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Hi. My name is Christine and I'm a binge reader. If I find a new series I really love, I'm going to read the books as fast as I can get my hands on them. I won't stop for anything else until I've mentally ingested them all.
If the series isn't finished, and I have to wait a while for the next book, it's painful. I want it. And I want it now!
Society has been seeing a rising trend of binge watchers. You see those memes all the time.
This is creating more binge readers.
What does this mean for authors? Well, series do excellently. The problem with this is that it takes a long time to write a series.
I've learned the hard way to write all the books in a series BEFORE releasing them. This way you can concentrate on promoting the series, and you can release them in quicker succession. But how quick is quick enough?
That's my big question of the day. Everyone has varying opinions. Six months is too long. Many readers will have moved on by then. Three months gives you plenty of breathing room. I like having a month between releases. But then I've read that having two weeks between releases keeps your sales from drooping.
What do you think about release dates for series? And are you a binge watcher/reader?
Hi Christine ... binge reader .. oh dear! I'm not a binge reader.
ReplyDeleteI guess it'd depend on the type of series you're releasing and how often you can write series. I can see the logic of having everything in place before releasing ...
Good luck with those decisions and I'm sure the other commenters will have some sensible advice - cheers Hilary
I have many series...so I hope there are lots of series readers out there (binge or otherwise) :)
ReplyDeleteSo, a year and a half is too long? Bummer.
ReplyDeleteI binge watch shows but it doesn't stress me out when there are gaps in between books. I guess I'd make a good Martin fan.
Hi, my name is M.J., and I'm both a binge reader and watcher.
ReplyDeleteAnd it makes total sense to wait for a series to be completed before releasing things. If I did that, though, I'd never publish anything. ;)
Hey, I saw your good news in your newsletter—Congratulations!!
I'm a total binge reader, sometimes binge watcher. Thank goodness I read fast or that would be a major problem. As far as release dates, I have no idea. I'm still stuck in the traditional mindset of one book a year. Hah!
ReplyDeleteI do love to binge read on series, and it's hard waiting for the next book. As for releasing a series, I think it depends on the series. Serials and shorter series can be released rather rapidly, but longer books can take more time. After all, you want to give people enough time to read the first book before the second one comes out but not too much time that they forget about you completely. It's hard to strike the right balance because each series is different.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a binge watcher OR a binge reader. I like to pace myself. If there are too many books in a series or episodes in a show, I just feel overwhelmed and will probably not bother trying to read/watch. If a new book came out every two weeks? That's too quick for me. I feel pressured. One month would be the minimum for me to feel like I can keep up with the releases. This may be because I don't have a lot of time to read, so it takes me a long time to finish a book. For shows it's a bit different because they're usually in 30 or 60-minute bites, so it's easy to watch one or two a night. But I can't sit and watch a whole season or series in one night. At some point I'm saturated and no longer enjoying the show.
ReplyDeleteI confess to being a binge watcher and reader. I write in series and usually there is a three to five month gap between books. I agree with you that readers are impatient and a writer can lose them if they take too long between releases.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of writing the whole series first before releasing them. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteI'll binge watch a TV series, but I'll rarely binge read a book series/trilogy etc. There's usually too much time/space between books for me. If it's an older series where I can have the first few books handy then maybe.
I'm a binge reader too. I will wait the year or so it takes for the new book to come out. It is painful to wait, like you said, but it's worth it. I think the author has to do more recapping so to speak when there is a huge chunk of time in between.
ReplyDeleteI'm a total binge reader...and watcher. Mostly because of time. If I find some, I try to fill it quickly with a good story before it is gone! Enjoy your binge!
ReplyDeleteI'm a binge cookie eater - does that count? Once that packet is opened, I can't stop until they are all gone. I wouldn't call myself a binge reader, mainly because I read too slow but I do get hooked on series and look forward to the next release. I also love trilogies. The quickest I read (which meant nothing else got done) was when my husband bought me The Hunger Games trilogy and a Nora Roberts trilogy. Have a great week Christine and thanks for a great post!!
ReplyDeleteI've yet to figure out how to have all the books in a series written before releasing them, though that is a great idea. Honestly, I often wait until after all the books are released (even if it's a year apart) to start, if I know I'm going to totally binge. But mostly, my reading list is too long to take on a whole series as they're released. Interesting to think about though!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the timing for serial vs. series would be different, and it depends on the genre too. If it's an author/series I love, I don't mind waiting. I make my fans wait. Getting their nudging emails in my inbox helps keep me writing. :)
ReplyDeleteI am a big binge watcher. Recently, I'm hooked on Kate Quinn and her books set in Rome. I'm on the last one. Sniff.
I wrote all the books in my one series and now have to rewrite the second after revising the first to resubmit.
ReplyDeleteBut if I had waited to write my whole Disaster Crimes series I wouldn't be published to this day because I hadn't even known it was going to be a series until almost a year after I published Hurricane Crimes.
When I did my PoA series, I did a month to a month and a half between. I still had some edits to do so there was no way I could release one every two weeks. Soon enough they'll recommend releasing a book in a series a day!
ReplyDeleteHonestly? It's SO rare that I'll ever read book 2 in a series. I read book one and move onto something else. Unless it's one of my blogging friends I want to support. I just prefer new stories, personally because I don't have to feel pressured to read a big series. For kids with smaller books (like the Magic Tree House series), I can see it, since kids like that sameness, but as an adult, I get SO mad when I pick up a book and find out it's book number two and now I have to set it aside and go find book 1!
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks? ACK! That's not going to happen for me. I do binge read when I find a series that began awhile ago, but I'm good with once a year for releases.
ReplyDeleteThank you to everyone who commented. I really love hearing your opinions. I'm glad I'm not the only binge reader/watcher out there!
ReplyDeleteNicola, yes! I'm a binge cookie eater too!
It's a treat to binge on either books or movies. As far as writing and releasing them. All written and then released in adequate intervals makes sense. I didn't do that with my trilogy, but I wish I had.
ReplyDeleteI fear I may be too slow for this brave new world of writing. Egads. A book a month? Lady, you are amazing!!
ReplyDelete2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteUm... wow, that's... that's quite a lot of books and writing and releasing and...
As you can probably tell, I have no opinion on this. Good luck :-)