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9.
AOTW: Do you feel you have a limit on how many novels you could write featuring the same character before you would experience burnout? Would you terminate a character sooner than you really wanted if readers seemed to lose interest?
Ridley Pearson: It's all a question of management. If I had to write nothing but Boldt novels, I could burn out the character. But right now, each time I start another Boldt, I'm dying to get in there and find out what's going on in that mind of his. It's the author's duty to pull the plug when the series is done its course, regardless of publisher pressure.
Ian Rankin: Rebus lives in real time. He is now in his mid-fifties, and will retire --- if he makes it that long --- at sixty, so I'd guess there are maybe five books max left in the series... but I seem to have been saying that for some time now. I certainly hope that if the series starts to go stale, or if I lose enthusiasm, or if there's nothing new to say about Rebus and/or Edinburgh, then I'll have the good grace to release Rebus into the wild and start the process of house-breaking a new character...
Carolyn Hart: I don't think so. Each book is a new and separate adventure. I have fun with Annie and Max and Henrie O is basically me (although taller, thinner, smarter and much braver). The author never has to worry about making the choice to end a series. If readers stop buying, the publisher will make that decision.
George Pelecanos: If the readers have lost interest then the writer has failed. The writer knows if it's not working; if he's not honest enough to admit it to himself, then the readers will tell him, in effect, that it's time to pull the plug.
Nevada Barr: I'm sure there are limits. And one never knows where till one reaches them. I think when I grow bored with a character it's time for them to leave, die or change. If I am bored, soon the readers will be.
Robert B. Parker: I don't expect to burn out. I guess if no one bought any of my books after awhile I'd stop writing them, since selling them is part of the point.
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