Hey everybody!
As you may or may not know, in my former life (before I started spending all my time writing about spies and thieves) I had a sort of quantitative job and a fairly quantitative life and 2 + 2 ALWAYS equaled 4.
But now I’m a writer and things aren’t nearly as black and white.
So long story short I need your help with something.
You see, lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what makes a successful YA book series. And, specifically, why do most YA series tend to be serial series (meaning they’re telling one story over several volumes–like Percy Jackson or Twilight or Harry Potter.)
And why do most really successful series for adults tend to be more episodic (meaning each book kind of stands on its own and you don’t necessarily have to read them in order–like the Janet Evanovich books.)
And then all of this got me to thinking about why readers–specifically why the readers of YA literature–choose to pick up books 2 or 3 or 8 in a series?
Did you read New Moon or Eclipse or Breaking Dawn to find out who Bella would end up with? Or did you read them to spend more time with Bella and Jacob and the Cullens?
Did you flock to The Last Olympian because you wanted to know if Percy would save Mount Olympus? Or did you just enjoy being inside the mind of a demigod?
And, if you’re of the “to find out what happens next” variety, I guess I have to wonder which questions are the most powerful–the plot questions (will Frodo destroy the Ring) or the personal questions (will Frodo be okay? And will Aragon become real and marry me?)
So, if you guys will permit, quantitative me has put together a teeny tiny survey to hopefully get at these things.
I thought long and hard about whether to put an “All of the above” option on there, but I decided against it because I think almost everyone wants something of all of these. And what I’m really trying to get at today is what you want MOST.
Thanks! I can’t wait to see the results!
-Ally