Cliffhangers - Love them, hate them, why authors use them.

I want to talk about cliffhangers! You hate them. I know it, you know it, and I get it. 

 

Let's delve into this though from a writer's perspective. I think I've talked about this before, but my memory is pretty short-term (ask my editor how many times I forget little details) so I want to do it again. I hope you'll come with me to look at cliffhangers and why, sometimes, they aren't so bad.

 

I've written two series with books that end in cliff-hangers. Fae Highlanders and The Power of Twelve. 

 

In my own not so humble opinion both series were the best I'd ever written at the time I wrote them. They, for me, were the demonstration of the height of my storytelling ability at that point of my career. I am still, to this day, incredibly proud of both of them.

 

PoT #1 - Apocalypse the Beginning was the book that got me my USA Today Best-seller letters which is a testament, I think. But here's a behind the curtain fact - getting those letters was expensive. You have to sell a LOT of books in ONE week. That meant a LOT of money was spent on advertising for a book priced at .99 cents. For the author (me) that means I earned .70 for every sale of a book, which even with the number sold, wasn't a lot of cash in the bank.

 

I wanted those letters, though. I wanted them for social “proof' and honestly my own ego. When I meet new people and tell them I'm an author they are indifferent. When I say “I'm a USA Today Bestseller” they become interested. I am ”someone" or an “authority.”

 

That book, and series, lost a LOT of money. It had a different title when it launched, and I didn't originally finish the five-book series because the sales were so bad I needed to write more Tajss to pay the bills. 

 

But that story never left my mind. I had to tell it. I had to finish that tale, if not for anyone else, for me. I did go back, finish it all and it finally made a little money but not much. It's done better now that I've put it out on other platforms than Kindle Unlimited. 

 

Which brings me to Fae Highlanders. James and I worked on this series for an entire year. Now remember, I write a book a month on average, sometime a book and a half (or a novella) so spending a year on anything was insane to us. 

 

We also spent a lot of money getting this thing perfect. Four rounds with different editors including a developmental one for initial feedback. Copy edits, line edits, and beta readers. Every round of work led to more rewrites and more working on the story. We wanted this to be perfect. In the end we had spent a couple of thousand dollars before it even launched.

 

Finally, it's ready and we put it out to the world and… it lost money. A lot of money. This book, this series that I felt was the best thing I could possibly create with all my skills and imagination, and it flops. Hard. 

 

I have to tell you that's hard to take. I have really thick skin. Bad reviews don't bother me. Being chewed out for asking about AI, not a problem. All I really need is for the books I publish to make at least some profit and to know that the quiet majority of readers enjoy what I write. 

 

We kept trying to market this book, but it just wouldn't go. The biggest complaint? Let me paste an actual review:

 

 

 

Uhm, ouch. How exactly do you expect me to tell ONE couples story over five books and not end each one with a question of some kind? Why would you keep reading if there is a HEA? Even a HFN is not very likely to pull you to the next book. And this is an epic time-travel adventure! Honestly in my head it's one book broken into five big chapters but that's a crazy big book, isn't it?

 

This series and Power of Twelve have the worst average reviews of all my books put together. That is only on Amazon. Because this “loser flop” began to change when James and I decided we no longer wanted to be dependent on the whims of Amazon and especially not on Kindle Unlimited with all its difficulties.

 

Now this is mostly James's work, but when we took the series “wide” it became our best-selling books on the other platforms. It's still among our most popular on everywhere but Amazon. This series is my “Tajss” on the non-KU stores. No, it doesn't make enough money to compete with Amazon yet but it's definitely helping. 

 

This leads me to the question of why? What makes this different?

 

My only answer, which is really just opinion, is that Kindle Unlimited readers are a different audience. They want it all one and done, move to the next author, and that's it. It at least appears in my experience that the vast majority don't even pay attention to each unique author, but only want their next fix, they want to read it fast, be done and go. 

 

Please understand this opinion isn't YOU dear reader. No, you who have read this much of my newsletter are what we authors call a “super fan”. Which means you actually care about the individual author you're a fan of, follow them, are most likely to grab our books on release and are the ones wondering when that new release will finally be out. And wondering why we don't write faster while also being totally cool and understanding. 😍😎

 

I am speaking in a broad generality, but even so, it seems to hold true overall. Cliffhangers work great outside of Kindle Unlimited. Which is where they really matter the most for an author. I need to keep that reader going and entice them into the next book. 

 

James does all these spreadsheets (ugh) and he figured out a long time ago that if we get a reader through book 3 of Tajss, they're “ours”. This means about 70 to 80% of those readers will go through the entire series. If they make it to book 5, it's almost 100% read through. Each book prior to that we “lose” them.

 

That's in KU though. Where the next book is one click on your Kindle (well it was, I know they're messing with that for whatever Amazon only knows reason). It's different when the reader is actually buying the book in our observation. And they seem to appreciate a story that goes on creating a complete whole when it's done. 

 

Personally, I love these two series. I want to do another three or five book series like them again. I don't have the idea for it yet, but I really like doing them. I like that there is a bigger story (like Tajss) but that I also get to wrap it up and it's done.

I can walk away and leave that world alone because its story is over. At which point I return to Tajss and that story, well honestly, I don't know there is an end to it. I can imagine one of our girls deciding to be an author and continuing the story on from there. Will that happen? I don't know. 

 

It also, for me, feels like an exercise in my craft. Almost an examination and testament that this is where I am at in my ability to craft a great story. Let me share it with you and then I can look back on it as a high tide point in my career. Then I write a few more years, hone my skills more, and do it again. Kind of a check in for how I am doing as a storyteller if that makes sense. 

 

All right, that's my rambling thoughts on cliffhangers. Let's hear from you!

 

Until next time.