Why M.P. Woodward Has the Near-Impossible Task Taking Over Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Junior Series

Plus, my take on TOM CLANCY SHADOW STATE

Estate writing is really, really hard.

I’ve known that because I have been friends with a bunch of authors who’ve written for various estates. I’ve covered many of those books. I’ve talked to those writers and heard them discuss the differences between writing a character of their own versus a “legacy” character.

Now, though, I have some first-hand experience with the difficulties of estate writing. More on that in a bit.

“Legacy Author” and “Legacy Series” are industry terms that, essentially, mean one author is taking over a series/characters that was started and created by another author. Usually, this happens when an author with a successful bestselling series passes away, but the demand is still there for more stories with the character(s) who transcends them.

Think, for example, Vince Flynn. When he passed away in 2013, Flynn’s popularity was at an all-time high. Readers had spoken, and the consensus was that the world needed Mitch Rapp then more than ever. A year later, New York Times bestselling author Kyle Mills signed on to continue Flynn’s series, and he ended up staying in that position for nearly a decade, writing nine Mitch Rapp novels.

Other examples of successful “legacy authors” and series would be those from Clive Cussler, Ian Flemming, Agatha Christie, Robert B. Parker, Stuart Woods, and W.E.B. Griffin.

Today, though, I want to look at Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Junior series and the latest writer to step into that gig, M.P. Woodward.