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Ask HN: Are vapor ebooks a thing now?

2 pointsby paulkrushover 2 years ago
I just read 3 e-books in a row from different authors that all left me hanging at the end. All were really good, but all were "Book 1" from a "series" and "Book 2" is not available yet. So is this a trend now? The author will write it if he gets enough pre-orders? Now I know better to check, but drip, drip, drip, books are now a subscription?

3 comments

drakonkaover 2 years ago
A few questions:<p>* What genre?<p>* By &quot;hanging&quot; do you mean just a cliffhanger where there&#x27;s no full resolution of the conflict, or like the book ends abruptly with no semblance of a climax or conclusion?<p>* Are these self-published books? How many other books do the authors have?<p>Things that come to mind: Cliffhangers are more acceptable in some genres than others. Aside from a genuine cliffhanger, self-published authors often rush through the ending, where they just want to get the book done, and the conclusion ends up being very unsatisfying because they&#x27;re just not very good at finishing that arc in a way that hits the expected beats for the genre (I&#x27;ve done this, unfortunately).<p>Having said that it HAS been an issue that authors&#x27; books are pirated and republished under a different name, with different covers, and identical contents. I have heard of instances of these scammers taking a long full length book and splitting it into two, republishing the pirated copy as multiple installments. I sort of doubt this is what happened here since I don&#x27;t know why they&#x27;d have book two on preorder in that case (vs just publishing it for someone to buy right away), but who knows.
paulkrushover 2 years ago
Summer&#x27;s End: John Van Stry<p>Teleport: Joshua T. Calvert<p>SOLAR STORM: Moon Base Delta Gerald M. Kilby<p>New genre for me. Space hard sci-fi, Well teleport was more just sci-fi.<p>All authors have many other books.<p>Correction: Summer&#x27;s End was not a series, but it was clear this was written as a book 1. This book has publisher.<p>Looks like two of the three are &quot;self-published&quot;. Well do you call it &quot;self-published&quot; if you own the publisher? I would.<p>The endings where professional, not cliffhangers, but just wanting for more.<p>Looks like I make a mistake with the first one, but three times in a row I sat down expecting to read a book that I can&#x27;t.<p>For all I know all three of you are on HN... Yiks, As I am writing this I am know I am going to be shamed into buying the pre-orders.
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quickthrower2over 2 years ago
Hanging in what way? Like abruptly. Or just a cliffhanger?