Repeated Chapters/Content in books

kzt wrote:The Baen versions don't have DRM either.

SWM wrote:

kzt wrote:The Baen versions don't have DRM either.

Neither do the Amazon versions. Amazon does not put DRM on Baen e-books.

SWM wrote:

kzt wrote:The Baen versions don't have DRM either.

Neither do the Amazon versions. Amazon does not put DRM on Baen e-books.

Fred wrote:First, let me say thank you for the quick response.

I am not aware of the series splitting into three different ones, maybe this is the start of that.

Also, I do have a really good memory, not 100% photographic, but pretty good. Repeated content is very obvious to me, even if it's a single sentence.

From my viewpoint (a readers) I can say I feel cheated when I read something that is word for word from a previous book. So far it has been a group of paragraphs here or there, but this was just over the top, it was an entire chapter. It was chapter 20, 9 pages altogether. It was an entire copy/paste job. Word for word, exactly the same as the previous book. Why repeat this stuff? For continuity of storyline, well it's a series. If someone doesn't read the series they probably wont understand half the references, planets, characters, etc. Sure I understand some overlap, but an author shouldn't copy and paste an entire chapter from one book to the next. It just plain sucks from a readers viewpoint.

I understand about book prices inflating. However, for all of this to happen at the same time, for prices to go up, for the books that started at 500 pages to go upward to 1000 pages and then all of a sudden go back to 500 pages and then to have entire chapters that are copy and pasted from the previous book, well, it's too much. It feels more like someone was just out to make a few bucks and it cheapens the series.

At least this is my viewpoint, for what it's worth.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Interesting. I knew that the Torch series was at an end. I didn't realize that the Saganami series was.

Fred wrote:First, let me say thank you for the quick response.

I am not aware of the series splitting into three different ones, maybe this is the start of that.

SWM wrote:Yes, for a time the Honorverse "modern" storyline (to distinguish it from the Star Kingdom books and the Call of Duty books) essentially split into 3 series, informally labeled the Torch books, the Honor books (sometimes improperly called the mainline), and the Saganami or Shadows books. The Torch books were written by Eric Flint. There were 3 Shadows books (Shadows of Saganami, Storm from the Shadows, and Shadow of Freedom) and 3 Torch books (Crown of Slaves, Torch of Freedom, and Cauldron of Ghosts), while the Honor books came out with another three (At All Costs, Mission of Honor, and A Rising Thunder). The three series overlapped in time, and a few sections of text (typically about a chapter or so) was repeated between them to keep the timelines straight.

As of the next Honor story, all three storylines will be merged again; there will be no more Shadows or Torch books. So you won't see the problem of repeated text again.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Interesting. I knew that the Torch series was at an end. I didn't realize that the Saganami series was.

JohnRoth wrote:
Actually, DW intended A Rising Thunder and Shadow of Freedom to be one book, and then wound up splitting it into two about a third of the way through writing the first draft. Whether the next "mainline" book actually winds up as one, two or (gasp) three books is something nobody is going to know until he sits down and gets the first draft written.

Himself wrote:
An Authorial Note

Many readers will notice that some of the earlier chapters in this book retell, or fill in between, events which occurred in At All Costs. The retold material constitutes a very small portion of the entire book, and there is a definite method to my madness in taking this approach.

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This still left me with something of a problem, however, since Honor had grown too senior to be sent on any more "death rides." I needed some additional, less senior officers who could become the fresh viewpoint figures on the front lines that Raoul and Katherine had originally been supposed to provide. So, I wrote Shadow of Saganami, and it and Crown of Slaves were supposed to be the lead books in two separate, subsidiary series. They were supposed to proceed separately from but in parallel with the "main stem" novels in which Honor would continue to be a primary viewpoint character. I actually intended for one of her kids to take the lead in the military portion of the storyline and for the other to become the "spymaster," which would have permitted a logical division of the Honorverse into two separate but related storylines. And these two new series were also supposed to be a device which would allow me to cut down on the amount of "back story" which had to be included in each of those "main stem" books.

<more stuff deleted for brevity>

One aspect of this new master scheme of mine, however, is that scenes which have appeared in one book may very well appear—usually from another character's point of view—in another book. This is not an effort simply to increase word count. It is intended to serve the function of more fully developing additional characters, giving different perspectives on the events they observe and participate in, filling in missing details, and—perhaps most importantly of all—nailing down exactly when these books' events occur relative to one another.


<yet more stuff deleted for brevity>

Take care,
David Weber

fallsfromtrees wrote:As of the next Honor story, all three storylines will be merged again; there will be no more Shadows or Torch books. So you won't see the problem of repeated text again.