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- Meanwhile Jennifer Fallon asks: Is Epic Fantasy on the wane? "...traditional fantasies...that have been the mainstay of the genre for decades, are starting to give way to more contemporary fare. The biggest fantasy sellers of the past few years, after all, are about a kid in a magical boarding school and a vegetarian vampire. This is not to say that traditional epic fantasy is dead. That sorry fate, according to my agent, belongs to science fiction at the moment, which she can hardly give away, let alone sell for actual money." Ouch!
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Comments (2)
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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 07, 2009 at 12:08 AM
© Wednesday January 07, 2009 at 12:08 AM SF Signal
"The biggest fantasy sellers of the past few years, after all, are about a kid in a magical boarding school and a vegetarian vampire."
The biggest fantasy sellers of the past few years have been... YA novels. Doh. Different market. Comparisons do not apply.
Posted by Ian Sales on Wednesday January 07, 2009 at 2:53 AM at 2:53 AM
I went over and read more of Jennifer Fallon's post, particularly what she and others have to say in the comments. Not sure that I agree that publishers cannot find any 'good' sci fi to publish nor that there are not any 'new' writers putting out good science fiction. It is easy to argue that science fiction isn't the leading genre in book sales, but to stretch that argument to say that there is no good sci fi nor any new authors putting out good sci fi is way off the mark.
And I was thinking the same thing that Ian Sales mentioned. Too often people are lumping books into larger categories making for unfair, or at the very least, misguided comparisons.
If 'epic fantasy' is on the wane, however, I would argue that one of the reasons is that it is very, very difficult to get and keep loyal readers when the next book in the series takes many years to come out. Using the examples she did of JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer, the novels in their 'epic' series came out in rather rapid succession. Setting aside all thoughts about quality, the fans of those novels did not have to wait an inordinate amount of time between novels to find out how their beloved stories would play themselves out. I look at authors like Robert Jordan, may he rest in peace, as an example of how one limits their readership. When decades go by and a series still is not finished; when so much time has passed between each volume that readers feel they have to reread or do research to remember characters, etc., then you are severely limiting the possibility that anything near Rowling readership is going to jump on board.
That may be a symptom of our 'I want it now' mentality, and it certainly is just my personal opinion, but I do believe taking an 'epic' amount of time to put out an 'epic' fantasy, or any other genre series, limits potential readership over the long run, thus limiting sales.
Posted by Carl V. on Wednesday January 07, 2009 at 7:05 AM at 7:05 AM