Anthologies - Love Them Or Hate Them?
Anthologies is one of the things I dislike in the romance genre.
1st - The stories are too short, I love a long book I can sink into.
2nd - I am interested in only one author in an anthology.
Very rare that two authors I like contribute to the same anthology.
So I'm paying full price for a book where I'm only reading a small percentage of it.
Publishers like to push anthologies.
Get lesser known authors linked up to the well known ones and hope readers like their stories, in the hopes to increase sales for them.
This isn't a bad strategy, but I have to say I have never found a new author (to me) this way.
Anthologies range from two authors up to ten or even more.
I hate when I see an author I like on a ten author anthology.
I draw the line there, no way I'm paying full price for a book where I'll only be reading a few pages of it.
One of the authors I like did something a bit different.
Sarah McCarty has an anthology out called Running Wild.
It's an anthology featuring three separate stories but the story arc covers the whole book.
This is a series with a new one coming out in December called Wild Instinct.
Again a three story anthology and a continuation of the Running Wild story arc.
I like this way of anthologies better.
But I wanted each story to be longer.
So I still don't like them as much as a regular novel.
But if an author wanted to write some shorter stories I wish they would do it this way.
I did like Running Wild well enough.
It's just I like to get involved, sink into longer stories and I didn't feel they were long enough to get the depth of the characters out.
At least with these books I am not paying for authors I have no interest in reading.
I know some people love anthologies.
Some like short stories for light relief and short bouts of reading.
Also, others aren't as locked into authors as I am.
They can jump from author to author, more interested in genres and themes, so these types of books are more enjoyable to them.
Not me, however.
They will always be my pet hate in romance books, but something I have to live with as they aren't going to go away.
1st - The stories are too short, I love a long book I can sink into.
2nd - I am interested in only one author in an anthology.
Very rare that two authors I like contribute to the same anthology.
So I'm paying full price for a book where I'm only reading a small percentage of it.
Publishers like to push anthologies.
Get lesser known authors linked up to the well known ones and hope readers like their stories, in the hopes to increase sales for them.
This isn't a bad strategy, but I have to say I have never found a new author (to me) this way.
Anthologies range from two authors up to ten or even more.
I hate when I see an author I like on a ten author anthology.
I draw the line there, no way I'm paying full price for a book where I'll only be reading a few pages of it.
One of the authors I like did something a bit different.
Sarah McCarty has an anthology out called Running Wild.
It's an anthology featuring three separate stories but the story arc covers the whole book.
This is a series with a new one coming out in December called Wild Instinct.
Again a three story anthology and a continuation of the Running Wild story arc.
I like this way of anthologies better.
But I wanted each story to be longer.
So I still don't like them as much as a regular novel.
But if an author wanted to write some shorter stories I wish they would do it this way.
I did like Running Wild well enough.
It's just I like to get involved, sink into longer stories and I didn't feel they were long enough to get the depth of the characters out.
At least with these books I am not paying for authors I have no interest in reading.
I know some people love anthologies.
Some like short stories for light relief and short bouts of reading.
Also, others aren't as locked into authors as I am.
They can jump from author to author, more interested in genres and themes, so these types of books are more enjoyable to them.
Not me, however.
They will always be my pet hate in romance books, but something I have to live with as they aren't going to go away.
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