I yearn for the days of short, self-contained, one-off stories: 150-200 pages, tops, something you can read in an evening. No sequels, no spin-offs, no ongoing series, just a damn good yarn, and then you move on to something else. Sadly, although that makes for great entertainment, it's not good business for publishers, because readers are usually more invested in the IP than the author.
I was listening to a writing podcast recently and they were all talking about "standalones", apparently a rare concept among authors today. It took me a few moments to realize -- oh, they mean proper novels.
I yearn for the days of short, self-contained, one-off stories: 150-200 pages, tops, something you can read in an evening. No sequels, no spin-offs, no ongoing series, just a damn good yarn, and then you move on to something else. Sadly, although that makes for great entertainment, it's not good business for publishers, because readers are usually more invested in the IP than the author.
I was listening to a writing podcast recently and they were all talking about "standalones", apparently a rare concept among authors today. It took me a few moments to realize -- oh, they mean proper novels.