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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1339333" data-attributes="member: 812">I think what would be an interesting study is to look at what sort of contracts were offered these writers. I would be surprised, for example, to hear that Michael Moorcock received a 5-book deal for Elric, or that Asimov received a multi-book deal for the Foundation trilogy.What's REALLY happened is that the market has grown enough that the profits to be made are getting significant. Thus, the publishers naturally want to maximize their returns. They've discovered that if one fantasy book sells, multiple books based on that premise will produce predictable sales. So if a writer comes out with one book that does well (or gives the appearance of being likely to do well), the publisher wants to sign that writer to multi-book deal, hoping that they can generate another Wheel of Time and realise immense profits, with very little risk to them.The downside is that a writer who might have produced disparate good ideas gets strongly encouraged to instead keep all their ideas inside the "series sandbox" -- reducing the originality and quality of their ideas. In addition, writers who maybe only had one or two good books in them end up with 10-book deals that they just don't have the ability to create, thus diluting the market with  crap.</blockquote>