Writing books is not really a good idea

Re:Writing books is not really a good idea by bluGill on Monday May 10, 2021 @03:29PM (#27109833)

Closer to the later for most authors. Though every few dozen years there is another Harry Potter that everyone in the world buys and reads. For most you need to target those voracious readers and what they are willing to pay for - but be ever on the lookout as to how you can jump to the Harry Potter world where everyone buys your books.

Harry Potter was good (in the first few anyway), but if you like that type of thing there are ton of much better books that never made it.

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Re:Writing books is not really a good idea by Rerarom on Monday May 10, 2021 @04:07PM (#27110289)

Please name one.

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Re:Writing books is not really a good idea by jholman on Monday May 10, 2021 @06:30PM (#27111668)

If you particularly wanted books that "didn't make it", I don't know anything about that. But maybe you just wanted books that are like HP but better than HP.

I read the first few HP, and thought they were dreadful, and thus never read the later ones, so maybe I'm not the person you want advice from, but here are some recommendations of novels/novelists in the same genre (fantasy novels, written for children, that hold up for adults):

Nearly anything by Dianna Wynne Jones, but I particularly enjoyed The Lives of Christopher Chant, Archer's Goon, and of course Howl's Moving Castle.

Susan Cooper's famous Dark is Rising series. Half the series is more normal-kid (starting with Greenwitch), half is more special-magic-kid (starting with The Dark is Rising).

Garth Nix's Old Kingdom, starting with Sabriel.

While China Mieville is very much not a children's author (really! don't buy a random mieville book for your young niece/nephew, really don't!), Un-Lun-Dun is an amazing book in this genre.

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Re:Writing books is not really a good idea by Rerarom on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @01:01AM (#27114390)

Thanks for the answer!

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Re:Writing books is not really a good idea by bluGill on Monday May 10, 2021 @09:07PM (#27112954)

I enjoyed the fableHaven series. But YMMV, tastes are different.

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