Series Presented by Another Author?

July 12, 2021 3:59 AM

I’m looking for examples of series (they can be unconnected books by many different authors) “presented” by another author. I know about:

- Rick Riordan Presents,
- James Patterson presents,
- Mo Williems versions (Pigeon presents & elephant and piggie like to read).

Do you know of other examples?

posted by CMcG to Media & Arts (22 answers total)

In Poland there was a series presented by Andrzej Sapkowski, presenting then-newish fantasy books in the late 90s and early 00s. Apart from Neil Gaiman, the authors were all women. It's notable for introducing Neil Gaiman to a Polish audience unfamiliar with anything except Good Omens at this point.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 4:12 AM on July 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

Not sure if it fits exactly what you are looking for, but as a kid I loved The Three Investigators series, which was "presented by" Alfred Hitchcock.
posted by synecdoche at 4:35 AM on July 12, 2021 [9 favorites]

There were several series "created" by Tom Clancy.
posted by scorbet at 5:01 AM on July 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

LeVar Burton has written a novel and a children's book so the LeVar Burton Reads podcast counts.
posted by evilmomlady at 5:02 AM on July 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

My google is failing but pretty sure I had a book in the 90s (probably published in the 80s) "presented by" Philip Roth. He'd been hired to select little-known Polish writers to bring to prominence and it was in that series.
posted by dobbs at 5:27 AM on July 12, 2021

Response by poster: Follow up/related question: does anyone know the publishing term for this? That would help a lot! I did find one more for Anthony Bourdain and it appear to be an Anthony Bourdain imprint, but using the term “imprint” did not help me come up with much more.
posted by CMcG at 6:09 AM on July 12, 2021

Several series for young readers fit the description except that the presenting author is fictional. Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift and Tom Swift Jr are examples.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:11 AM on July 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Do books edited by a famous author count for this? The "Wild Cards" series, edited by George RR Martin, is a good example. (Fun fact: the Sandman, by Neil Gaiman, was rejected as a Wild Cards pitch before it took on a life of its own.)
posted by branca at 6:39 AM on July 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Isaac Asmov Presents had many editions of collected, republished short stories.

(I was also going to mention The Three Investigators, above. I think I must have originally found it at the library because I loved the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television show as a young kid. When the library got the new non-Hitchcock branded copies, they let me keep a few of the old ones.)
posted by eotvos at 6:58 AM on July 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

This is fairly common in the world of urban fiction--off the top of my head, Wahida Clark and Carl Weber both have 'presented by' series.
posted by box at 7:44 AM on July 12, 2021

Not sure if you're looking for the words "presents" / "presented by" to be used, or just the author endorsement part of it, but there is a book called Six Scary Stories "selected and introduced by Stephen King."

As others mentioned, there is the Hitchcock Three Investigators series, but Hitch also put his name on The Haunted and the Haunters (The Pirate's Curse) Presented by Alfred Hitchcock.

I also found these and I think they are more or less what you want:

Stephen Fry Presents A Selection of Anton Chekhov's Short Stories
Mary Shelley Presents: Tales of the Supernatural
Todd Sullivan Presents: The Vampire Connoisseur
Jeffrey Archer Presents: New Wife
Bettie Page Presents: The Librarian
Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories (series)
posted by Meldanthral at 7:45 AM on July 12, 2021

The Man-Kzin Wars is a series of 15 books written by various authors in Larry Niven's Known Space universe.
posted by Quonab at 8:11 AM on July 12, 2021

Terri Windling's Fairy Tale Series!
posted by prewar lemonade at 8:43 AM on July 12, 2021

Otto Penzler Presents American Mystery Classics
posted by lyssabee at 9:56 AM on July 12, 2021

Roth was general editor of the Other Europe series, not really a presenter. Great series though.
posted by RGD at 9:57 AM on July 12, 2021

Ray Bradbury Presents ...

In addition to the "Presents ..." mentioned previously, Isaac Asimov also did a shared universe series branded with his name: Isaac's Universe.

Regarding a name, I guess I'd have called it a species of branded fiction--e.g. author-branded--but Google doesn't think the term is as popular as I thought. Also, I see the Scribe Award goes specifically to media tie-in fiction, and media tie-in is part of the name of the organization--looks like they don't count author branding as the same kind of thing.
posted by Wobbuffet at 10:12 AM on July 12, 2021

The first run of Ace Science Fiction Specials were billed as "Frederik Pohl Selections."
posted by goatdog at 11:17 AM on July 12, 2021

How about “L. Ron Hubbard Presents…Writers of the Future!”
posted by johngoren at 11:21 AM on July 12, 2021

Neil Gaiman presents
posted by porpoise at 11:38 AM on July 12, 2021

Ghostwriter?

Shared universe?
posted by Jacen at 5:39 PM on July 12, 2021

Response by poster: Thank you all for your help! To provide a little clarity for what I’m looking for, I got the best results when I googled: imprint author presents.

I found:
- Cynthia Leitich Smith (imprint Heartdrum)
- Kwame Alexander (Versify)
- Phoebe Robinson (Tiny Reparations Books)

Also saw Wahida Clark Presents via this. Thanks for those suggestions, box!
posted by CMcG at 6:19 PM on July 12, 2021

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine printed novels and short fiction was nominally edited by EQ, and for years was actually edited by one half of the EQ duo.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:01 AM on July 13, 2021