Re: Successful Series

Jonathan L Cunningham wrote:
I just read the "Publicity" thread, and was reminded of something
puzzling I came across, by chance, in Wikipedia.

Apparently Piers Anthony has written 8 books in the "Incarnations of
Immortality" series. (I've got the first six, but I hadn't realised
there was a 7th.)

Of the 8th, the article claims "publishers were not interested in
continuing the Incarnations of Immortality series even though they sold
well". The book has apparently been written but not published.

Why would they do that? (Drop a successful series?)

I can think of two explanations: the series was decreasingly successful,
or the gap between the 7th and 8th books was too long.

In the latter case, wouldn't it be an excuse to re-issue the entire
series?



I can think of a third reason, which may be generally summarized as publisher foolishness. They could have decided to drop their entire fantasy line, instead devoting all the slots to much more lucrative romance novels. The one editor who passionately believed in the series is now gone and no other editor is willing to pick up the ball and run. The art department quarreled fatally with the cover artist whose imprint is iconic for the series. They have decided to reorient their entire F&SF line in a direction uncongenial to the Anthony series, like say hard military SF or fat novels about young magicians at school.

Brenda

Brenda



--
---------
Brenda W. Clough
http://www.sff.net/people/Brenda/

Recent short fiction:
FUTURE WASHINGTON (WSFA Press, October '05)
http://www.futurewashington.com

FIRST HEROES (TOR, May '04)
http://members.aol.com/wenamun/firstheroes.html

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Successful Series
    ... Apparently Piers Anthony has written 8 books in the "Incarnations of ... Immortality" series. ... continuing the Incarnations of Immortality series even though they sold ... or the gap between the 7th and 8th books was too long. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Successful Series
    ... Apparently Piers Anthony has written 8 books in the "Incarnations of ... Immortality" series. ... continuing the Incarnations of Immortality series even though they sold ... or the gap between the 7th and 8th books was too long. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: SF authors by alphabet: J
    ... started every Anthony series and kept reading them too long, ... books were pretty good. ... The first couple of Incarnations books were pretty good. ... You can't reason with someone whose first line of argument is ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: SF authors by alphabet: J
    ... novel, _Out Of Phaze_, and the Incarnations of Immortality series (excluding the one added to the lineup in 2007, since I read these in the early part of the decade). ... The first three Xanth books were pretty good. ... The first couple of Incarnations books were pretty good. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Brief review: I Am A Strange Loop
    ... His immortality is a memetic immortality. ... which eventually reached our online systems. ... such immortality is gained via newsgroups, blogs, online books, reguar ... Lying to the FBI, for instance, is a federal ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)