I’m a voracious reader. I understand that it can be frustrating when a two-part book or the first or second book in a trilogy ends on a major cliffhanger. And I read a lot of epic fantasy so I also understand the frustration with series that are unfinished, expecially when more than two years lapes between volumes. But even with that understanding, I have a request for all those posting to blogs, Amazon, Twitter, forums, whatever: stop whining about cliffhangers and incomplete series. It’s lame. It’s ignorant. It’s selfish. It accomplishes nothing.
More precisely:
1. It dampens the enthusiasm of other potential readers, especially casual readers/fans. The best way to ensure that the publisher remains committed to a series and an author is on fire about it is for the most recent book to sell a lot of copies and fans to be enthusiastic about it.
2. It ignores the realities of the writing process. Others have said this better, but it bears repeating: writing is difficult. Different writers have different methods by and rates at which they can write and rewrite. Not everybody can be Brandon Sanderson.
3. Learning to live with the hunger is good for you. The world of cultural and media as currently configured serves up narrative in huge heaping piles and we, rabid beasts that we are, slurp it up. It does your soul good to have to wait. To be able to brood for awhile on what you have just experience and what is left to come. To let the anticipation build and swirl.
And hey, at least you get book 1 in all of its 200, 300, 700 pages. Try living back in the 19th century where works were serialized in weekly or monthly journals/magazines.
4. The strongest argument that fans make is that when they buy a book in a series, they are entering into a relationship with an author (and that author’s publisher) and that that relationship comes with it certain expectations and should be a two-way street. I think that there is some merit to that idea. And i certainly have no sympathy for publishers. But I do have sympathy for the authors. Until you do it yourself, you have no idea of the emotional and intellectual energy it takes to produce good fiction. Because of those requirements, it would be impossible to set up a system whereby every author could produce an entire series before it was published. And even if you could, it’d be better if the first book or two in the series could be edited by a top-notch editor and revised and polished so that the author has those changes and skills in place for when he or she writes the following books.
Here’s the thing: fiction is a risk. It’s a risk to write, to publish and to read. The best response to that risk is not to whine or grow apathetic, but to revel in it. Embrace the anticipation. Embrace the risks of unfulfillment. Embrace the cliffhangers and the drawn out series. It makes the rewards all the sweeter.
