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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cthulhu's Librarian" data-source="post: 1694567" data-attributes="member: 11064">I have to disagree with you on this. If an author has to work within the constraints set up by readers, there would never be any innovative books written. I actually LIKE when an author makes me push the boundaries of my expectations. Sure, reading books that are comfortable and predictable can be enjoyable as well, but I'd much rather read something that makes me think outside the box. The author is the one leading the reader, not the other way around. When an author ends up writing only what their readers expect, the quality of the writing usually drops. You can often see this when an author continually comes back to older series that sold well, because he knows that new books in the series will sell as well. But the stories are often unoriginal, frequently written only to bring back a familiar character or place because the author & publisher know that it will sell.    I'm not just making things up here. I used to work as an assistant editor at HarperCollins Publishers in the science fiction division. We had several authors whose books were purchased only with the guarantee in their contracts that they would write another book set in XYZ series that they had already finished, because we knew that while the new book might not sell, a return to a familiar series would be a guaranteed money maker.    I am not by any means saying that there are not authors who can't return again and again to a series and continually surprise and delight me. the one that springs to mind right away is Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series. Each book, while set in the same world with the same revolving set of characters, is a new and unique story. He rarely treads the same ground, and thats why his fans are rabid about the books. Familiar, but at the same time unique in some major way.           Orson Scott Card-Heartfire OSC took a series that had been exciting and original in the first 3 books, ok in the 4th book, and made it downright boring in the 5th book. I haven't bothered to pick up the 6th, and doubt that I ever will.</blockquote>

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