Well, well, well — could it be that publishers are finally catching on to something indie ebook authors have already figured out? The New York Times takes the pulse of a trend among legacy publishers in “Impatience Has Its Reward: Books Are Rolled Out Faster.” A snippet:
“While the television industry has begun catering to impatient audiences by releasing entire series at once, the book business is upending its traditional timetable by encouraging a kind of binge reading, releasing new works by a single author at an accelerated pace.
“The practice of spacing an author’s books at least one year apart is gradually being discarded as publishers appeal to the same ‘must-know-now’ impulse that drives binge viewing of shows like ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Breaking Bad.’ “
What’s slightly amiss here is this: It’s not just the TV binge viewing trend that is driving this; it’s ebooks. Indie authors like Hugh Howey, Amanda Hocking, Bella Andre, and — of course — E. L. James have mastered that model of cranking out series in record time.
Certain segments of legacy publishing have already been ahead of the curve as well. In children’s/young adult publishing, look at all the series coming out at a speedier pace, thanks to “Harry Potter,” “The Hunger Games,” the “Divergent” series, and many more. Heck, children’s publishing has been pumping out books more quickly for years — “Goosebumps,” “The Magic Tree House,” and on and on.
Then there’s the romance genre, which has owned the series market for decades. One word: Harlequin!
So maybe it’s just the creaky cogs of mainstream, rather than genre, publishing that’s finally starting to gear up for the new reality in publishing.
As for binge reading — well, I’ve ALWAYS been a fan of that! More, more, more, I say!
