On a book review blog last week, the talk
turned to the way series end. The blogger had been disappointed in the last
book of a series (I honestly can’t remember if she said which series it was)
because the author had left some things open-ended and questions unanswered.
She felt cheated to have invested so much time reading a series only to have it
just…end. The question was: Does the author owe it to the reader to give a
series a satisfactory conclusion?
It was clear from the responses to the post that a lot of
people do feel cheated by the end of series, and that the blame gets placed on
the author. A few years ago, because I was a reader long before I was an
author, I would have agreed with them.
As a reader, I understand the frustration. I mean, a lot
of people obviously didn’t like the way Charlaine Harris ended the Southern
Vampires series, aka Sookie, but at least she ended it. Kim Harrison was very
forthcoming about when the Hollows series will end, and she managed to tie
everything up very neatly.
But you know what? Charlaine Harris and Kim Harrison are
best-selling authors, who can dictate the length of their series. They can wrap
everything up in a pretty bow and resolve all the questions.
The rest of us schleps? Not so much. Let’s look at my
Sentinels series as an example of how a series works in the real world. I
turned in the manuscript for book five, BELLE
CHASSE, on January 4, 2015. It came out on Nov. 8, 2016. There is one more
book planned in my mind for the series, but the publisher hasn’t decided
whether or not it wants to continue.
If my publisher decided that no, sales have sucked and
they don’t want to publish any more, in their mind the series is over. They make
that decision, not me.
EXCEPT these days, authors of orphaned series have
options they didn’t have even five or six years ago. They can self-publish and
continue the series. If the Sentinels series is orphaned, I can and will put
out at least one final book to wrap things up. A publisher doesn’t feel loyalty
to readers, but to bottom lines, and that’s the way business goes. Authors,
however, owe their series readers a conclusion.
I have no answers here—every author is different in how
he or she chooses to handle the ending of a series. And I think it’s inevitable
that some readers will be disappointed. I just thought it important to point
out that a suddenly abandoned series usually doesn’t happen because of anything
the author does or doesn’t do.
So, what say you? Have you been disappointed when
favorite series ended without a satisfactory resolution of story? Do you think
authors—or their publishers—have an obligation to readers to put out a final
series book that wraps up the storyline?
