The difference is not only in your fans, but in the way you end a book. GRRM drives me up a tree because he'll end a book with the proverbial cliffhanger and make the readers wait years to find out what happens next. He begins actions shortly before the end of the book only to end them without completion as a whet for the next book, which leaves people (*raises hand*) foaming at the mouth. I don't gripe at him, because at the end of the day (..years..) I know I'll get the rest of that story and I can wait.
Your books don't end that way. Each book has.. well, a chapter of the saga ending. There are plot hooks throughout the book that may not have ended, because the overall story isn't finished, but that particular chapter has come to an end. Quite frequently, the next book will begin from a different perspective, or a new character, or somewhere else. You don't end a book with something like, "Jewel picked up a knife and crept forward, aligning her blow with the back of Teller's head." and then end the book and make us wait *mumble* years to complete, "Waiting until he'd caught sight of her shadow and startled, turning wide eyes to her over his shoulder, she burst into laughter and cried, 'You should see your face!'"
I don't have to re-read your entire series to know what the new book is starting with. I generally do, but that's a choice, not a necessity forced upon me by a book opening mid-action after a long enough time period that I've forgotten why the action is taking place. The reader could conceivably pick up any of your books anywhere along the story and begin, and in that book, get caught up on what's going on. Not so of GRRM.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-05-15 01:32 am (UTC)Your books don't end that way. Each book has.. well, a chapter of the saga ending. There are plot hooks throughout the book that may not have ended, because the overall story isn't finished, but that particular chapter has come to an end. Quite frequently, the next book will begin from a different perspective, or a new character, or somewhere else. You don't end a book with something like, "Jewel picked up a knife and crept forward, aligning her blow with the back of Teller's head." and then end the book and make us wait *mumble* years to complete, "Waiting until he'd caught sight of her shadow and startled, turning wide eyes to her over his shoulder, she burst into laughter and cried, 'You should see your face!'"
I don't have to re-read your entire series to know what the new book is starting with. I generally do, but that's a choice, not a necessity forced upon me by a book opening mid-action after a long enough time period that I've forgotten why the action is taking place. The reader could conceivably pick up any of your books anywhere along the story and begin, and in that book, get caught up on what's going on. Not so of GRRM.
For example. :)
-T