Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Talking of Respect to the Readers of E-Books

I started reading e-books with a Kindle because I had issues with my vision. With an e-book reader, one can adjust the fonts, lines, and even the light, but the e-book-reader tools are not what I mean to talk about. I’m only explaining why I started picking e-books, over print, even if, in my experience, books in print are better edited.

With the Kindle, I discovered an avalanche of e-book writers, and Thank God for them. Most of the e-books I read range from excellent to so so. A few mediocre ones also exist, but one cannot blame a novice writer for trying. I am not complaining about the faulty grammar or bad punctuation, or even a shoddily composed story with structural defects. Those things can be looked over, but then, there is the problem with the misuse of stories in a series.

Now, it is perfectly all right to have a series, if each book in the series talks about one specific story, probably using the same characters. This has been done by the best of the authors and very successfully. Some of those authors are WdC writers, and I feel privileged to read them.

What irks me, however, is what some writers who write in a series do; they don’t make each volume in the series a full story. I just finished a book with an interesting premise, though sloppily organized, and I was ready to accept that, except the story didn’t end. The author, at the end of the book, told the readers to buy the next book in the series to find out what would happen to the main character. I think this is unethical and shows disrespect to the reader.

Come to think of it, I’m not going to waste my time again on any book by this author. If the book were to be advertised as an unfinished story, I would have no problem with that, although I would probably not buy it, but there was no mention of its incompleteness anywhere. But, Mea Culpa, I should have remembered that publishers, e-book publishers included, are in the business of selling books, and they do not bother to think of the readers.

In non-fiction, it may be necessary to write several volumes in a series while teaching a subject. In fiction, however, each volume's main story should be able to stand alone.

Then, after the unfinished story incident, another odd thing happened. Last night, I ventured to start a new e-book, which was introduced by its publisher as one of the ground-breaking books. In this book, before the first chapter, there is a page addressing the reader. I’m writing here exactly what it says.

“This story takes place in 1998. If you think that’s a dumb time to set a story because nothing significant was going on in 1998, then you’re forgetting about House of Pain’s debut album. And if you’re thinking that was in 1992, I’d say you’re splitting hairs. And also, f*** off.”

As an author, one should not address the reader with such disrespect. That book is now deleted from my Kindle, and I’ll never read anything by that author.

The publishers, together with the authors, have a lot to learn.