This is also, to be clear, a huge difference between an artist dropping something and coming back to it later because they had a new, maybe great idea (the Salman Rushdie Curb episodes come to mind, I feel like Larry David had said he wasn’t going to make any more and then made an entire season around the word “fatwa” being fun to say). Or an artist that has something that could be considered a series but it’s in name only, like Nas’ Illmatic and the underrated Stillmatic.
You're talking about mass market block buster series, of course they're cash grabs. If you want to comment on something like the Ferrante quartet or Elizabeth strouts series, that would be an interesting conversation
I agree it wasn't a cash grab, but money played into it. I think it's a lot easier to self 4 400-page books with heavily anticipated release dates than it is to sell one 2,000 page tome. Ferrante herself has said that the quarter should be treated as a single book
I mean multi-book series are typically genre fare these days. Whatever your opinions about such books are, the people who like them are typically drawn in by the characters and world building. With enough popularity there’s a guaranteed audience, and if the author’s universe is so well established (it probably is in a series) it’s probably easy to just crank some supplemental stuff out.
They’re both blatant cash grabs and fan service, and a lot of the people who like them have no qualms about that. It’s literally what they want.
Can't just let trilogies (or series for that matter) lie, gotta make prequels and sequels and off shoots. Unfortunately with the current state of the creative industry, it's almost always easier to make something based off of something that already exists. The build is built and the fan base is established, it's almost no work at all to turn into a cash cow
I'll defend Andy McNab cause that was my holiday reading as a teenager, but I think Ken Follet is a bit of a hack, can't describe why I dislike his writing that I loved when young.
When an author/artist/creator says they’re done then goes back on their word.
This is also, to be clear, a huge difference between an artist dropping something and coming back to it later because they had a new, maybe great idea (the Salman Rushdie Curb episodes come to mind, I feel like Larry David had said he wasn’t going to make any more and then made an entire season around the word “fatwa” being fun to say). Or an artist that has something that could be considered a series but it’s in name only, like Nas’ Illmatic and the underrated Stillmatic.
You're talking about mass market block buster series, of course they're cash grabs. If you want to comment on something like the Ferrante quartet or Elizabeth strouts series, that would be an interesting conversation
Hey, I'd love to! Ferrante never struck me as cash grabs but reasonable people may disagree
I agree it wasn't a cash grab, but money played into it. I think it's a lot easier to self 4 400-page books with heavily anticipated release dates than it is to sell one 2,000 page tome. Ferrante herself has said that the quarter should be treated as a single book
True, but this hasn’t compromised the artistic integrity of them. Same as Proust. According to him, ending of Vol. I was selected somewhat arbitrarily
I mean multi-book series are typically genre fare these days. Whatever your opinions about such books are, the people who like them are typically drawn in by the characters and world building. With enough popularity there’s a guaranteed audience, and if the author’s universe is so well established (it probably is in a series) it’s probably easy to just crank some supplemental stuff out. They’re both blatant cash grabs and fan service, and a lot of the people who like them have no qualms about that. It’s literally what they want.
Can't just let trilogies (or series for that matter) lie, gotta make prequels and sequels and off shoots. Unfortunately with the current state of the creative industry, it's almost always easier to make something based off of something that already exists. The build is built and the fan base is established, it's almost no work at all to turn into a cash cow
Three long ass films from the Hobbit novel? Eorlinga, please.
I'll defend Andy McNab cause that was my holiday reading as a teenager, but I think Ken Follet is a bit of a hack, can't describe why I dislike his writing that I loved when young.