If you’re an avid reader then you are already famil­iar with the term glom­ming. The term refers to a reader’s need to search for an author’s back­list when they’ve enjoyed their newer works. I just threw “need” in there as some read­ers feel com­pelled to find a new author’s past work. I used to do this but no longer.

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After glom­ming a lot of new author’s past works, I noticed some­thing. I noticed that their back­list wasn’t actu­ally a pot of gold wait­ing to be redis­cov­ered. Harsh state­ment but it’s the truth. I learned the hard way that just because a new to me author has a book that I just recently loved, loved, loved, that doesn’t mean that their back­list is just as good. There are excep­tions, of course.

You see, most authors hit their stride or find their voice after two or three books espe­cially if it’s a series that they are writ­ing. Some authors will have a _great_ first book but the sec­ond may not live up to expec­ta­tions or vice versa. The third book may show some improve­ment over the sec­ond and from then on the writ­ing will con­tinue to fluc­tu­ate. If an author I just dis­cov­ered has a long-standing series asso­ci­ated with the book I just got through read­ing, chances are lit­tle to none that I’ll go find and read the rest.

I’ve devel­oped a hard and fast rule that relates to series or stand­alone books and that is: just pick up and go. IOW, I just start with the lat­est book and keep on truck­ing. If a series is just get­ting started then chances are slightly bet­ter that I’ll go back and read the oth­ers. Usu­ally the magic num­ber for me is three in that regard.

Admit­tedly, glom­ming a past author’s back­list can be risky busi­ness. You may hit a pot of gold or a pile of shit. I’ve had more of the lat­ter to make me stop doing this com­pletely. There are excep­tions of course. I often hear read­ers talk of glom­ming even today. Guess some of us have had suc­cess with it. I’m just a bit curi­ous to know if many of you still glom an author’s back­list and which author’s have a back­list worth a look?

Photo Credit: waf­fler