Rant time!
Well, no, I don't think it's ranting if you're just mildly irritated. But the internet likes rants, so for our purposes it's a rant.
Okay, here we go. Fellas, when did it stop being okay to just call something a "series"?
Or even a "trilogy"?
I'm talking here about things like The Twilight Saga and The Inheritance Cycle and there are probably other examples but it's hard to Google that sort of thing. Now I get that the Inheritance Cycle was meant to be a trilogy, and that's what Christopher Paolini used to call it, until publishers or money or an immense overabundance of plot-lines killed that dream. But why did you have to throw in the word "cycle?" Are you too good for "series," like everyone else? Is it because it's about magic and dragons and stuff, and you felt you needed to be special? (I do get that you didn't go for "Quartet," because 1. I would expect it to burst into four-part harmony at any moment and 2. that way you can pretend it was always gonna be a "cycle" not a "trilogy". "They printed 'Trilogy' on the first two? THOSE ASSHOLES!")
Even more confounding is The Twilight Saga. We all know you weren't planning three books and one startlingly infuriating paperweight from the start, Stephenie Meyer. We know you thought Twilight was the end of the line, until the cash started rolling in and you threw it at your keyboard to produce more words. So why throw "saga" on there? Why not series? In fact, why call it anything at all? You could just say "Sequel to Twilight" or "Sexy Vampires Inside" on the cover of New Moon. Honestly, it's a black book with something red on the cover. Your target audience of pre-teen and adolescent girls with self-esteem problems is going to pick it up whether your name's on the front or not.
If you're not going to name the series something different than the first book anyway, you might as well not bother with words like "saga." It just makes it sound like it's about more than lusty vampires who once every 700 pages or so have a fight. That, and it makes it sound like you just had no idea how long you could draw the story out before it became ridiculous. (I'm thinking the point of no return was somewhere in New Moon, unless Taylor Lautner has abs now, in which case TEAM JACOB!!!! <3)
Actually, that's probably what happened. That would explain the entirety of Breaking Dawn. Well, the parts that weren't just sharing personal wedding fantasies. (I'm not judging; we all have them. I just haven't made thousands of dollars on mine. You know, pointing that out.)
And it's different, to me at least, if it's something like The Chronicles of Narnia. There's no backing out on that one. You pull out the word Chronicles from the title and replace it, people are going to notice. And in that case it's not just the name of the series: it's the name of the book, too. It's called The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Blatantly Obvious Jesus Allegory. Or something like that. Hell, you can't even tell which one abcfamily is showing today because all the guide can choke out is "The Chronicles of Na--" before they're out of room. And don't tell me that Twilight is the same, Stephenie. I know for a fact you did not pitch the first one as The Twilight Saga: Twilight.
Anyway, the point is that "chronicles" is okay there because starting every book title with "The Series of Narnia" is stupid. The Series of Narnia is some dumb mathematical law your dad tries to teach you on the car ride to Target. The Chronicles of Narnia are badass stories of witches and large wild cats and swords and some shit. And Jesus. Never forget Jesus.
For the rest of you, I think "series" will do. You could even be clever and use it in wordplay like A Series of Unfortunate Events, but then you'll probably have to compensate for your Middle-Child Syndrome with a pen-name like Lemony Snicket.
Win some, lose some.
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