Discussion Post: What Makes a Successful Standalone

I hadn't really read a lot of standalones until I got into contemporary. Occasionally you'll see them outside the genre like Salvage by Alexandra Duncan and The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, but I really feel like they are few and far between. And if a standalone does get published outside of the contemporary genre, I often times find that I don't like it. Of course, there are exceptions, like the two books I mentioned above. But there are others like Cinderella's Dress and All That Glows that I really think could have been a lot better as series. This got me thinking. What makes a good standalone? And why do genres outside of contemporary have such a hard time being awesome?

Here's what I think the biggest problem is: time and number of pages. There's just not enough time for world-building in fantasy/paranormal to be contained in one book. That's not to say that there's no world-building in contemporary. There is. But it's more complicated in other genres. The author is making up a lot of stuff and has to explain it. So a lot of times if it's a standalone I either feel like we don't get any world-building, or it's really rushed and the character development falls to the wayside. 

I also feel like genres outside of contemporary tend to have a lot more characters. And the characters tend to be more complex. Not in a personality way, but in a physically complex way. Sometimes they're not human and they're not any creature that we know so the author has to sit there and explain a lot more, build a lot more. Because there tend to be more characters, an author needs more book to fully develop them all. So if they're trying to cram it all into one book, I tend to have a difficult time connecting to the characters since they aren't all fully fleshed out. 

And because the author is trying to cram all this world-building and all these characters into one book, I feel like the plot is rushed and I end feeling either confused or disappointed. I like the slow-building anticipation to the climax of a book. But if it's rushed, we don't really get that. 

And finally, there's the issue of resolution. This can go for any genre and I suppose applies to standalones and series enders. I hate open endings. If I wanted to use my imagination to decide on my own how the book ended, I would write my own book. So one of the most important things to me about a standalone/series ender is resolution. All those loose ends better be tied up or I'm going to rage.

So what makes a good standalone? I actually think that's the wrong question to be asking, because, truth be told, every book should be somewhat of a standalone. The main story arc of each book in a series should be tied up, even though the overall arc isn't. So then what is the question? What makes a good book? Well we could talk about that all day.

I wrote this post with Violet from Paper World and Swirls of Ink! Go check out her response to my thoughts! 

Do you think that the only genre that can successfully do standalones is contemporary? Tell me about some great standalones outside the contemporary genre you've read that I should check out. Why do you think it's hard to produce a successful standalone in say the fantasy/paranormal/science fiction genres?