The Autobuy - revisited

A couple of blogs back after reading Cranky Reader’s blog, I did one on the autobuy. Ag left a comment and had some thoughts and questions. Rather then take up space in the comment section, she blogged about it herself. They were very good questions – be sure to check them out. I left a reply and then started thinking some more about it and decided to piggyback from Ag who piggybacked from me who piggybacked from Cranky Reader. Quite a circle it’s getting to be.

My thoughts were - what does it take to drop an autobuy author from that mental list I carry around. There are a number of reasons that cause me to turf an autobuy author. One of the main reasons is too many books in a series. With the lone exception of JD Robb, I loose interest in a series after a max of four books. One of the authors who has fallen into this category is Julia Quinn (I would probably still be reading her if Mama and Papa Bridgerton hadn’t been so prolific. I shudder to think what might have happened if that bee hadn’t flown by).
Celeste Bradley has suffered the same from the same affliction. If she had stopped at four spies I would more than likely still be reading her. But she didn’t *sigh* . Instead, she is going into spy levels now. There is your regular spy and now we have the spy bosses. I suppose after that it will be spy underlings and spy wannabe’s. But the voice rises up in me and shouts “Enough with the spies already”. Brings up that old joke - how many spies does it take to change a lightbulb? None - they prefer to work in the dark.
(that's not really an old joke - I just made it up)

Mary Balogh is another example of too many in a series. For me it became Slightly Tomany.

A few authors who knew when to end a series and thus are still autobuys include Jo Goodman (Compass Club - 4), Wendy Lindstrom (Grayson Brothers – 4) and Danelle Harmon (I know she’s no longer writing – but if she were she would be an autobuy.) I know there are many readers who can’t get enough books in a series and to them Krisite would like to say “for the love that is all that is good in this world people, please let them let them go!”

Sherrilyn Kenyon falls into this one in a unique way. Not only is there too many Dark Hunter novels, as well we now have Were Hunters, Dream Hunters, Star Hunters, Time Hunters, Day Hunters, Nature Hunters – well – you get the picture. As I’ve said before, she is so busy setting up future Hunter stories, for me, she’s lost focus on the story she is currently telling. I’m a simple girl and there are just too many characters and hunters to follow. And I know this will be a totally blasphemous statement and I will duck now but before I do, hear me roar “I AM SICK TO DEATH OF ASH AND I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FIG WHO HE ENDS UP WITH.
There – that feels better.

I should point out that the authors I’ve named are very good authors – they must be – they used to be on my autobuy list and their styles haven’t changed. It’s just too much of a good thing for me I suppose.
I was going to get into more reasons for dropping an autobuy but since I’ve rambled enough for the evening, I’ll save them for another day.


Thought for the day. This really is an addiction isn't it. The new Tara Janzen and Vickie Taylor books should be on the shelves now. I've been waiting impatiently for them to come out since the beginning of January. On my home from work I wanted so bad to drive out of my way to get them I got itchy - seriously itchy. And I have a huge pile of books I just got.


'til later