Bookish Discussions: Author Loyalty

This week's topic is Author Loyalty!  If I read a great book from an author, I'll most likely research the rest of that author's books and read them.  But have you ever decided that enough is enough?  If an author writes so many books and you just happen to read 'the best one' (all a matter of opinion of course) and the rest you think are terrible do you keep reading their books in the hope you'll like another?


That's the question.  I don't think I've ever stopped reading an author's books completely... just pushed the rest of the books to the back of the line.  Like the rest of John Green's books.  The first book I read was The Fault in Our Stars and I thought it was really good so I read Looking For Alaska and I thought that was pretty good so I read Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  And after that... well I guess I just kind of slowed down.  Eventually I got through Paper Towns and then I just stopped.  I keep meaning to read An Abundance of Katherines but it doesn't seem as important anymore.

Take for example Stephen King's books.  He has a ton.  I don't even know how many... dozens.  Looking at that daunting list, do you ever just give up on it?  Or do you love that author so much that you will read anything they write?

I mean look at all those books! (Look at allll those chickens! - Bravo to you if you still remember!)

I guess what I'm getting at is how far does your author loyalty extend?

For me, I think if I read a book from that author that isn't so good and I don't really have any time, I'll just push them to the back of the line.  I won't completely eliminate them... just knock them down the ladder a bit.  Maybe that's unfair of me to judge an author by one book but as a  reader, I don't think we all have all that much time to spare.

Also going along with this topic, will you ever not buy a book simply because the publisher is less than stellar?  I've heard of the stories going on inside the publishing house behind The Lorien Legacies and other books published by them.  It's a bit shifty although we probably don't know the entire truth (if you haven't heard about it, here's an article about it).  Would you ever not buy a book simply because of the publisher?  What if the author is an okay person but the publishing house isn't?  I've read in some author interviews that writing books doesn't pay all that well because the author actually doesn't get the biggest cut.

Back to the topic at hand.  I think there are only a couple authors that I would read unconditionally one of them being Sarah J. Maas (but I think you already guessed that!).  A lot of people would say Harry Potter I think and I don't think I would ever want to read something by J.K. Rowling again unless it got stellar reviews.  Because she is cemented in my mind as the author who wrote Harry Potter and I just can't think of her any other way (terrible I know).

Do you have author loyalty?  Is there an author that you will read whatever they write?