Do you think ASOIAF books are a lot less popular compared to 4 years ago when the TV show was airing?

[boltons are sick]

Don't get me wrong, they are still pretty popular but I feel that their popularity peaked only because of the TV series (before it, hardly anyone had heard of these books from what I know). A lot of ASOIAF readers only started reading the books after they had watched the TV series. In my case, I read the books before watching the show, but still, the only reason why I knew about the books in the first place was because of the popularity of the TV series.

Now, 4 years after the finale,there is still no new book in sight which kinda kills the interest in the franchise in my opinion. People really didn't like the finale of Game of Thrones and right now, no one talks about Game of Thrones, and when they do mention it, it's only to complain about how much the finale sucked. This also makes it very unlikely that show watchers are going to give the books a chance because unlike the LOTR or Harry Potter movies which were beloved and drew in new readers.

In addition, I feel that the lack of a new book for so long is also not helping because it's causing a lot of people to move away from the fandom which means that only the hardcore fans have remained in the ASOIAF fandom.

Don't get me wrong, ASOIAF is still very popular, but I feel a lot of that popularity has faded away in the last few years both because the show's ending sucked and because there is no new book after more than 12 years of waiting from the previous book and 4 years after the end of the TV series.

Do you agree with me or do you think these things haven't affected the popularity of the book series?

Edited November 5, 2023 by boltons are sick

[Aebram]

Did the TV show increase the popularity of the books? I think yes, certainly.

Did the ending of the TV show decrease the popularity of the books? Maybe a little, but I think, not very much. Once people have read the books, and know how good they are, they won't lose interest in them just because the TV show went in a different direction.

I imagine there's a website somewhere that tracks book sales. So it may be possible to find some answers to these questions.

Has the long delay for the next book decreased the popularity of the books? That's a hard one to answer. You can't measure the sales of a book that hasn't been published yet.

When Winds finally comes out, I expect that the vast majority of readers will buy it. And the book release will get more than the normal amount of publicity, because of the popularity of the show, and the long delay that makes it more newsworthy than most sequels.

[Lord of Raventree Hall]

I'd say, the book popularity went UP because of the tv show, but after the tv show...nah. The general like....chatter is down because the tv show fans disappeared, but I actually think the community here is...or at least seems to be, just as active as back in the day. And if anything, I meet more people who have read the books in everyday life than I used to (usually inspired to do so by that said tv show). I remember when I was reading ADwD, I was the only one I knew reading it (and some even made fun of me, although Game of Thrones was on, it hadn't reached peak popularity yet). But now, I have a lot of friends around me who have read the books. 

[LongRider]

In my experience, the postings of the community here have dropped off alot.  It seems people melted away as there just isn't as much to talk about as nothing new has come along, as far as ASOIAF goes.  I have noticed that discussions of the Targ titles and TV shows that are becoming more common on the boards.  

[Roswell]

On 11/6/2023 at 2:06 AM, boltons are sick said:

Don't get me wrong, they are still pretty popular but I feel that their popularity peaked only because of the TV series (before it, hardly anyone had heard of these books from what I know). A lot of ASOIAF readers only started reading the books after they had watched the TV series. In my case, I read the books before watching the show, but still, the only reason why I knew about the books in the first place was because of the popularity of the TV series.

Now, 4 years after the finale,there is still no new book in sight which kinda kills the interest in the franchise in my opinion. People really didn't like the finale of Game of Thrones and right now, no one talks about Game of Thrones, and when they do mention it, it's only to complain about how much the finale sucked. This also makes it very unlikely that show watchers are going to give the books a chance because unlike the LOTR or Harry Potter movies which were beloved and drew in new readers.

In addition, I feel that the lack of a new book for so long is also not helping because it's causing a lot of people to move away from the fandom which means that only the hardcore fans have remained in the ASOIAF fandom.

Don't get me wrong, ASOIAF is still very popular, but I feel a lot of that popularity has faded away in the last few years both because the show's ending sucked and because there is no new book after more than 12 years of waiting from the previous book and 4 years after the end of the TV series.

Do you agree with me or do you think these things haven't affected the popularity of the book series?

Exactly.  This is not the only game in town.  There is competition for the fans' time and money from other novels, shows, and so on.  The ending of the show was awful and not in keeping with the overall story told in the text.  The lack of a new book to follow A Dance With Dragons is equally damaging. 

[Phylum of Alexandria]

In my own anecdotal experience, my offline friends and neighbors had been interested in the prospect of eventually getting into ASOIAF, but ever since S8 removed the scales from their eyes wrt the show, they lost all interest in the story altogether. So, the show did kill it for them, no matter what I say to advocate for the books.

[DraculaAD1972]

I would say that the interest has peaked a while ago with the end of the tv show and is simmering currently,  but with more GoT- related tv shows in the future there will be a resurgence. If GRRM gets around to releasing the next book then the interest in his work will be huge. 

Many people didn’t like the end of the show but it’s likely that George’s ending will be similar in terms of the broad strokes, such as Bran becoming King after Danny burns Kings Landing. The problem with the show was the way it was written and directed after season 4, and  the decline in the shows quality was really down to George leaving the show before season 5 to write the next book. Seasons 1-4 were great overall and the dip in quality with season 5 was clear to see. 

[The Bard of Banefort]

I think that going half a decade without any new material (and more than a decade without the next book in the main series) has deflated a lot of enthusiasm in the fan community. Every theory has been analyzed a hundred times over, and people are tired of having their hopes dashed. I think that the only thing that could reinvigorate the book fandom is a new book (and not a reprinting). HOTD probably brought in some new readers, but not nearly the same way that GOT did. And during GOT’s run, GRRM released ADWD, the Dance novellas, TWOIAF, and Fire and Blood (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as well, but that was technically all pre-published material). You have to feed the algorithm if you want more followers.

[Ran]

I can't speak to the sales of ASoIaF directly, but I can speak to sales of TWoIaF, and they have been remarkably steady for years post-GoT -- it's basically "ever-green", moving many thousands of copies in the US year after year (and about as many copies overseas), with no real sign of decline (of course, it has gotten a bump from HotD).

For a book approaching 10 years since first publication, we're all pretty pleased, of course, but I think it is an indicator that ASoIaF is probably selling very well and reliably even at this juncture despite any negative sentiment from the show or the delay in TWoW. 

[KingAerys_II]

The TV series are a brilliant marketing strategy, people started reading F&B for the show, I am speaking of people that have not read the Asoiaf books, same will happen for Dunk and Egg 

Edited November 24, 2023 by KingAerys_II

[Darzin]

13 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I think that going half a decade without any new material (and more than a decade without the next book in the main series) has deflated a lot of enthusiasm in the fan community. Every theory has been analyzed a hundred times over, and people are tired of having their hopes dashed. I think that the only thing that could reinvigorate the book fandom is a new book (and not a reprinting). HOTD probably brought in some new readers, but not nearly the same way that GOT did. And during GOT’s run, GRRM released ADWD, the Dance novellas, TWOIAF, and Fire and Blood (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as well, but that was technically all pre-published material). You have to feed the algorithm if you want more followers.

Sadly time has taken it's toll. I think if Winds were released things would pick up pretty quick.

[The Bard of Banefort]

2 hours ago, KingAerys_II said:

The TV series are a brilliant marketing strategy, people started reading F&B for the show, I am speaking of people that have not read the Asoiaf books, same will happen for Dunk and Egg 

Last year, I said that about a million people probably received FnB for the holidays, a couple hundred read the whole thing, and the rest read twenty pages before putting it down for good haha. 

My prediction for DnE is that it won’t be as big as either GOT or HOTD, but that it has the potential to bring in new fans that wouldn’t ordinarily be interested in this universe.

It’s a shame, because the only person I know who has read all the books and spin-offs IRL is my grandfather, but he’s pushing 90 and can’t remember most of the details long after he’s read them. Oh, well. Good thing we have the internet!

[The Bard of Banefort]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

I can't speak to the sales of ASoIaF directly, but I can speak to sales of TWoIaF, and they have been remarkably steady for years post-GoT -- it's basically "ever-green", moving many thousands of copies in the US year after year (and about as many copies overseas), with no real sign of decline (of course, it has gotten a bump from HotD).

For a book approaching 10 years since first publication, we're all pretty pleased, of course, but I think it is an indicator that ASoIaF is probably selling very well and reliably even at this juncture despite any negative sentiment from the show or the delay in TWoW. 

One suggestion I saw made when ROTD was released is that GRRM’s publishing house should commission a straight-forward art book. Star Wars had one for the women of SW, and Marvel did one illustrated by Alice X. Zhang. I think that would be well-received even without any new written material.

[Ran]

2 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

One suggestion I saw made when ROTD was released is that GRRM’s publishing house should commission a straight-forward art book. Star Wars had one for the women of SW, and Marvel did one illustrated by Alice X. Zhang. I think that would be well-received even without any new written material.

Yeah. RotD has done quite well among reviewers at Amazon, many of whom particularly praise all the artwork, and we think more of that fills a niche that exists for fans who really enjoy seeing these scenes depicted by different talented artists. We've floated the notion of a couple of thematic, art-focused books that's more text light.

RotD has also done extremely well (RH has called it "wildly successful", which feels like a fair description; definitely doing better than we thought it would have given what it is and isn't), but harder to discuss what its sales may say in relation to ASoIaF since it's so concurrent and bound to HotD. 

[kewl0210]

I've honestly been kind of amazed there hasn't been a more concerted effort from the publisher to make other "visual" versions of the ASOIAF material. The graphic novels only got to the end of the ACOK (though they also did all of Dunk and Egg). And the ACOK graphic novel only only finished in late 2022 and there hasn't been any sign of the third book being adapted. You'd think they'd hurry to try to get to the parts of the story that weren't faithfully adapted in the TV show, but that hasn't been the case. Same for the deluxe illustrated editions of the books, which only go up to book 3 (Though the reason for that is they're sort of 20th anniversary editions. The AFFC 20th anniversary is still just under 2 years away).

[StarkTullies]

Among people who once considered reading the books because of their interest in the show, I think show fans (at least those who hated the ending) are pretty evenly split between "the show ended horribly, so why would I waste more time investing in this story" versus "the show ended horribly, so now I want to know how the real story ends".

Problem is, there is no "real story" ending yet, and I think that's a bigger problem than however the show impacted the book popularity.  I'm a big believer that George Martin can do whatever he wants to do with his life, and he can work on the books or work on other projects or simply retire... but it is pretty frustrating when he "promises" in 2019 that his fans can lock up until he finishes TWOW if the completed book isn't in his hand by 2020... and three years later he not only missed that deadline but has seemingly made little progress since then.  There is a big difference between 8 years without a new book in 2019, and 12 years without a new book in 2023... and I think most of the ebbing interest in his work comes from the growing belief that he'll never even finish TWOW, let alone the entire series.

Edited November 25, 2023 by StarkTullies