"T" is for "Toby," not "trilogy.": seanan

"T" is for "Toby," not "trilogy."

So here's the thing: the Toby Daye books are not a trilogy. According to Wikipedia, a trilogy is "a set of three works of art—usually literature, film, or video games, less commonly visual art like paintings or musical works—that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works." So, for example, the original three Star Wars movies are a trilogy, but three randomly selected episodes of Veronica Mars are not. The Evil Dead movies are a trilogy; any three given Nightmare on Elm Street installments are not, and so on. Having three of something gives you a trio, but it doesn't necessarily give you an actual trilogy.

Why does this matter? It matters because the word "trilogy" comes with a certain degree of expectation. People say "the Toby Daye trilogy," and they're creating the idea that, come the end of An Artificial Night, everything will be finished, wrapped up nice and neat and ready to move on. They're also creating the idea that—or at least the option for—A Local Habitation to end on an unfinished note, a literary device that's become increasingly common in trilogies over the past few years. (I actually find myself getting angry at books that don't announce themselves as part of a trilogy, and then release a "middle book" with no real ending. Tell me up-front that you're writing a trilogy, and I'll be braced for the mid-trilogy cliffhanger. Tell me you're a series and leave me hanging, and you may have just lost yourself a reader.)

Rosemary and Rue has an ending. A Local Habitation has an ending. An Artificial Night has an ending. Just so you know.

It's true that currently, only the first three Toby books have been purchased by my publisher. This is because three is a very good number for proving a series has legs and can manage on its own. The sales on your first book will be first book sales—they'll be made on the strength of your cover, your back cover text, and your pre-existing fanbase, if any. The sales on your second book will hopefully exceed the sales of your first, and be accompanied by a bump in first book sales, because some people like to wait for proof that a series is actually going to, y'know, continue before they invest their time and dollars. By book three, your publisher will have a pretty good idea of whether the series is a success, and will be able to market and support you a lot better as a consequence. Three book chunks help series succeed. But they still aren't trilogies.

I have nothing against trilogies. The Newsflesh books (Feed, Blackout, and Deadline) are a trilogy. They follow the standards for trilogy pacing, construction, and narrative arc. But the Toby books are very much not a trilogy. Great Pumpkin willing and the creek don't rise, the Toby books will continue for quite some time, and range very, very far away from that initial set of three. The fact that I'm currently neck-deep in book five should definitely tell you that there's a lot more story to tell.

dulcinbradbury

September 23 2009, 16:23:11 UTC 7 years ago

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I actually didn't read fantasy for *years* because I kept picking up books that were unfinished. I got so tired of it, I decided it wasn't worth bothering anymore.

seanan_mcguire

September 23 2009, 16:25:15 UTC 7 years ago

Which makes total sense. I don't mind so much if it's the second book of a trilogy that I know is a trilogy, but I've thrown books across the room for springing that sort of thing on me without any sort of a warning.

seattlejo

7 years ago

wcg

September 23 2009, 16:36:28 UTC 7 years ago

I'm very pleased to know you have more October Daye books in the works. I want to see where she goes, and what she does.

September 23 2009, 19:36:03 UTC 7 years ago

Hint: there will be lots of coffee involved.

kyburg

September 23 2009, 16:36:48 UTC 7 years ago

The fact the Toby books aren't a triology or any 'ology of whatever kind - makes me a very happy thing indeed.

(DAW is being a very wise publisher, considering the market and the economy - but I never got the 'trilogy' vibe. Probably because it was never there to begin with, neh?)

September 23 2009, 19:36:21 UTC 7 years ago

That would be my assumption, yes.

liamstliam

September 23 2009, 16:40:50 UTC 7 years ago

Alethea and I were talking about this last night.

I picked up "The Strain: Book One of The Strain Trilogy," and she said, "Lemme know if it's any good, and I will read it when the other two books come out."

She then added, "I don't read series until they are completed."

And I said, "What about Toby?"

She sputtered and stamped her foot at me and said, "That's different!"

September 23 2009, 21:00:07 UTC 7 years ago

I am glad to be the exception! :)

hiddenriver

September 23 2009, 17:07:19 UTC 7 years ago

Semi-OT... I bought an extra copy of Rosemary and Rue for my MIL. She loved it (as did I, but I could be biased) - her only gripe was that she has to wait for 2010 for the next one!

keristor

September 23 2009, 17:47:48 UTC 7 years ago

At that you'll be getting them a lot faster than most series, because they bought the first three all at once so they're coming out at 6 month intervals instead of a year. Some of us have to wait for years -- or decades -- for the next book (mentioning no names, but two of my favourite authors are on that list!).

spectralbovine

jacylrin

September 23 2009, 17:13:15 UTC 7 years ago

Yes, and I find the places and people who assume that just because the publisher has bought three that it's a trilogy to be rather annoying. One expects something different from something clearly intended as a trilogy. I like Toby as a series. I hope to get to read many more!

September 23 2009, 21:01:41 UTC 7 years ago

So do I, believe me.

September 23 2009, 17:58:54 UTC 7 years ago

It has been said that the first three books of a Piers Anthony trilogy are not bad. The problem is not only with unannounced trilogies, it's also when what was supposed to be a trilogy ends up as a series and never gets resolved. And it's not only the middle book which can have cliffhanger endings, one author I got really annoyed because the "new book" came out and wasn't announced as the start of a trilogy (in fact it was worse, it was one book in three parts with no possibility of being considered three books). I still haven't read the rest of them.

On the other hand, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have done a very good job with Fledgling. Since we saw it in "rough draft" stage (they were publishing chapters online as they were written) it was very definitely the first half of the complete book, but they have done very well at making it basically standalone (OK, it's part of a series but it's not necessary to have read the others.)

Rosemary and Rue doesn't feel like part of a trilogy to me, at all. Part of a series, yes, but although it left me wanting more it wasn't "continuation" but "more in this series" or "more by this author" ("Feed" will be getting pre-ordered once it appears on the lists).

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alchymyst

September 23 2009, 18:27:40 UTC 7 years ago

The fact that you are writing book FIVE makes me very happy. :D

September 23 2009, 21:03:45 UTC 7 years ago

Well, good. That makes me very happy.

jerusha

September 23 2009, 18:53:45 UTC 7 years ago

Just a note: the author does not necessarily control whether the books are labeled as such. Sarah Monette,

truepenny, is one example. She had a four-book series, which was always conceived and written as such, although each book did have an internal ending as well. Ace refused to label the books as "Book One of the Doctrine of Labyrinths" and so forth. She's very open on her LJ and web page that the books are a series, and apologetic that they weren't labeled as such, but she couldn't make the publisher label them.

Leaving aside that quibble: Yes, what you said.

September 23 2009, 21:15:22 UTC 7 years ago

Oh, very true. But in this case, the only word my publisher has ever used for the Toby books is "series," and people still keep calling it a trilogy.

lovefromgirl

September 23 2009, 19:41:41 UTC 7 years ago

I always got the impression that Toby's books were a trilogy like the Hitchhiker's Guide was a trilogy. ;-)

September 23 2009, 21:15:44 UTC 7 years ago

Heh. Not quite, but an awesome comparison.

dr_zrfq

September 23 2009, 20:28:21 UTC 7 years ago

What I wanna know is how many more Toby books you can get all the way to publication before Toby actually kills you. Or worse.

September 23 2009, 21:16:07 UTC 7 years ago

As long as I never leave a forwarding address, I should be fine.

vincentursus

September 23 2009, 20:40:23 UTC 7 years ago

I was worried that it was a trilogy (since that would have meant waiting a while to actually get to the end of the story) but Rosemary and Rue had a clear ending.

Admittedly, this wasn't clear to me prior to reading the book.

September 23 2009, 21:17:53 UTC 7 years ago

I've tried to make it as clear as I could, here, and on the FAQ at my website, that it's not a three book series. I just hope I can manage to mostly succeed.

the_sheryl

September 23 2009, 22:52:05 UTC 7 years ago

I'm glad your Toby books each have clear endings. I remember one urban fantasy series I gave up on about 5 books in when I realized that =every= book in the series had a cliffhanger ending. (Ok, there were other factors, but that was the factor that pushed me over the edge, so to speak)

Thank you.

September 24 2009, 03:59:13 UTC 7 years ago

As far as I have plotted, there are no cliffhangers in Toby. There are cliffhangers in some other series that I'm working on, but not in Toby.

September 24 2009, 03:59:47 UTC 7 years ago

I'm enjoying book five. It's like a roller coaster, but I'm building the track as I go.

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