Venting

 I recently finished a book that was the 13th in a series and found that, for the first time, the author had left us with a cliffhanger. And I don't mean a cliffhanger like we found in the Harry Potter series, but the kind where nothing is resolved, and the book ends in a horrific place.

I haven't been this upset since Mockingjay!

Now, this was traditionally published, so there was the possibility the author didn't break with her established pattern by choice. I'm always willing to blame publishers. lol

So I emailed them:

I am a VERY unhappy customer right now. I just finished listening to the audiobook of [Author]'s newest [series] book--and discovered it's only HALF a book! And there was zero warning in the book description. I am furious and feel cheated.

This is the THIRTEENTH book in the series and none of the others were done like this. You people are in this business, so you should understand that certain reader expectations have been established. You broke trust with your readers because you didn't have the decency to warn us that you were doing something different.

I LOATHE cliffhangers. If I had known I would only get half a book, I would have waited to read it until the other half of the book was available. But you never gave me the chance.

And now I have to tell all my friends not to trust this series anymore because the author and publisher have no compunction about jerking readers around.

Can you please add a disclaimer or something in the book description to warn readers who haven't picked it up yet? People who love cliffhangers will be happy to jump on it. But people like me who avoid them can make an informed decision.

They just replied:

Thank you for reaching out and voicing your feelings about [book title]. We are sorry the cliffhanger and lack of forewarning disappointed you, and we will discuss this together among our team so that we can include a part 1 disclaimer for future stories that may, for a number of reasons, be split into two books (in this case, that was how the story was originally written). We will also discuss possibilities for adding a disclaimer for our online listings for [book title] and potentially future reprintings and hope that we can regain your trust in the future.

 So, it appears the author broke trust with her readers on purpose. She used to be an auto-buy. No longer. 

Is this drama? Of course it is. But I've seen some of the reviews on this book. I'm not the only one to feel this way. Learn from this author's mistake--don't set up a reader expectation and then turn your back on it.

Just sayin'