# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**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, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/41 "2013-01-15T06:11:12Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > 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 think it’s rare for a first published novel to be a big success. J. K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer and that 50 Shades of Grey woman are abberations. As for King, _Carrie_ didn’t sell well, but then came the movie, which was a big hit. I don’t remember if I read the book first or saw the movie, but the movie put King on my radar. I’d like to know the magic number for sales of a first book, which would make a publisher take a chance on a second book. I’m just happy that good stuff is still being published, even though it might not crack the best seller list. ---
**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, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/42 "2013-01-15T08:27:33Z")
Can I add Tad Williams to the list of good, prolific writers? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/43 "2013-01-15T08:43:10Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Mystery and romance, more than other genre fiction, rely on formula. Writers can crank out lots because they’re essentially the same, but no one complains because that’s pretty much why they’re buying them. > > I’ve been discovering that Urban Fantasy is like this, as most of it seems to be a mix of mystery and romance. You’ve got a supernatural protagonist (typically female) working some sort of case, while also in an on-again off-again relationship with some dude (typically a cop or other authority figure). They sort of blur together after a couple. > > It also appears that publishers want at least one a year for a series, but authors direct-publishing to Amazon are cranking them out faster (with lesser quality). Most paranormal fantasy romance seems to involve one woman who is being courted by two alpha males. Usually, but not always, the males are of different species, such as vampires and shapeshifters. And did I mention that they are alphas? You can smell the testosterone dripping. Some paranormal fantasy romance is very, very good. However, Sturgeon’s Law applies to this genre as it applies to everything else. ---
**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, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/44 "2013-01-15T09:18:05Z")
> [@Sevencl](#): > > It helps when you plagiarise, make up half the words you’re using and aren’t above dick jokes. Now, you are just being petty! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/45 "2013-01-15T13:37:05Z")
John Sandford is pretty consistent. This [index](http://www.johnsandford.org/books.html) lists his various series. Much like Parker, Sanford took a break from his Prey series and came up with new characters. Pretty good fiction from a former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/46 "2013-01-15T14:11:32Z")
> [@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). Well, it’s not as if Stephen King was in a terrible hurry with the Dark Tower series (which ran from 1982 to 2004, if you don’t count last year’s offering). A German example of a prolific author is Wolfgang Hohlbein, who’s so far cranked out more than 200 books in generally fantasy-ish genres. His 80s breakthrough period work was, well, OK fantasy I guess, but I think he’s been mostly cruising on the reputation he built up since then. ---
**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, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/47 "2013-01-15T15:37:14Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > 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. 18 books, but published over a span of 36 yrs. I don’t think of one novel every 2 yrs as ‘cranking them out’. Even with 30 books total, it is less than one per year. How many per year come out under Patterson’s name, for example? I would agree that Connelly and Sanford are consistent, and would add James Lee Burke. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/48 "2013-01-15T21:32:00Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > 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. Television has killed the kind of writing you’re talking about, for the most part. The kind of detailed descriptions that make those books so immersive is seen as boring, as now everyone knows, at leats generally, what the environment is like. There’s still impressive work out there - A Frolic of His Own, The Crossing, A Confederacy of Dunces - but nothing’s written like Moby Dick or GWTW anymore. ---
**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 16, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/49 "2013-01-16T03:25:57Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > 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. I read GWTW, but it was several decades ago. In junior high or high school actually. I remember I liked it a lot. (I was always reading above my level and belonged to a book club back even in junior high. I remember I ordered GWTW through them.) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/50 "2013-01-16T03:42:19Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Television has killed the kind of writing you’re talking about, for the most part. The kind of detailed descriptions that make those books so immersive is seen as boring, as now everyone knows, at leats generally, what the environment is like. There’s still impressive work out there - A Frolic of His Own, The Crossing, A Confederacy of Dunces - but nothing’s written like Moby Dick or GWTW anymore. I can’t speak for _Moby Dick_ (haven’t read it) but there are a lot of books with the depth and detail and compelling story of _Gone With the Wind_ still being written. _Kristin Lavrandsdattar_ by Sigrid Undsett, _A Fine Balance_ by Rohinton Mistry, _The Crimson Petal and the White_ by Michael Faber, _Lonesome Dove_ by Larry McMurtry. _Kristin_ predates GWTW but I had to mention it. It’s awesome. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/51 "2013-01-16T03:47:52Z")
As a friend who publishes a novel a year told me, “If you write a page a day, at the end of a year you will have a book.” A page a day doesn’t seem like much. Too bad I have no ideas and can’t write. ---
**Author:** ![NotBob13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e19b73/32.png) [@NotBob13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotBob13)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/52 "2013-01-16T04:27:32Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I’ve been discovering that Urban Fantasy is like this, as most of it seems to be a mix of mystery and romance. You’ve got a supernatural protagonist (typically female) working some sort of case, while also in an on-again off-again relationship with some dude (typically a cop or other authority figure). They sort of blur together after a couple. _The Dresden Fiiles_ by Jim Butcher is urban fantasy from a different mold. I enjoyed the whole series, so far. ETA: You know what, I guess the (gender reversed) on/off thing kinda happen in _Dresden Files_, though , too. It’s more will they/ won’t they. Still good books, though. /ETA There was a series I started, all the titles were puns on Eastwood movies, that was just like this. I gave up on it fairly quickly. I get so frustrated with Heroes who won’t either crap or get off the pot. I’m looking at you, S. Plum. Either go for pleasant-and-safe or dangerous-and-sexxy, just chose, stop letting the other one think he has a chance. It was amusing, for 2 or 3 books, then annoying, then tiring. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/53 "2013-01-16T13:42:18Z")
The first author that came to mind is Nora Roberts. I’ve read a few of her books and they were okay. But I have to admit that I’m suspicious that anyone can crank out good quality books at the rate she cranks them out – 200 and counting. Surely her imagination isn’t so diverse that she’s not recycling plots right and left. I’m also suspicious why someone who was as wealthy as she must be would even WANT to keep writing at such a blistering pace? Doesn’t she have a fabulous life to live? I mean, I hope she’s at least writing at a desk that overlooks the Pacific! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/54 "2013-01-16T14:01:47Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > I’m also suspicious why someone who was as wealthy as she must be would even WANT to keep writing at such a blistering pace? Doesn’t she have a fabulous life to live? I mean, I hope she’s at least writing at a desk that overlooks the Pacific! With many prolific authors, I believe it’s enjoyment and/or compulsion: they really enjoy the act of writing, or it bothers them not to be writing. I seem to recall Isaac Asimov saying once he only agreed to go on a cruise if he could take his typewriter along. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/55 "2013-01-16T14:09:31Z")
I envy the hell out of them. It took me 14 months to write my last novel. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/56 "2013-01-16T14:15:11Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > As a friend who publishes a novel a year told me, “If you write a page a day, at the end of a year you will have a book.” Sure, but no reason to think it’s a good one. I mean, it’s certainly possible to write a good book in less than a year, but I’ve never heard of one that was written anything like that. Every good writer I know of writes in bursts–several pages, at least, at a time–and most then rework the material multiple times. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112/57 "2013-01-16T18:57:28Z")
Good writing comes from re-writing, sure, but the big challenge always seems to be completing that first draft (I’m a big believer in outlines). It’s like the diamond mining - finding the stuff is the hard part. Polishing up the gems is comparatively easy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-authors-that-publish-a-lot-of-books/647112.md?page=2)