I read a very angry blog post today wherein an author takes George RR Martin and Patrick Rothfuss to task for allegedly eroding the faith of readers in series. He describes them both as "apathetic sacks of shit with zero work ethic".
Before continuing, let me say that I am not here to critise Martin or Rothfuss. I know from my involvement in Wild Cards that GRRM keeps very busy and has many projects on the go. This blog post concerns the idea presented in the aforemention opinion piece, namely that a small number of high profile delays in series have harmed the prospects of many hardworking authors who sell far fewer books.
First let's look at a few of the usual suspects.
I've included Alan Garner's Tales of Alderley books there for fun. Nobody (to my knowledge) was expecting a third book after The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath, but 49 years later we got Boneland!
Again - this post is not about the "whys" of these delays, just the consequences. There are many valid reasons for not writing a book. Most people go their whole lives without writing one. Mental health is a perfectly valid and understandable reason for not being able to finish a writing project, and I don't just mean the big headlines like DEPRESSION here - writing books is an entirely mental endeavor and relatively small issues can cause writers' block.
To claim that these authors are lazy or sacks of shit on the basis of these delays is clearly ridiculous.
What is true - and I've blogged about it myself - is that the "I'm not starting that until it's finished" attitude has become hardwired into a certain portion of the fantasy readership. I've had readers tell me that about my books on many occasions, despite me always finishing my trilogies before the first book hits the shelves, and despite producing this lot in the last 12 years:
and at no point falling below one book per year.
It is, among some readers, a meme / badge of honour / show of their own cleverness to tell an author trying to launch book 1 of a trilogy or series, "Yeah, I'm not starting that until they're all out."
However, I am far from convinced that all of this, or even a large portion of it, can be laid at the feet of a small number of high profile authors suffering (and yes, obviously it hurts them more than it hurts you personally) delays.
And here's why: Three important things have happened (or substantially ramped up) during the 12 years many have been waiting on Winds of Stone and/or Doors of Winter.
i) The sheer number of books being published each year has exploded.
Currently there are around 11,000 books published ... each fucking day!
Up to 90% of those are self-published. But even if you were to stick to traditional publishing (you shouldn't) that's well over a 1000 books a day. And a decent chunk of those are fantasy books. I won't read another 1,000 books even if I live into my 90s.
So, one of the main things I see people who are being bombarded with all this choice doing is finding reasons not to read a book. All manner of silly excuses are used to trim the field without putting any effort into the process. An unfinished series is a pretty handy reason. It doesn't have to be because GRRM is taking his time on WoW - it can be because given the choice of an unfinished series and a gazillion finished ones ... why not?
ii) Streaming services have exploded, and the content on them has multiplied almost without bound. You can fill your televisual needs entirely with complete series. A binge culture has been created. There has to be a god-like level of buzz for anyone to wait on a new episode each week these days. Most people just watch a different series and then when the whole of a new series is out - binge it in chunks of whatever size suits them.
This same mindset now reaches out into the book world. It's disappointing but hardly surprising. And again, it's unreasonable to lay this at George Martin's feet. It's easy to do that - sure - but the easy explanation doesn't have to be the right one.
iii) This is really just point i) & ii) wrapped together with all the other new diversions on offer to us these days, from Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and all the other socials, to better more immersive video gaming, and everything else. It's hard to find time to read. There's much much more than you could ever read, so any plausible excuse is handy when it comes to cutting down those options.
In short:
i) Authors who delay a book in a series, be it for 10 years, or 50, or forever, are not lazy sacks of shit.
ii) The high profile authors who have delayed may be cited in some cases as a reason for readers not picking up a newly published book 1 -- but I feel the reasons behind that reluctance are far deeper and considerably wider than two or three writers, however well known. Some portion of the reason (I do not say blame) may reside with them, but I think this would be happening even if book 3, 4, & 6 had turned up a year or two after their predecessors.
iii) It's easy to give the reason for this problem a face - someone to call an apathetic sack of shit. It's human nature to want a simple answer and a person to blame. But it's more complicated than that.
Readers - have faith in your writers, that faith will be overwhelmingly rewarded. And when it's not - the only thing that author has done is disappointed you, not tanked the entire publishing industry.
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