I like to read!
I have averaged somewhere between 45 and 55 books a year over the last ten years after I actually retired and stopped trying to generate some business online. There were several attempts from Your Smart Kitchen (a quality cookware store) to Brightzone (a marketing consulting effort) with several inbetween.
And one of the things that annoys me and continues to annoy me more is where a quality author’s name is assumed by someone else. I’m not sure how wide spread this practice may be and it is not the normal case with the majority of authors I enjoy which includes:
- Michelle Baldacci
- Michael Connelly
- Lee Child
- Lincoln Child
- Harlon Coban
- John Grisham
- James Patterson
- Brad Thor
- Others
The two most bothersome to me are those who took over for Rober B Parker, Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy. Three of the best writers I have encountered.
- Parker’s Spenser series and Jessie Stone series are among my favorites of all time.
- Ludlum’s books noted for the Bourne series which also started a set of fantastic movies are also toward the top of my list.
- Clancy’s series with the key character of Jack Ryan that started with The Hunt for Red October, which was a great movie as well, are among the most memorable.
But in all three of these cases, the books did not stop following the deaths of their authors but were continued by others. This seems to me to be authors and publishers cashing in on the popularity of the original authors. Typically, the story lines are similar but not nearly as good as the original creators and in some cases, there is quite a bit of license taken to expand on the originals as exemplified by the Jack Ryan Jr series and tv programs.
In most of these cases, the substitutes authors are good enough to create their own material and get it published but they would certainly not have the well-established platform to leverage as a starting point. So, to me this is just exploitation by the publishers to generate more profits.
When I see these substituted authors riding on the coat tails of truly great authors, I skip those books entirely. I would hope you would as well.
