There is no loyalty to the readers or the fan base. just my opinion. Course the exception is Charlene Harris who does work on several series at once, but each book is self contained and doesn’t end in any cliffhanger.

I’m not sure this applies to the previous argument though. Yes, you should be angry, upset and disappointed with any author that lets you down, but they still have the right to be late with product, because they don’t truly answer to you, they answer to the publisher and themselves. And you as an unhappy fan can refuse to purchase their next product, but that won’t stop it from making a crap load of money, especially when other people are chomping at the bit to get their hands at it.

Yep, totally agree — for me the payoff is in the process, not in a satisfactory conclusion. To continue with your sex analogy — you know, since you brought it up and all, and who am I to argue with a good analogy? — the build is the best. I’d much prefer to spend hours squirming and squealing and laughing and crying and screaming and howling and panting and begging even knowing there would be no ultimate satisfaction, then get a few minutes of all that and a promise there’d be an orgasm. I don’t need the orgasm to feel like I got my money’s worth — I’ll take the hot wild deeply thrilling ride over that every time. Even if it means dealing with a little frustration and disappointment at the end. Afterglow is a bit depressing to me, actually… I’m happier “ending” with the anticipation of going again, not rolling over and falling asleep. So even if the author, or the lover, wants to do something else this time rather than continue the current story, I’m game. Assuming the ride will be as wickedly delicious as the last time… fail me on that, and my legs are crossed while I seek out a new author to play with.

Hmmm… seem to be mixing my delusions there, hee!

OK at the risk of sounding really coarse, having a story told to me is a little like sex. Doesn’t matter how the story is being conveyed… book, movie, game. It’s all a big long anticipation build up to that pay off at the end. When I get to the end of the last page of the story and I’m just overcome with this “afterglow” and find myself floating along in a kind of high, thinking back of everything that transpired along the journey.

For you (I’m theorizing, feel free to tell me I’m way off base) a story is more like a road trip. There’s a destination, sure, but you really enjoy the journey. So if you never get to the destination, it’s no biggie.

Which still isn’t tying into the spoiler thing really, except that for me, the ending, and more specifically the reveal of the ending, is what makes the entire journey pay off. So if I know what the ending is, it diminishes the experience for me. And of there simply is no ending, I feel completely cheated.

In terms of your illustration though, I’m not feeling the tickle or making the connection. I don’t think it’s as simple as our age-old “me optimist, you pessimist” conundrum, though maybe there’s a smidge of that in the mix as well. Do I see not minding spoilers the same as not minding unfinished stories? Hmmm… the thread in there is maybe the quality? Remember, you said this is a story that I, the reader, have really liked full of life and interesting people and places that draw me in and make me love it. Spoilers are the same to me as someone who’s read this book before me and raved about what a great place it was, also a spoiler. The closest analogy I have to this is the Lord of the Rings movies, as the RR Martin series left me cold at book one — I think he’s a crap writer and didn’t buy book two in the first place, personally.

But the LotR trilogy — you might even remember this — I watched the first movie when it came out on DVD and I was really, REALLY mad where it ended. I think that’s the most frustrated I’ve ever been with any story ending, and I already knew what happened next since I’d read the books. Because it was quality. It had me immersed and being yanked from the immersion was maddening. It didn’t matter I knew what happened next, for the next 24 to 48 hours, I wanted the next installment NOW. But even with that, I’m not sure I would have felt like Jackson owed me the next installment. Which maybe isn’t the same as a writer owing a next installment, but it feels the same to me. Same with Star Trek — I want Abrams to do another movie, but does he owe me one because I enjoyed the first so much? No cliffhanger ending, which takes it out of your example logic, but still it was really quality. And I love a quality escape into someone else’s mind regardless of the medium. Maybe that’s the real crux — having your pleasure points so neatly pushed, then having the crushing reality on top of it there’s no more pleasure coming from where that came from?

Which goes in circles around nothing constructive, but maybe there’s a glint of something in there that tickles your tickle.

But I’m glad you commented because there’s 1 thing you and I are complete opposites about, and I wonder if there’s any relationship here. You don’t care a fig about spoilers; in fact iirc there are times where you even like to know what’s coming in advance. I get mad as hell when somebody spoils a plot.

I realize there’s no direct relationship between feelings about spoilers and whether or not we’d buy a 1/3rd written story, but there’s some tickle in the back of my mind that somewhere there’s a common thread between the two concepts.

Even if the author chooses not to give me his ending, my imagination is ripe enough I can supply my own endings.

When it would start to bother me and I’d stop buying is when the writing ceased to be compelling and entertaining in and of itself.

I don’t think writers owe me anything, particularly when there are publishers and editors standing in the way between me and the writer in many cases. I think it’s a privilege to get a glimpse into a gifted writer’s brain and I’m happy to take what I can get.

And honestly, dearest Peter, knowing you the way I do I’m actually a little surprised you feel so strongly on the side of entitlement. I’m sure you’ve put yourself in the writer’s shoes during this argument, but I have a hard time picturing you not resenting clammoring masses shouting at you about how they’re entitled to the third installment of your series, making it that much harder for you to even want to write, let alone write the third installment. You’ve really mellowed a lot if that’s no longer one of your hot buttons.

This assumes the author is putting out a quality product. And though I’ve never said so outright, the author’s obligation to me only applies if the book sold. If the book sold so poorly that the author’s hard work wasn’t compensated then I don’t think he ‘owes’ me a part 2. I’ll still be disappointed, but I could understand the circumstances.

It also isn’t a wholly symmetrical question: the author instigated the exchange by choosing to write and publish his book (ok the Publisher actually is who ultimately decided to publish, but the author wanted it published). I’m not 100% sure that is relevant.

But if an author writes part 1 of a series, and 1,000,000 people buy it, it gets reviewed well, makes best seller lists, etc, causing the author to quit his/her day job in order to get part 2 out asap, and when part 2 comes out, no one buys it — it’s hard to blame individual purchasers, but the situation would certainly feel unfair to me. If that makes sense.

This is also kind of a hard question for me to answer honestly because I know myself: if I read Part 1, I will almost certainly buy the rest of the story every time. I’m a little compulsive about that. In fact, as often as not I’ll buy an entire series at once, before I’ve even read book 1. So it’s hard for me to objectively imagine not buying the rest.

Er, hopefully that makes sense, I’m at work and typing this comment a few words at a time

The problem for would have been that third book. I’d really have to love an author to be sold on it.

I also have a question I’ve been formulating for you. I was wondering if this social contract works two ways. If you have obligated an author whose first book you’ve purchased to finish that series, are you now obligated to purchase those remaining books? I can see reasons why you might answer either way; just curious which way you’ll go.

While I understand a writer’s need to stay motivated and keep working on fresh material, I don’t think a writer should jump around on series’ for some of the very statements made already. There’s often an itch to try something else out after publishing a book, but I think it’s the responsibility of the author to keep themselves from at least PUBLISHING something else before they’ve completed their “promised series” — though they should feel free to start WRITING. Writing something else is their choice, but keeping their series flowing to the public is just good marketing; it would be silly to work on two at a time.

With all this said, publishing MORE than two at a time is even moreso ludicrous! This, to me, clearly demonstrates an inability to finish a project. For those of you who have ever RP’d in any game format, this is equivelant to the gamemaster who is always having you make new characters and start a new adventure that’s supposed to be the first part of a grand campaign. You have fun on the first adventure, and your next gaming session you’re ready for the continuance. When you get together the second time however, you find yourself making a new character, dropping the old one, and jumping into a whole new campaign. Now imagine yourself doing this four times in a row! I wouldn’t go past 3 in a gaming format, because 3 forms a pattern (this is my rule of thumb for anything actually). For a book series though, having little time to read, and with so many choices out there, I wouldn’t even start on a second series unless I was done with the first.

Therefore, no, I would not pick up a fourth or fifth start from a good writer if he/she was unable to complete any of these intended series. This, for me, would take the writer out of the “good” category for me.