time. The only person I can think of who cranked out masterpiece work and high volume would be Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/37 "2013-01-15T04:21:42Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > The only person I can think of who cranked out masterpiece work and high volume would be Shakespeare. It helps when you plagiarise, make up half the words you’re using and aren’t above dick jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/38 "2013-01-15T04:30:11Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > I can’t think of one author that cranks out books like these people do writes a great story every time out. But after the reputation is established, it is just a matter of profit, is it not? I mean, many people will buy the next John Grisham book or Stephen King book without giving it a thought. I assume that if this wasn’t the case, publishing houses wouldn’t crank these books out as fast as possible. Instead, the book would probably go through a much more rigorous edit and review process before being published. I strongly suspect that modern publishers, much like record companies, are far less concerned with “is this good?” and much more concerned with “will this sell?”. And frankly, the general public is the same way, except “will this sell?” is replaced with “does this entertain me?” So I suppose that’s also my answer to the OP’s question: If an author’s prolific output entertains me, I’ll buy it, and it doesn’t concern whether or not it’s “great literature”. The same way I go to a movie to be entertained, not to witness a Masterpiece of the Cinematic Art. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/39 "2013-01-15T05:12:30Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I strongly suspect that modern publishers, much like record companies, are far less concerned with “is this good?” and much more concerned with “will this sell?”. And frankly, the general public is the same way, except “will this sell?” is replaced with “does this entertain me?” > > So I suppose that’s also my answer to the OP’s question: If an author’s prolific output entertains me, I’ll buy it, and it doesn’t concern whether or not it’s “great literature”. The same way I go to a movie to be entertained, not to witness a Masterpiece of the Cinematic Art. Of course authors get a second chance to write a book. All they have to do is spend the time. And they have a chance to sell their second or third books too, though the chance is very small. Once in a while, if a later book sells, that first book sitting on the shelf becomes valuable. I believe that was the case with John Grisham. He couldn’t sell his first book, _A Time To Kill_. After he had some success, it DID sell as it was a “new” title from a marketable author. I don’t know how often that happens, but I suspect it’s more than we imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/40 "2013-01-15T06:06:54Z")
I go from the opposite tack, I thought about the non-prolific writers whose work I really like and admire, and it seems to me that their level of quality and invention is significantly higher than that of the more prolific authors. The very best fantasy I have ever read is “Little, Big,” by John Crowley, a notably non-prolific author, and “Little, Big” is one of those books that could not be spun into a series, and be the same book, the changes the characters and their world goes through are simply too profound. The finest fantasy series I can think of is Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber, and it’s only six books long and is not in the same playing field with “Little, Big.” Tim Powers’ “Declare” is the closest thing to “Little, Big” in terms of originality and invention that I have ever read, and it too is a true one-off. I think it may be that there is a certain trade-off to be made when you make a series rather than a single novel. It just does not have the same impact, the same power. So I’ll go with the slow cookers, if you please. I’m a huge fan of Spenser and of Nero Wolfe as well (another writer who maintained a consistently high quality of output for decades) but neither of them have the kind of mind-boggling power that Iain Banks, Crowley, Powers and Vernor Vinge (to name a couple of other slow cookers) have. And no, I don’t think it’s a matter of genre. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112.md?page=3)