Re: Authors Who Should Retire

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:03:13 -0500, "David V. Loewe, Jr"
<daveloewe@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:55:56 -0700 (PDT), Moriarty
<blues95@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Yeah, except the analogy probably falls over after that. The point
LWE is making with respect to first v second books being runaway
bestsellers doesn't really apply to music. I read somewhere, and no I
can't find a quote, that a monster best selling album is, on average,
a bands third effort.

So...

For every Boston, some band has to wait until their 6th album to get
that monster seller?

Pretty much, I guess. Or wouldn't it be fifth?

Seems to me an awful lot of folks hit big with their _second_ album,
though -- "Cheap Thrills," "Surrealistic Pillow," "The Rise and Fall
of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," "Little Earthquakes,"
all second albums.

Sarah McLachlan didn't hit big until "Fumbling Toward Ecstasy," which
was what, her fourth?

How many albums had Fleetwood Mac put out before "Fleetwood Mac" and
"Rumours"?

Anyway, it used to be that authors were expected to write a couple of
journeyman books and hit their stride around #3, too -- I remember
hearing that from Lester del Rey when discussing the royalty
statements for my third novel, which had initial sales considerably
higher than my first two. My own best-selling novel to date was my
seventh.

However, that's not the same thing. Saying that on average a band's
third album will be their biggest success is NOT the same as saying
that a band has to hit big with their first album.

I used Stephen King's _Carrie_ as an example of someone who hit big
with his first novel, which he did -- but that's not his biggest
seller; his real monster hit was _The Stand_, which was his third or
fourth novel.

I'm saying that a writer who has a hit with his first book is then
given an opportunity to have _more_ and _bigger_ hits with subsequent
books. A writer whose first book flops completely may also be given a
chance to try again, under another name or with another publisher, on
the theory that he just didn't find his audience. But a writer whose
first novel sells adequately but not impressively has had his shot;
he's now got a track record as list-filler, as a guy who doesn't
excite readers. He's lost the advantage of novelty. His publisher
can't headline his next book with "Exciting New Discovery!" Everyone
thinks they know what to expect from him.

They might be wrong, of course.








--
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