>Just received the LT edition of OOTD.
>Of course, I only read the Postscript
>this time. It was a really good start
>for what might have been another Owen
>Chantry story. I also noted your final
>words about not having someone else
>finish the story. I think you are
>absolutely right not having someone else
>finish any of your dad's work. And,
>that's interesting to me because I've
>been thinking about how that might work.
> My opinion is it just couldn't. No
>matter how good or bad a stand-in might
>be, they could never be LL. I've seen it
>tried a few times after other authors
>passed. It never struck me as
>particularly successful.

I'm of mixed opinion about this. It must be financially successful because publishers often do it and the "new" author siphons off a lot of the money yet the writer's estate still makes enough to make it worth it.

I'm not really opposed to doing it, or others doing it, I just don't see any reason for us to do it, clearly I've been able to keep Louis alive thus far.

But here's what happens: When your books are in the marketplace for too many years without a change the bookstores begin to complain. Maybe your sales slip, maybe they don't, but the stores put you under a microscope because they are worried that they MIGHT slip. Then you need something new or they stop reordering. Sometimes it can be as silly as new covers, sometimes it has to be something as dramatic as the Lost Treasures project ... or books by a different writer. The thing is, if you don't have something to give them they lose confidence, and then the publisher loses confidence, and then they start taking your books out of print, and then it's all over.