I’ve had people buy books for me many times by accident because there was no indicator that it was the middle of a series! I’ve been confused myself and had to google to figure it out!
I miss when books in a series had the number on the spine, and/or the whole series on the back cover in order with little images on the cover.
There’s still sometimes lists on the inside pages of a series but even when there is so many of them leave out whichever book the one you’re holding is so you don’t actually know where it fits in like please just tell me what order I’m meant to read this stuff in I’m so confused TT
And even when books in a series didn’t necessarily have a number or anything back when blurbs were actually blurbs and not five star reviews it would show if it was the middle of something else at least
I shouldn’t have to get my phone out and search the internet when I’m in a bookstore or library :C I just want to hang out with and browse the books, not google.
Speaking of which it’s nearly as bad trying to buy books online, I swear they never say which number in the series they are either, just that they’re in the series. Sometimes you’ll be lucky enough for “the # installment to the xyz series” but more often it’s just the “next” installment and I don’t know if I’m looking at a sequel or a seventh installment.
Anyone else feeling this way? Or am I just missing new ways that they’re indicating this and not getting the memo?
by Difficult-Mood-6981
41 Comments
I guess you can look it up online now so nobody cares.
I agree, I like to see the numbers line up though. 🙁
Agreed!! I’ve been spoiled for a series when someone posted the back blurb of book 5 in a series when I’m only at book 3 😭 why do I have to go inside the book to figure out it’s part of a series?? Just put it on the spine!
By using numbers on the spine or making it clear that it’s part of a series means they sell less books, as it puts people off.
Yes, I like to know which series book it is too so I use Goodreads for that, but how much easier if the book just said it on the cover… especially where there’s a timeline that matters for character growth and/or story line.
I picked up a novel and I read the whole thing before realising it was the third in a series. Luckily, it was pretty stand alone.
When have they ever done this outside the kid section? I have hardbacks and paperbacks going back to the 70s and none have numbers. I have not seen numbers in fantasy, science fiction, mystery, thriller or romance.
The best you ever got was a list of titles inside the book.
The Dresden Files is the WORST with this. God damn, I skipped books because i mistook where I was in the series because of how the table of contents is structured..
It doesn’t have to be actual numbers (I think that’s rare) but how hard is it to put a simple “Book X of the Y series” on the cover?
As someone who sticks spine labels on books for a school library, I hate it when book spines have the number on the bottom where I have to cover it up 🙁
Took me a while to figure out that “The Final Empire” is the FIRST Mistborn book. Coulda used a big 1 on it somewhere
There are times when I think there is a deliberate disinformation campaign going in—in this case, using the tactic of *omission*—because book series numbers are not the only thing being omitted in informational resources these days.
The biggest other culprits are “review” or “info” videos on YouTube. Whenever I need information on an audio or camera product and turn to YouTube for help, I have to wade through dozens of videos of a product, all of which NEVER show the ports, jacks, buttons, or what the item actually *does*. Instead, I’m “treated” to a headshot of the creator ENDLESSLY blathering about the most unimportant aspects of the product. I don’t want to see someone’s face! I want to see the *product*; that’s what the video is *about*. YT videos about new camera products are the worst.
The only exception to this is repair videos (for vacuum cleaners, for instance). That seems to be one sector where YouTube videos actually deliver the goods.
I’ve been interested in picking up the Discworld series but I cannot for the life of me figure out where the heck you’re supposed to start.
I’ve been volunteering at my library to try and add labels indicating series orders on books. Though, it’s resulted in hours of debate as to what counts as part of a series or not.
These are two separate trilogies, but they take place in the same universe. So is that 1-6 or 1-3 twice?
Here’s a prequel to a successful trilogy, is that #4 or #0 on our labels? Oh look, here’s a statement from the author saying that you shouldn’t read the prequel until you’ve read the trilogy. How does that impact our numbering.
Here’s a series that 50+ books long, but the publishers did put numbers on those spines, only they restarted the numbers around 30 to create a new entry point so our numbering is conflicting with their numbering. Plus there are double sized super editions every ten or so books in the series, but they aren’t part of the numbering but they are part of the story.
Here’s two totally different series written by the same author over his career. But here’s a book he wrote years later, that combines his two series.
Do you try to acknowledge that all of Sanderson’s stuff goes in the cosmiere?
What’s the first book in the narnia series?
They keep publishing more books that are “by Tolkien” that’s really just different parts of his previously published writing grouped together differently. What numbers do those books get?
It’s a lot of fun debate but it does make me tip my hat to the authors who wrote three books. In order. Then stopped.
To make matters worse, even the synopsis at the back of the book doesn’t hint on it. I went through a Jeffrey Archer book last week and only learnt afterwards that it was book 4 in the Clifton Chronicles series.
1000% agree, SO annoying
Okay, so find the author, then find that series (because they always have multiple series), find your book you were initially interested in, hope to GAWD that you haven’t accidentally spoiled the book / series for yourself
All solved with a simple: Dark Hollow Falls (Dark Forest Trilogy Book 2)
When I was a child, I picked up a cool looking book at the library called “The Sea of Monsters”. It started En Medias Res with a bunch of characters I didn’t know, one having a prophetic dream about another asking for help. But I took it in stride and pieced the characters together as I went. It was a great book!
When I returned is when I learned it was #2 of the Percy Jackson series. The fact that is says “Book 2” on the spine proves my comprehension needed a bit more time to develop.
Front what I understand, this is by design to get more book issues and sales by people picking up the wrong book.
This is a case sheet e-books do it better than physical books, as they’re almost always numbered in the title.
But yes, it is infuriating.
The last book series i bought was The Expanse, they’re sitting on the shelf behind right now, and they all have their sequence in the series on the top of their spines.
It’s not new. They used to even list the books on the inside page out of order quite often and you had to actively be looking for the words “sequel to” on the back cover. Numbering is actually the new and improved way, from as recently as 20 years ago for several publishers.
it’s both frustrating and sad that Wikipedia is my goto source for finding info on book series, publishing order, sequels, etc.
it’s extremely difficult to find that info elsewhere
I like the way Metro does it
Metro 2033
Metro 2034
Metro 2035
The Murderbot Diaries series order as listed on Amazon and as listed in the book front cover do not match. It was pretty jarring finding out I had read them 6-5-7.
Interestingly Audible has done the opposite. They now have books clearly marked as part of a series and a link to the full series with them in order. I hated having to look up which book came next in a series. It’s so much easier to be able to easily look up and access the books of a series. I wish they did it for paper versions .
I read the Mallorean by David Eddings (the piece of shit) and was a couple of books in before I realised there was a whole series before it.
I always tend to Google ‘*authors name* reading order’ now before buying anything new!
Agreed, it is super frustrating. If I pick up a series, I want to read the first book and I don’t want to play games trying to figure out if what I have in my hand is the middle of a series or not.
100% agree, it’s super annoying. I don’t understand why people have such an aversion to numbers. Hate it when movies do it too, just call it “Fast and Furious 9” you really don’t need to keep coming up with dumb sub-titles
I totally feel you on this! It’s so frustrating trying to figure out the order of a series without clear indicators.
Gladly, the Locked Tomb series does do it (even if total number listed is inconsistent depending on the book due to there being one or two more books in the series than originally planned)
You’ll really ‘like’ the Craft Sequence then. Here’s the first five books in order:
Three Parts Dead
Two Serpents Rise
Full Fathom Five
Last First Snow
Four Roads Cross
🌟 🌟 🌟
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/
🌟 🌟 🌟
I agree. Films and TV shows do this too, and it makes me insane. Just include the number if it’s part of a series. It’s expected and just creates confusion without it. Extremely annoying trend.
Bring back numbered spines!
It’s because of the chains. If Book One sells, say, a thousand copies, then the central ordering system will only order 30-50% of that for a book marked Book Two, and only ten percent of Book One’s sales for Book Three. But The Dragon Rises, sequel to The Dragon is Born, will be ordered as though it is a new novel. The chains do catch on after a while, but it gives a series a chance to become established.
It’s a grift to get you to buy the current book. Then you read it and find out it’s part of the series, nudging you to buy the rest. You’re lest apt to pick up a series if you suddenly discover #7 is the current book released.
The alternate is the writer/publisher have no idea where the series is going, and are just milking it until it’s dry. They had no idea it was going to be 1 book or 20 books when it started.
There’s no other reason to leave the book # off a book in a series.
i hate this too! sometimes i pick up a book at the thrift store and whenever i look it up online for reviews i see it’s like part 3 of a 8 part series 😭 just tell me ON the book!!
This isn’t a new problem. They’ve been doing this for decades. I remember buying the third book in the original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy, not realizing there were two before it, because it didn’t say a bloody thing anywhere on the cover. And that was in like 1980.
I just DNF’d a book I wasn’t enjoying, too much exposition. Come to find out, it is book FOUR in a series. Absolutely no indication it is part of a series anywhere on the spine or front/back covers.
I’ve also noticed an increase in people writing the books “out of order,” only to read on the wiki there’s a “reader’s suggested order,” an “author’s suggested order,” and sometimes neither of these is the chronological order, which is also different than the publishing order. I’ve just defaulted to reading either the internally chronological order or the author’s suggested order. Still annoying that I have to read an instruction manual on how to read the damned books.
>I’ve had people buy books for me many times by accident because there was no indicator that it was the middle of a series!
This is the whole point. Publishers don’t want to scare people off with “book 7 in the series”, they just want people to buy the book. If you accidentally pick up 7, maybe you’ll buy 1-6.
My new Kindle seems to group and order them for me.
Which is a huge improvement from ‘Guess!’