Why do they do this to me?

[kgbooklog]

I like big, thick novels. Even better, I like series of novels. The more pages, the more time I can spend with the characters and setting.

So there I am, five chapters into the second novel of a series I like, with characters I like, and just as I'm getting interested in the new conflict, I find unambiguous evidence that I missed something important. Checking the author's website, I find that there's a novella set between the novels. Now, I'm not saying authors shouldn't write shorter works, but I don't care for them (they always leave me unsatisfied), and libraries are less likely to carry anthologies than novels, so if an author does write one, it should be optional. (And in this particular case, I don't see how any story worth writing about the protagonist could also optional.)

And worse, this seems to be the hot new trend in urban fantasy. I'm not going to read any more books by MaryJanice Davidson, since she has already done it twice (introducing new characters to the series both times). Charlaine Harris has done it once (that I know of), but that wasn't too bad (I was more upset by Sookie having an ability that doesn't appear in the novels). Jim Butcher also seems to have done it, but that at least fits my idea of "optional" (which is good, since the anthology won't be published until several months after the novel that mentioned the events).

Why are they doing this? Sure, this may help sales of the anthologies, but if those sales are poor, it's probably because of people like me who prefer novels, and punishing us for that is more likely to cause us to stop buying the novels too.

Comments

[mneme]

The oldstyle way to do this would be to package the novellas, short stories, etc into the novels. See Lankhmar, Teltzy, or more recently, at least one of the Vorkosigan books (The Vor Game).

Personally, I'd rather not have to hunt down anything to get the full canon myself -- though preference of short fiction vs long vs long series' vs flashfic is very much a question of what the story is, for me.

[le-trombone.livejournal.com]

We have differing tastes, obviously. I consider big, thick novels to be a blight on the market. I believe that anything that encourages more short fiction is to be applauded.

But, you're absolutely right about the rest. If this is a hot new trend, then all that's happening is that readers are being turned off of short fiction. A reader shouldn't have to go to an author's web site to find missing information. The novella should be self-contained, or the novel should make a reference to previous actions (just like it would to action in previous books).