Heavy lifting

Whenever someone writes a mystery novel, the publisher is almost certain to ask if it is the first in a series. If not, the novel may be less likely to be published.

Publishers like series novels because readers like them. If you enjoy the first book in a series, you are more likely to buy the second and the third.

But why do readers like them. Shannon Reed explains it well in her book Why We Read: "But a series usually only asks us to do that heavy lifting at the beginning of the first book, and from then on we can simply wander."

By "heavy lifting" Reed refers to the process of becoming familiar with the major characters, the scene, the time period, etc. When one reads the second or third novel in a series, much of the mystery has already been solved — meaning the mystery of the framework of the story — and you can focus on just the mystery in that particular plot.

Any standalone novel or first novel in a series at first requires some effort on the part of the reader. What's going on? Who are these people? Why should I be interested? Just yesterday I started reading a novel and gave up on page 9. The novel began with a dream which made no sense. When the man woke up, the narrative still didn''t make sense. And I disliked both of the characters introduced so far, which I could tell from the dust jacket were the novel's main characters. That was more heavy lifting than I was willing to do, and I moved on to another novel.

One reason I do not read as many short stories as I would like is that each story in a collection requires that same heavy lifting. One must familiarize oneself all over again with new characters and new situations in each story. And let's face it, a story, like a journey, is more fun when you know where you are.