For the last few years, I’ve been reading series, in the young adult genre. I’m not alone, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. The Hunger Games, Twilight, these books are huge. Well I have noticed that a lot of series (that are YA) have a problem with second-book-itis. I made up the name, but not the problem.

So many series have beautiful starts. Novels that have depth, great characters and a story arc. An actual story arc with a beginning, a middle and an end. Lots of these series are from debut writers. They work really hard to get the story right before it gets published. Bree Despain’s advice for amateur novelists is to write your first draft and let it sit for a long time before picking it back up again. Give it some distance and yourself some perspective. Well this begs the question, how can anyone come out with anything good if they have less than a year to write it? Does the publisher provide editors that provide the distance and perpectives that draw out the short comings? How is this done?

See, from where I sit, (in my armchair ) it seems like publishers don’t really care about quality so much as quantity. They want to take advantage of the hype while there is hype. So they press for the book fast and publish it faster. Keep in mind, I really don’t know how this works. I’m from southern Alberta, and we’re known here for beef, not publishing. But what I do know, is that second books in series have a way of seriously letting me down. Yet I keep buying them! Right now, I’m salivating over a second book that comes out next week. I feel like a gambler sitting at the slots, just plugging quarters in the machine and hoping for a win. Every once in a while, a second book comes along that’s better than the first, but for the most part, the House always wins.