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thoughts

Books For Thought is where I post a discussion topic related to books, reading, writing, or something related to one of the three. I hope you’ll join in, and discuss today’s topic of

series perfectionism

Okay, so you have all probably guessed what this post is about. Yes, it is about book series, and owning them, and being a perfectionist.

It is no secret that I am a perfectionist. I like things in neat piles, I like things categorised, I like things neat (except my room at times), and I LIKE MY SERIES TO BE PERFECT, OKAY? It’s not so much to ask of publishers to be consistent with their series. It’s really not. But, for some reason, they seem to hate the series perfectionists, and are intent on making our lives misery. PURE misery. Oooo – I love getting dramatic about these things.

Step One.

Book numero uno in a series is released. You either buy said book, or read said book from the library. Either way, you end up owning said book. Hurrah for owning books!

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Step Two.

You wait patiently for the second book in the series to be released. And by patiently, I mean not patiently at all; you’re internally screaming at the author to get their butt into gear and deliver their next book to you, pronto! Heedless of your begging, the book is released roughly one year later. And of course you buy it.

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Step Three.

Enter book three/four/five/whatever. Suddenly, everything has changed. The size of the books have changed, the font used for the titles have changed, the theme for the covers has changed. EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED. You never asked for this. You never wanted this. Bring back the old designs – they were beautiful, damn it! You loved them. How could they do this to you?

merlin crying

Step Four.

The publisher tries to placate you. They re-release the first book/s in the series. “Look,” they exclaim, “They’re all the same now!” But they’re not the same. You already own a book, or two, or FIVE in the first style. You LIKED that style. You spent money on that style. And now, to have a perfect series, you’re just supposed to buy them all again? They MUST be joking.

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Step Five.

You concede. You buy the next book/s in the series, even though they’re not the same as your first few. It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, you try to convince yourself as you stare sadly at your un-matching book series. But inside, the pain still lingers. You mourn the loss of your book series perfection. It will never be the same. You’ve been defeated.

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I hope you liked my story. I was meant for the theatre, as my mother sometimes says. But just to make myself clear, my favourite example of this happening is in regards to the House of Night novels by Kristin and P.C. Cast.

For the first four books in the series, the covers were made of pretty patterns with a large-ish picture as the focus; and pretty writing.

e.g.

marked

I LOVED these covers with a passion. And then, BAM, the fifth book in the series is released, and suddenly the covers look like this:

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I remember seeing it and being SO disappointed. They’re not half as pretty as the first four, and yet I had to keep collecting the series with these new covers because the authors changed publishing houses.

I like having my series all the same. I like having all the books in the same size, and style. it’s just the way I am. So I get frustrated and despondent when my series are not perfect. Because, as I stated at the beginning of this post, I am a perfectionist.

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Are you a series perfectionist? If you are, do you re-buy the newly released books so that they are all the same? Have you ever rebought an entire series because you like the re-released versions more? Let me know in the comment section below!

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Posted on: October 30, 2013 • By: Chiara

17 Responses to Are You a Series Perfectionist?

  1. This is beyond aggravating, I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets angry! Great post! (You are made for the theater)!

  2. livvvy75 says:

    Yes, I am a series perfectionist. One thing I have never gotten over is when I bought the Wicked Lovely series online (well, I already had the first book) and three out of the four remaining books I ordered were perfect. Size, cover, they all matched. Then of course I look at Fragile Eternity and find it is taller and the spine doesn’t match. That REALLY annoys me whenever I look at it, especially since it is the middle book. Great post, how do you come up with such interesting topics? That is the reason why I there are so many sequels I haven’t bought (Under the Never Sky – I’m looking at you).

    • That happened to me, too! I wonder why Fragile Eternity is different – its very annoying. Especially when you buy things online so you don’t really know if they’re going to be exactly the same D:
      Thank you! I actually have no idea, haha. They just sort of come to me!
      Yeah, if I really love a series, though, I have to buy all the books. And when they don’t match it’s just irritating!

  3. Shannelle C. says:

    Oooh, yes, me! I’ve never had to suffer this, except maybe Divergent and how I have the non-shiny cover version. But honestly, it just sucks. Nice way to reward, oh, let’s say the people who believed in it first? Who put it on the bestseller list which prompted the whole change?

    Oh wait, this did happen to me with Shatter Me! She was coming for a signing, and the only copy of the first book I could buy was the old cover. When I got to the event, there was the new cover, and it was 20 percent off, so I went and bought it.

  4. I am definitely a series perfectionist. I absolutely loathe it when publishers change the designs midway, series or not. The biggest issue I’ve had is with Sarah Dessen’s books. I LOVE the old covers, the soft look to them all. And then when The Moon and More came out, the design was completely different. And if that’s not bad enough, the publishers changed the covers for ALL her books! And what makes it worse for me is I somehow lost The Truth About Forever (my favourite book of hers) and I was planning to get another one UNTIL I saw the new design for it. So instead I just cried in the corner for days on end. I can actually get nasty about the redesigns too… :S I absolutely loved the gothic creepiness of The Prophecy of the Sisters, but when the second book came out, they redesigned the covers to look more YA-friendly (so basically two girls faces on the front) and I REFUSED to get the second book.
    And that’s my long-winded tale for you, haha. Sorry if I put you to sleep.

    • *high five*
      Oh, yeah. It’s not only series. Some authors have a style for all of their books, like Sarah Dessen. I hate it when they change them, as well! Like Meg Cabot’s books had the cute little cartoon versions of her characters on the front covers, and then they suddenly changed them all without warning! I was so sad.
      Can you find a version of The Truth About Forever with the same cover?
      I haven’t heard of that book, but I will have to check it out. YA-ing book covers is so unnecessary! It’s not like we’re going to be turned off by an awesomely creepy cover. Sigh.
      No way! It was interesting. I appreciate comments such as these :D Thank you!

    • Okay just looked up The Prophecy of the Sisters, and I see what you mean. Fist cover = SUPER awesome. Second and third covers = kind of lame.

  5. Mulluane says:

    *Wakes up and adds her own rant….*

    My pet peeve is along the same lines but different. You see, I don’t buy or review series until after they are complete. Subseries count, ie trilogies that are part of a much larger series but only if they are called a “trilogy.”

    Here lately though I have had 2 “trilogies” already bought, read and reviewed that are suddenly not trilogies at all! They say they are trilogies, say it right on all three covers no less. I checked and double checked thinking maybe I had finally lost my mind, but no…. not this time.

    BOTH are adding a single 4th book to conclude the series!

    Huh? What? Looks trilogy up in Websters…. umm, no, it does mean three…. Grrrrr!

    There blows the whole format of my blog! OMG! If you market it as a trilogy, make it a trilogy! Even if that means that book three is 900 pages long!

    Sigh….

    Oh well, back to sleep now. (Umm, where did I leave that dragon I was flying on….)

    • Oh, wow. I don’t think that has ever happened to me before. At least not that I can remember, anyway.

      It sounds sound really infuriating, though! I think I would be annoyed, especially if your blog reviews series once they are finished. Maybe you can review it as a epilogue book, seeming as thought that’s what they really are.

      I hope that doesn’t happen to me, because when you finish a series, that’s it. You learn to let go of the characters, and accept the ending. And then suddenly that wasn’t the end? Crazy!

      As a side note, I love dragons! Haha :D

      Thank you for stopping by!

  6. LillianHarp says:

    You have moved me with the merlin GIF! *sobs*
    I never buy books that have potent to have a sequel. I buy the box set after it’s all released. That way, I don’t have to be unorganized with my covers. But I recently bought The Bone Season and I had no idea that it was a 7 book series(I think it’s 7). I guess I should get on twitter and pester Samantha Shannon to have similar cover font/design on the future sequels! haha :P

    I have always wondered how the A House of Night series were. A group of my friends made it out to be very skanky, so as to say, but a few others told me the books are brilliant. What is the real deal here?

    • I KNOW. It breaks my little heart </3
      Ah, that's so smart! My Fallen books by Lauren Kate are all messed up, and it is so annoying. And then the other day I was in a bookstore, and they had the entire series in a beautiful box. I think I may have actually wailed. haha.
      Seven books! Ohmygosh. That's a lot. Hopefully they will keep the same design!

      Hmm. I haven't read them in a few years. They were kind of 'sexy' vampire novels, but I enjoyed them as a kind of guilty pleasure. haha. They're not the best of books, but the way Cast & Cast represent the vampire legend/myth is really unique, so I liked that part of it. They worship a cat goddess :D

  7. YES YES YES. Haha I’m not much of a perfectionist outside of book series to be honest– I’m quite messy XD But when it comes to series, I want them to look the same and feel the same. I don’t even buy the hardcover copy of a sequel when I’ve already got the previous title in paperback! HAHA. It’s beyond weird, but that’s how we roll. Sometimes as well, the designs and fonts are retained, but it’s the sizes that change. Even THAT is quite irksome. I dunno, I just want them to look uniform on my shelf, you know– so that people can tell that they’re actually supposed to form a series. So yeah, I kind of thought before this post that I was the only one with this pet peeve! It’s sort of frustrating, because when they really don’t release the sequels in the same design, I don’t even buy them anymore, I just quit the series altogether. It’s probably unhealthy but I. Just. Can’t D:

    HERE’S TO ANOTHER SOUL SISTER MANIFESTATION!

    • I know what you mean! Or if they release the first in a hardback, and not any of the others. Rage = rising. I can;t handle it.
      YES. I forgot to mention the sizes! That happened with my Vampire Academy books. They made the last two books HUGE, and all the others were small. And now they look stupid on my bookshelf. :(
      Exactly. Bookshelves should look pretty and organised; not with mismatching book sizes/covers D:
      You quit the series! :O But I know what you mean. It’s a kind of torture, really.

      I KNOW – YAY! <3

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