Young Adult Trilogies


Anomaly9's avatar
Why does every young adult book on the market seem to be part of a trilogy? Always a trilogy. I'll come across the occasional duology, but rarely do I find a stand alone YA novel. It's always 3,4 and sometimes 12 books (I'm looking at you, House of Night). Why so many? Why do these YA series need to drag on and on forever? Often times, there's barely enough plot to cover one book, let alone 3!

Why do we need so many trilogies? Is it pure greed? More books=more money?

Comments40
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myrcellla's avatar
Maybe if the trilogies were bigger books with some meat on 'em it would be alright. That way the story could move right along at a good pace without having the cram everything in at the last moment like some books do. For me it honestly depends on the story and how they handle it :/
Randomstuff-Stuff's avatar
Also, I'll be serous this time... The YA genre is very sleazy and lazy (read the cracked article about a YA writer), the genre is aimed at teens so the quality standards are low. Since the standards are so low people tend to find it easier to make trilogies for more money. I actually want to be a writer when I grow up and I plan to purposely make the first few books smaller, dumber, and more romance~ey for money/easy writing/experimentation. 
rynamb18's avatar
I honestly don't care if the book is a trilogy or not...

But "The Rule of Three" by Eric Walters was horrible. I read the first one for English class. Too boring and slow, but somehow the guy cracked out three books.

I never read the rest. My friend did though, and told me that they were not much more interesting.

A guy in my group said "You could just write one book about this and it would be ok. But stop trying to stretch it out."

The book was disappointing.
vivikv's avatar
I think good, larger stories need several books. World building and setting things up can take awhile, and if things are on such large a scale, it takes more time to wrap things up. Only if done right though.
In the case of YA books, it seems to mainly be about the money. Teens don't have a history of caring much for plot. 
HerbalDrink's avatar
Cause kids now have the attention span for trilogies and series, and it's a good way to keep the authors and publishers in business - cause series have a way of keeping readers interested. I remember in the pre Harry Potter years - you'd have some series like Boxcar children and Babysitters Club but each entry in those is like, 120 pages. Trilogies follow the common three-acts structure of storytelling that's become so popular. 




This is not limited with kids, btw - trilogies and long series are very common in stuff intended for older audiences - if you pick up a book from the shelf in just about any other bookstore there's a pretty good chance it'll be a series. One thing that annoys me is when I pick up a book that seems interesting only to find that it's part of a series, like, number three or four so I have to go dig for the start of the series that might not even be there. 
Maycrofy's avatar
Why do they even call them "Young adult"? I'm just sayin' that if I were to write a young adult book I'd add a little more sex to the mixture, more intrincate moral dilemmas and more tragic deaths. but that's just me.
Randomstuff-Stuff's avatar
Maycrofy's avatar
That's TEENAGERS!!!! you're legally an adult until you trun 18!!!!!
BrightEyes03's avatar
Then it would be an adult novel, not a young adult novel. The whole point of young adult is that they don't have sex, and what sex they do have is just barely hinted at instead of described in detail. It's stories that could be great if they were written for adults but are watered down so that a younger mind can easily grasp the concepts.
HerbalDrink's avatar
Sex isn't needed in adult fiction either. 

You'd be surprised how many books intended for adult readers I see that flat out don't have sex. (Even though it absolutely sucks how many times I find books about were-creatures and vampires and they're bloody harlequins. Ugh...) 
BrightEyes03's avatar
I'm aware that many novels intended for adults don't have sex. My point was that adding more sex to a young-adult novel would make it adult, not that all adult novels have sex.

And yes, all the supernatural creature type stories do seem to have a trend of being like trashy romance novels with vampires. That's why Anne Rice is my favorite vampire author. Sure, there's some sex in there, but it isn't nearly as trashy as soooo many other books out there.
BrightEyes03's avatar
It's not nearly as bad as the shit Nora Roberts trilogies on the market. My mom is addicted to them, and they're all the same. I'm not a big fan of romance novels to start with, but Nora Roberts trilogies I swear are written by a computer program. Only the names and places change, the story is the same. The story always goes three boys meet three girls and systematically pair off in each book by hating each other at first then having graphically-detailed hate sex then falling in love then getting married and having babies. At least the YA trilogies try to have a story.
Anomaly9's avatar
I haven't read anything by Nora Roberts, but I have seen her name plastered all around every book store I go to. They do sound pretty irritating and I will probably never read anything by her because I hate books that tell the same story over and over again like they think readers are stupid and won't notice (i.e V.C Andrew's ghost writer). 
And hate sex? Really wtf. 
BrightEyes03's avatar
Yeah it's pretty dumb. The main characters of the book usually can't stand each other until they accidentally have passionate sex and realize they're in love. Lame.
Anomaly9's avatar
Hahah that doesn't even make any sense XD
TheRockyCrowe's avatar
Publishers (+) Hollywood.
From what I've heard these two industries have a preference for trilogies because that means if it 'catches fire' (lookin at you Hunger Games) and becomes super popular people will not only buy all 3 or more (meaning more $$$ for them) but they can then fuck your face with several movies.

I hate that this preference has taken over because the result is the market flooding us with every hunger games and maze runner look-alike possible..but at the same time its fucking genius.

Linking movies to trilogies, meaning several more book and film sells = a shitton of money from something that's practically selling itself.
Lovely-Tigress's avatar
My mom and I went to the bookstore a week ago and everywhere I looked in the fiction shelves there was a book made into a movie. :stare:
HerbalDrink's avatar
Honestly that depends where you look. 

I found a ton of things that weren't adapted into a movie. But then again I do tend to delve rather deep into the bookstores. Like, where you used to find YA. :P 
Lovely-Tigress's avatar
On yeah, I'm not saying there aren't any books that weren't made into a movie, but it was pretty annoying to me.
tarajadestone's avatar
Omg I feel you. There are so much trash trilogies out there and then next thing you know it becomes a tv show or movie and then keeps going from there (shadow hunters, etc)
Anomaly9's avatar
ug, i know, too true. 
verocayden's avatar
«Never two without three!» XD.

But money could also have an important role in this. Only one book isn't generally enough to earn a lot of money. With more books, you can earn more money, but if you have too much, maybe the readers will stop reading them.
Maycrofy's avatar
All bad things come in threes