You’re getting into a show, a book, or a movie. I mean, you’re really into the story.
The world could be collapsing all around you . . . bombs dropping . . . walls caving in . . . everything in the universe screaming at you to run for your life . . . and you’d still be frozen-in-place, held captive by whatever narrative has robbed you of every ounce of your attention.
And then, it ends . . . not in a wrapped-up-in-a-tidy-little-bow way, either.
It happens more than you may realize. A three-hour-long epic leaves you wondering if the little fellows with the hairy feet are going to make it safely to Mordor. Your favorite alien-chasing FBI agents are trapped in an impossible situation, only to leave viewers wondering for the better part of a year what happened. A book you can’t take your eyes off of leaves you pondering a few unanswered questions—and maybe even thumbing through the back pages, double-checking to see if you’ve missed something.
As an avid lover of all things t.v., film, and fiction, I’ll be the first to say that sometimes—maybe even most the time—cliffhangers suck. Bringing a good story to a halt is synonymous with a good party getting busted up before midnight.
Unfortunately, in the world of self-publishing, sometimes independent authors can’t afford to throw all-nighters.
Let me explain. When I first got the idea for The R.E.M. Effect some five-plus years ago, I ended up outlining a story that would have taken a good 900 pages to develop—maybe more.
Now let’s be honest: when’s the last time you took a chance on an unknown novelist promoting his or her first published work that was competing with the print length of War and Peace? I know I wouldn’t, and I love discovering independent authors. I mean, 900 pages? That’s asking a lot . . .
And therein lies the dilemma for so many new authors. Sure, Stephen King and John Grisham can get away with cranking out books so dense they require an entire shelf and maybe even a few extra brackets to keep on display, but for unknown writers, getting such lengthy stories out to the masses just isn’t going to happen that often, if ever.
Which is exactly why I decided to take a potential 900-page novel and create a trilogy instead. I figured if I could get readers on board with the first, they’d stick around to see the entire story through to fruition.
That strategy may sound great on the surface, but it hasn’t come without consequences. I’ve had a few one-star reviewers who absolutely loathe cliffhanger endings . . . so naturally, they didn’t take too kindly to my book leaving a few questions unanswered. (I also feel like it’s important to address here that my first book isn’t a true cliffhanger, but it is left open for interpretation, and with a few questions unanswered, to lead into the second installment in the series.)
No one likes bad reviews, but if I’m being completely honest here, I have to admit that I do understand the frustration of not having everything answered within the confines of a single literary work. I also don’t want this post to sound like a complaint—which it most definitely isn’t—rather, I want readers who may be frustrated with the occasional cliffhanger to see it from a self-published author’s point of view:
You don’t know me, but I know you love to read. And, I want you to check out my story. I also respect your time, and understand how valuable it is. So here, check out my 300-page debut novel. If you like it, there’s a sequel currently on the market, and another in the works. Take a chance on me a little at a time, and when all is said and done you will have hedged the risk of committing to a 900-page manuscript right off the bat, while discovering a new author in the process.
It may not be much of a case for cliffhanger endings, but it is a legitimate explanation for them—at least from my point of view. And who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll be able to publish a 1,000-page epic that readers will be chomping at the bit to devour.
But until then, writers like me are going to have to leave a few things hanging.
