Sunday, 1 February 2015

How do incomplete books / novels become rich & famous?


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We've seen it happen over a dozen times; books that do not even have an ending are taking over the world commercially.

Harry Potter was already a film before the release of the final book. The (gulp) Twilight saga. Game of Thrones (which can take up to an epic five years per release of each novel). The 100.

The real question is; why are we investing in a series that we do not know the ending?
The answer: marketing and producers don't care about how your precious series ends.

Yes, it's about money. Creating hype for your series is what's important, and who loves hype better than a novelist and backing publisher who stand to make millions from this?

I was guest at a book reading club a few years ago, and at the time I was in Part 3 of my 5 Part series Save the World Academy. One of the women at the club blatantly refused to read my series as she didn't feel it was "complete." (-which my series is complete now BTW). But this same woman was also on the pre-order list for the final Twilight book. What makes Twilight more special? Perhaps a movie and young teens going ballistic makes someone invest more in a series.

People are sheep.
We as people can't wait for the next Game of Thrones episode (or book), but as individuals we realise we just don't care.

Media Hype means everyone gets on board. Marketing feeds us the latest phenomenon. And we don't get a choice. In the beginning Harry Potter was a quaint little bed time story for kids, and word got spread around. Then someone with money saw their child reading it and realised it had a market.

Another truth is; Every book has a Market.

Every series has an audience. Even badly edited material can drag in the hundreds of thousands as long as it is marketed correctly. It's a TV nation out there. Had anyone even heard of Harry Potter, Twilight, Game of Thrones, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, The 100 before it was a TV series or movie? In fact the only book I can consider as a media frenzy before the release of the film is the overly bloated 50 Shades of Grey.

Television is perhaps the most powerful medium on the planet. All writers know this, and they also know to write drivel that gets thrown on television is a literary sin. Selling out to commercialism. Only greats like Tolkien and Twain reserve the right to fame before the screen. And until your book is in the hands of producers, enjoy the art of creating your own world. Because that's what it's all about.

Check out my complete series here: www.jamesbrough.com

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