Best seller sequel

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In a best-selling sequel , so the action sequel (the "sequel") of a novel - bestseller , it is on the part of the author and the publisher regularly about trying to build on the sales success of the original.

Since the updating of existing literary works as well as their processing and adaptation is regulated by copyright - mostly the exploitation rights lie with the author of the original or his heir - a distinction must be made here between three cases: a. the updating of a successful novel by the author himself, b. updating by a second author who has obtained permission to do so, and c. updating by an author who acts without such permission. If, in the latter case, the sequel has sufficient creative height, i.e. if it represents a text work of art that has achieved a high degree of independence compared to the original work, the exploitation rights of the author of the original work may not be affected.

Continuations by the author of the original

Here are a few examples of novel continuations written by the author of the original, who wanted to build on his previous sales success. Cases like the following are in a smooth transition to works that were planned from the outset as a multi-part .

Continuation by other authors

Here is a list of sequels to successful novels that have been published by other authors with the consent of the rights holders:

  • KW Jeter : The Night of the Morlocks ( Morlock Night ), USA 1979
  • Susan Hill : Rebecca's Legacy ( Mrs. De Winter ), UK 1993

Prohibited continuations

One of the best-known cases in which a bestseller sequel was illegally published is Jim Williams ' Doctor-Schiwago- Sequel Lara's daughter (1994), published under the pseudonym "Alexander Mollin" . The rights for Boris Pasternak's novel were held by the Italian Feltrinelli publishing house, which Williams refused to continue even for a fee. After the Federal Court the German publisher of Lara's daughter , Bertelsmann has continued to market the last instance prohibited, this was more to deliver to the bookstore no further copies. The publisher of the original English edition, Doubleday , has not reissued Williams' book either.

Another example is the novel 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye (2009) by Fredrik Colting under the pseudonym John David California , which continues the plot of JD Salinger's bestseller The Catcher in the Rye (1951).

Web links

  • Annette Meyhöfer: To be continued ... In: Focus Magazin No. 11, 1994. Accessed on January 21, 2020 .

Individual evidence

  1. Jean-Michel Wissmer: Heidi: A Swiss myth conquers the world . Schwabe, Basel 2014, ISBN 978-3-7965-3248-1 , pp. 88 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ Review of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. Retrieved January 22, 2020 .