Robin you said:

“As I’ve said elsewhere, I wish more authors/publishers would offer their short stories and novellas in e-format so that I woudn’t have to spend the money on an entire paper anthology — THAT would be great, IMO”

I wish they would do this, too. Catherine Asaro does this with her novellas from Analog and I have all three on my PDA. I hope you both will give ebooks a try. This is definately a trend I can encourage. Second epilogues, nope. But I did see at Fictionwise that if you bought any of her novels, you got a 100% rebate on the epilogues and plus they are sending promotional emails out about her second epilogues. I’m just not fond of this trend but to each their own. Like Robin said, authors need to be straight. It’s not always about the characters, it’s about the money, after all. This is a business as I keep being reminded over and over again. Great discussion ladies. Now go to Dear Author where they are doing an introductory series on ebooks. Very imformative stuff.

I agree with you that any individual epilogue could disappoint readers, either in terms of quality or price; where I get stuck is on the jump to concluding that the phenomenon is therefore a Bad Thing.

She seems to be the first to do these 2nd epilogues like this, but she’s certainly not the first writer who has tried (and is trying) to expand her market share through various publishing, sales, and media strategies (even Nora Roberts was talking on SBTB about making her new PBs appealing to new readers). What frustrates me is when authors who are trying to expand their sales want to make it *all about* the characters and the writing and the fans. We all know it’s not *all* about those factors — so at least be straight about that part of it. I understand the double bind authors can feel in here — how do they keep from looking greedy — and I sympathize. But I also don’t think it’s all about the love of the game, so to speak, especially when an author is already highly successful. And I can tell you that if the Quinn experiment takes off, I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a trend. Check out the following: http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?
Feed=PR&Date=20060606&ID=5774024&Symbol=US:NWS (I split the URL to fit, so you have to copy both lines to access the article)

As I’ve said elsewhere, I wish more authors/publishers would offer their short stories and novellas in e-format so that I woudn’t have to spend the money on an entire paper anthology — THAT would be great, IMO. As for the epis, I don’t know if it’s a bad or good idea. I *do* think, though, that if authors want to sell them, that they really need to approach crafting them with the same creative energy they give to writing a full-length novel; otherwise, this phenom is going to look like nothing *more* than a money-making, marketing scheme. It will be interesting to see what the readers’ verdicts are after all of Quinn’s 8 come out, though. Right now impressions seem mixed.

I agree with you that any individual epilogue could disappoint readers, either in terms of quality or price; where I get stuck is on the jump to concluding that the phenomenon is therefore a Bad Thing.

Keishon, I’d almost disagree with your assessment that this kind of short story is less desirable in an on-line format that as a magazine short story: except that I know I don’t know enough about that market to make the judgement. In a sense epilogues are most interesting to readers who have read the story arc in question — therefore if they’re published in a magazine, they might be less satisfying to the general reader. However, I’d have thought that selling them on-line would allow niche-marketing mainly to that author’s readers, which seems a fairer sort of thing [given that the quality of the product is good — and I think most authors would have an interest in not selling their core audience a poor product.]

Also, and this is a personal preference thing, I’m not keen on the way short story romances are currently sold, in themed anthologies. In general, while I enjoy collections of short stories by a given author, I’ve found anthologies — in any genre — unsatisfactory beasts. But there seem to be lots of anthologies, so perhaps other readers enjoy them as a chance to discover new authors.

I can see now how it may have seemed unclear, but I was actually just making some general points about the whole epilogue at a cost phenom, NOT about Quinn’s epis in general. I’ve read several comments from people who were disappointed by them, which I’m guessing adds to their frustration over the strategy as a whole. I’m sorry for the confusion, but my point is simply this: for die hard fans, epis will likely see a great deal no matter what the cost. For other readers, they won’t, either becuase the epi doesn’t live up to the price or because readers feel the author/publisher is trying to take them, or because the readers don’t like epilogues, or because readers already feel overcharged for their entertainment (or some combination thereof). I think these issues hold regardless of the writer and the reader in question. And where I don’t use Quinn’s name, I’m not referring to her. I think I’ve made it clear in the past that I don’t have a problem being direct re. specific authors and my opinions!

However, I must read Quinn as I have a couple of titles by her.

Random thoughts on price — the last collection of short stories I bought was Neil Gaiman’s — works out at about 20p a story, though they are short. The Sayers stories I mentioned earlier average out at £2 each, and they’re about thirty pages long.

The big question, to me, anyway, is what that means. For die-hard fans, it seems to mean that Quinn’s desire to further market herself and her ‘brand’ is completely aligned with the fans’ desire to read (consume) her prose. Probably no conflict there.

But for those who are not in that die-hard camp, or who are not really fans at all, the overt marketing can appear crass, I think, because despite the fact that MM fiction is so much about profit, it’s still nice to think of authors as more concerned with what they write than how they sell, especially if the quality of the extra writing appears to be less rigorous than the energy with which the extra marketing is approached. I don’t think it helps when an author protests to the nines that it’s not about money (please!), because that introduces an element of disingenuousness into the mix. And I think that many readers frankly resent it when a publishing industry that already seems to privilege quantity above quality and sales above creativity wants yet MORE of our money for less.

In Quinn’s case, I don’t like her full length books, so I won’t be buying these shorts. If Laura Kinsale or Judith Ivory or even Jo Goodman put these things out, though, I likely would, because I am a die hard fan of their writing, and in that case, my interest in reading would very much match their interest in marketing. It’s all a question of what something is worth to each of us, I guess.

Magazine is different from ebook—at least in my mind. At least if you didn’t like the story, you have other things to read for your money. Let me reiterate that this is just my opinion and if you and many other readers find this a gret move on Julia Quinn’s part, great. Your the only one so far to speak up to say that this is wonderful. Applause for you. Like Xina said: the end is The End for me. I don’t resent her for finding more income on second epilogues. I won’t be buying it. Ever.

Anyway, I don’t find this a great idea. However. Maybe she should put them in Good Housekeeping or something. That would be a GREAT idea Thanks for sharing your feedback Marianne McA and if my comments seem a little as I am rereading it, it’s not at you. I do welcome all perspectives and all opinions here. Again, thank you.

I also read that it was Julia Quinn’s idea and well, if I were an author I would do it to make some extra money. Hell, why not.

It’s just as a reader, I’m not going to be buying them. Ever. Like Xina, I’m done with ‘the end’.

CindyS

Here’s the link: http://redwyne.blogspot.com/2006/05/for-quinn-readers-take-iii.html

I’m one of those people who doesn’t get the whole Julia Quinn thing (I tried a novel and a short), but she definitely strikes me as someone who is both driven and savvy about marketing herself.

But she wanted to do a book with all eight, if I remember correctly.