Things That Make You Go...Huh?!

If you've followed the blog for a while, you know one of my little hobbies is coming up with fake movie ideas:  sequels, spinoffs, or even whole trilogies!  And yet when people talk about sequels for some of my books, I just go Huh?!

Take this recent review of Transformed for Mother's Day Too:

Otherwise, this book shows promise, and could easy turn into a full-length novel if you really work at it. After that, ponder a series based on that theme

Well, OK, I'm pondering it...I got nothing.  I mean this story is basically Freaky Friday only it's a boy who becomes the mom.  So what's the series?  They stay swapped forever?  We do the same thing with other moms and kids?  Maybe people would read that, but it'd get pretty boring for me.

And I'm sure I could have made this a full novel but these holiday ones I was often on a tight deadline to finish before the actual holiday involved.  I could expand it and change the title so it's not a holiday book, but...I really don't feel like it right now.

I got really confused by this comment on 24 Hour Woman:

Estelle and Nellie made a good team. I wonder what might happen if Nellie ever returns and meets ... Steve?

Steve?  Who the hell is Steve?  At first I thought of Steve Fischer, the main character who becomes a woman in Chance of a Lifetime, but that didn't make sense.  Then it finally hit me:  Estelle...Steve.  Not sure that really works.  Esteban would work better.

In the story a secretary slips her sexist boss a potion that makes him a hot chick and then he gets to see how the other half lives and stuff.  So I guess the idea in this person's mind is that in a sequel they would both swap gender.  I suppose it could work.  The one book I wrote where a woman turns into a guy didn't sell very well, but if there's still a guy turning into a woman it might do better.

It's just that I don't really care enough to do it right now.  Or possibly ever.

I'd like to use the exact comment from this book, but Amazon destroyed the original, which also included the reviews.  But the gist is that this person wanted a sequel.

The story was about a couple in an unhappy marriage.  The man drinks something that turns him into a little girl.  In the end the guy comes to like his new life and his wife finds a new guy who had lost his wife.  So...what's there to do for a sequel?  Obviously they have more life to live, but there's not really a story there.  Everything ended pretty much Happily Ever After, so what's the point?

This review was pretty succinct for The Lipstick Lesbian Elixir:  "this needs a sequel"

This could have a sequel pretty easily.  It's about a butch detective who accidentally gets doused with a drug that slowly causes her to turn into a hot bimbo who likes girls.  I could just have someone else get doused with the chemical, or a whole bunch of people.  Sort of like the Gender Swap Outbreak trilogy.

The reason I wouldn't do a sequel is mostly economic.  The first book didn't really sell, so there's not much point writing a second or third or fourth.  That's basic Hollywood logic.  And common sense:  don't throw good money after bad.

I guess the idea is just because you want a sequel, you can't really expect the author or publisher to agree.  Creative reasons, economic reasons, there's probably a reason they haven't already done it, especially after 3-4 years like some of these reviews.