There's no one right way to build a career. I occasionally wonder if I made a mistake by switching to a new series. Goblin War [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] sold better than either of the earlier books, suggesting that the series was beginning to take off. Would a fourth book have done even better? Was I on the cusp of a goblin explosion which would have made me rich and famous beyond my wildest dreams?
There's no way to guess. I'm hoping the new series will build on the success of the old, but the real reason I switched is because I was done with Jig's story, at least for the time being. It wasn't a marketing decision, but a story decision*. Like most decisions, this one has its costs.
One of the managers here at work tells me his young son is bemoaning the fact that I'm now writing about girls. Another reader has said flat-out that he doesn't intend to read this wacky princess stuff. I've also noticed my first rating for the new book over on LibraryThing. Four stars from a fairly well-known reviewer who loved the goblin books and gave them all five-star ratings. Four stars isn't a bad rating, but I winced to see the drop. And while my German publisher did buy Stepsister (Yay!), I suspect the advance would have been significantly larger for a fourth goblin book.
On the other hand, Romantic Times has named The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] one of their Top Picks for January, giving it a 4.5 star** review which says, among other things, "Hines' strength in his brilliantly plotted, cleverly imaginative book is character concepts and interactions. The action never stops, and the characters are painstakingly real. Readers will laugh and find the tale is over before they're ready to finish reading." And my agent checked a local Barnes & Noble and found that their ordering numbers on Stepsister are almost triple what they were for one of the goblin books. So there are positive signs as well.
What does it all mean? Who the heck knows. Ask me a year after the book comes out, and maybe I'll have a clue. The B&N numbers are encouraging, if they holds true for the whole chain (and we're extrapolating from one store here, so statistically, it's not that significant yet). My gut feeling is that this series is better overall, and should reach a wider audience. The crappy economy might hurt overall sales, but there's nothing I can do about that.
I will lose some readers. That stings, and I feel bad about it, but not bad enough to change course. And I think most readers understand, even if they miss Jig and Smudge. I'm hopeful that I'll gain more readers than I lose, that readers will love these characters and stories as much as they have the goblins, and that sales will increase at least enough to justify DAW continuing to buy books from me.
In the end, I'm happy with my choice, and I'm enjoying the chance to write new characters in a new world. I think it was the right choice for me. But that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to obsess about it!
----
*I'm not saying marketing decisions are bad. If marketing is the only factor you're considering, that could be a problem ... but even then, who am I to judge? If you write a potboiler for cash, and it's a decent book that people enjoy, then go you! I've also learned it's pretty normal to discuss various book possibilities with your agent and/or editor so that you can all decide together which one has the best chance of selling. (Gasp! You mean publishing is a business?) So far, I've been fortunate enough to be able to write two series that I love, purely because I love the stories. Who knows what will happen when it's time to start something new again.
**Romantic Times never gives five stars.
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Comments
And if all else fails, maybe I'll still find time to crank out the occasional goblin short story :-)
I believe that the princess books will be huge. I know we're planning on buying multiple copies. :)
Example: Neil Gaiman could write a novel inspired by cat boogers, purely for the cash, and it would still probably be better than I'd do on a book written purely for love :-)
In my case though, I do think I write better when I love what I'm writing. (The short story I'm working on will *hopefully* be a case in point, if it doesn't crash and burn in the next few days...)
On the Princess series, I think it's a good business decision that happens to be a good story decision. There are more female readers of fantasy, at all age levels, than male. But the important thing is that you love what you're writing. All that matters, in the end.
You know, it's weird working with editors ... sometimes they've been doing this for so long that they see things about our work we hadn't even considered. Sounds like they might have been right about the story as well as the business side?
Series definitely seem to do better for an author, which I suspect could be tough for someone dedicated to standalones. Fortunately, that's not me :-)
I've definitely considered the high number of female readers. It wasn't the reason for writing the series, but it should (hopefully) be a bonus.
There's nothing to stop you writing another Jig novel or series later on, if you suddenly get one clawing at the inside of your brain. Heck, wait ten or fifteen years, build a bigger and more diverse fan base, and then come out with a new Jig novel. You'll get the whole "Jim Hines returns to his classic world!" promo, and repackaging on the goblin backlist. :-)
It looks to me like Rowling really loved the characters and their stories, and I couldn't guess whether she's continuing to put out Potter-related material because she feels pressured or because she isn't ready to leave yet.
Financially, she can write whatever she wants, and people will throw money at her. But artistically and in terms of reader response, it would be incredibly hard to follow the HP series.
Also, the stories tell you what to do. If you don't listen to the stories, you're in trouble. You can't get water from a dry well.
Catherine
Edited at 2008-11-20 04:15 pm (UTC)
The princesses are one step more serious than the goblin books, I think. Maybe one and a half steps in a few scenes...
The agent did advise me to stick with light/humorous fantasy for a while as I was building my readership. Thinking back, that did result in one project being back-burnered. I had forgotten that one. (The agent hated that project, and I admit it wasn't ready and would need a lot of work.)
That's definitely the time to get off.
I hope it all works out for you, Jim, both creatively and commercially.
Paul
But will you really lose them? You're still a good writer with a style that's won you fans. Because lunchtime is near and I won't get to eat for another hour, here's a food analogy:
Just because you're switching from cooking Mexican to Italian for a while, and some folks don't like Italian, it doesn't mean they don't like your cooking. They just don't like marinara. Maybe they'll give Italian a brief try, because they like your cooking, but even if they still can't stand it, they'll be there when you go back to Mexican. And maybe when you switch over to Moroccan they'll be all "ooh, I can't stand lasagna, but I love me some tagine, and I like Jim's cooking generally, so..."
I also agree with posters who don't want to see you typecast. Good on you for diversifying.
Which is fine, and he has every right to make that choice.
I do hope that most people will at least taste the new book to see if they like it. (Maybe try that nice free sample chapter I posted on the web site!) Hopefully some of them will decide they do like Italian after all.
I just hope my writing skills are better than my cooking, because otherwise I'm in serious trouble.
Having said that, to anyone who is thinking of walking away and not giving The Stepsister Scheme a chance, I would like to lay down a challenge to them:
Go and read the first chapter which is available here online and then come back here and explain why you aren't hooked and now impatiently awaiting the book's publication?
Normally, while I have always been a fan of fairy tales (Sleeping Beauty being my favorite of the Disney versions) I would normally never think of buying a book like this. Yet, through Jim's blog I became interested in his writing and decided to give the preview chapter a read. And now I'm one of those impatiently waiting for the book to come out.
Edited at 2008-11-20 07:34 pm (UTC)
You the author gotta write what you want.
One problem not mentioned so far: writers who change, and rework their backgrounds to fit. "Those early books are insufficiently feminist; I must explain that women's magic isn't really weaker than men's magic." "Hey, I can tie all of my story backgrounds together!"
And you've discovered my secret. My very last book will be the one where I reveal that all the other books are secretly ROLE PLAYING GAMES being played by an AUTHOR who then goes and sits down at his computer to WRITE THOSE VERY BOOKS! It will be brilliant!
Or not...
I am, however, planning to buy the stepsister book, which probably means the whole series as it comes out. :)
I am actually happy you're writing about gasp girls. I picked up the Goblin book for my husband. I didn't think it was my style, but seemed right up his alley. After he read it, I tried it and liked it a lot. (I don't like silly fantasy, but I do like amusing/funny fantasy.)
I read with either male or female lead character, but that's apparently normal for females. I remember reading about YA fiction, that boys will only read books about boys and girls will read books about boys or girls. So the mantra was 'make your protagonist male' unless it's specifically geared for females. It became clear why I had to scour the shelves for an adventure book with a female protagonist! Contemporary runaway teens being preyed on by society, no problem. Strong female leads in a fantasy setting? Well, I found a good bit, but they don't match the number of books with farm boy becomes king. ;)
Re-cloaking.......
I see things changing these days, which is good, but I'd like it to change more, and not just with regards to gender. I've heard the same "Make your protagonist male" about race. Big Name Author explaining how your hero had better be white, or else you'll never make it as an author.
Of course, my first books had a blue protagonist, so I don't know how that fits into the picture...
That's the best reason I can think of for taking a break from it.
Now, me, much as I adore Jig, Smudge et al., I'm looking forward to getting me some Princess books. (But I'm well known for following authors I like on long cross-genre treks.) I would never say no to another Miles Vorkosigan book, but I've also loved everything else Lois McMaster Bujold has written; similarly, if I secretly hope there will be more goblin books some day, that doesn't mean your next several projects won't be just as much fun as the goblinverse :). I think fans who get snippy because writers switch gears are just ... silly people. If you've liked someone's writing in the past, you should at least give their next thing a chance.
...but I still hope they do.
Just sayin' ;^).
I'm really glad to hear you talk about doing things for the sake of the story and not just for money. I'd love to see another Jig book someday, but I'd rather it be when you were really ready to write one instead of something you just wrote because the goblin books sold well.
You know, I'm really curious how different a Jig book would be if I wrote it 10 years from now. How much I'll have changed as a writer and a person, and how that might influence the story. Of course, I'll have two teenagers at that point, so I'll have plenty of data for writing about goblin-like behavior.
Would it be better for me to start another series? Who knows? It's not going to happen in any case, because I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm happy to wait for the rest of the planet to catch up.
The danger with an ongoing series is that booksellers start reducing their orders for each book. There's a tipping point after which the publisher will say 'what else do you have?', and that's when I'd come up empty.
Have you seen orders decreasing with Spacejock? It always seemed paradoxical to me. On the one hand, orders for the new book are based on the last, which may lead to fewer books. On the other, the release of the new book sells more copies of the older books, driving those sales up. It makes my brain hurt.
On the other hand, I plan on picking up (as in, buying cold, before reading) the first stepsister book as soon as see it on the shelves...and if I don't see it on the shelves fast enough to suit me I'll get it from Amazon.
(which I prefer not to do, because I'm a cheapskate, and somehow in my quest to avoid that pesky shipping fee I go over the $25 mark by...oh, fifty bucks, every time...ow my wallet.)
The difference is that I am wildly interested in the premise for the stepsister books. They ARE my thing. But after I read it, if I enjoy reading your writing style, I'll probably pick up the goblin books so that I'll have something enjoyable to read while waiting for the next stepsister book to come out.
So sometimes a multitude of series is a great marketing strategy. We readers are just greedy bloodsucking bastards who would cheerfully drain an author dry to get more stories in the worlds or about the people we love. You have to be firm with us and tell us no sometimes. We have no self-restraint.
And no worries that the goblin books didn't sound like your thing. Cover art and back cover copy are *supposed* to let a reader know whether they'd enjoy the book. We hear the whole "Don't judge a book by its cover" bit, but that's precisely what covers are for. So no sweat -- I've got plenty of author friends whose work just doesn't appeal to me, either. But I do hope you enjoy Stepsister when it comes out!