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.
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.
John Sandford is pretty consistent. This index 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.
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.
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.
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 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.)
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
