Random Writing Musings

Recently I've been thinking about promises. More specifically author promises.

When an author mentions or even promises that there will be more stories in a series or a direct sequel to story (meaning the same couple) and it never materializes, do you feel cheated?

My first published Shawn book was now two years ago. In the beginning, you are enthusiatic about every story that you think of and are eager to write sequels and related books to every book you've written. Trust me. It works that way. It does for me anyway. And the first time you get a fan note asking you about a sequel you definitely can't help feeling giddy.

The reality two years later is you learn a few things. What sells, what doesn't. What deserves your attention, what maybe should be set aside for good. Where your strengths lie, and where perhaps you should leave a certain type of book to more qualified authors. You learn no matter how much you love an idea or a set of characters...well it doesn't always make business sense to write a story when you could be devoting that time and energy to other more viable projects.

But still...as you decide maybe you won't finish that saga after all, you wonder, are there readers out there feeling like you made promises you aren't keeping. I'm not sure.

I know Ava March and I were just talking about stories/sequels we thought we'd never get to after all for one reason or another, which is what made me think about this.