Expectations Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Today, I'm talking about series.

If an author writes a book and it's the first in a series, it sets the mark for the rest of the books that follow. The author can slave and sculpt and hone the second, third, and fourth, etc books and still never satisfy anyone. Imagine the terror this imparts on the author. You go in knowing that even if everyone loved the first story, not everyone will love how you dealt with number two or three. Didn't like the direction a character took in your head and on to the paper.

Hyperventilation ensues.

We've all read those series, where the first book had so much potential in our mind. We really, really, really wanted to read number two and then the author, to our mind, dropped the ball.

I'm on the receiving end of that right now. Not the Oh God You Suck portion, but the scary hyperventilation part. The second installment in my first series is set to come out in January, and I'm terrified the people who read the first book won't like what I did with it. I love the story, I love the characters. but maybe other people envisioned a different story arc. Or a different character. Or a different...whatever.

Hyperventilation ensues.

As an author, how do you deal with the expectations. As a reader, what do you do when an author doesn't meet your expectations?