No author ever intentionally disappoints readers, but the truth is that it happens sometimes. And I’m not talking about a book that’s maybe not as good as a reader had hoped. That will always happen at some point, if only because tastes differ and you can’t please everybody. No, I’m talking about choices authors make that disappoint readers.
The choice to postpone a series.
The choice to switch genres or subgenres and write something else.
The choice to work on another book first rather than writing the next highly anticipated book in a series.
The choice to give a known character a different love relationship than readers had expected.
The choice to make a book an MMM story rather than an MM one.
The choice to stop a series completely even though it’s not finished.
Sometimes, when authors make these choices, readers react with heavy disappointment. And I get it. If I’m looking forward to the next book in a series and the author tells me it’ll be another three or four months, I’m a tad disappointed as well. I’ve had series that were never finished and became a disappointing experience for me. Like many others, I get attached to characters as well and develop an idea of the type of person he should end up with, which means swallowing when the author decides on a different path.
I get it.
But here’s the thing. Writing is a creative process and authors are not computers. We can’t write what others want us to write…not even if they want it really badly. I once had a reader email me with a very specific outline for a book she thought I should write. It was a wonderfully rich plot and it sounded amazing, but I wrote her back that I could never write it. It wasn’t my book. It was hers. If you want authors to write the story you picture in your head, you’ll often end up disappointed. That’s your story, not theirs, and not the characters’.
Inspiration Strikes (Or Not)
A second issue is that we need inspiration to write a certain book. I’ve talked before about characters who get chatty or quiet. No matter if you call it quiet characters, a silent muse, or writer’s block—it’s real. Forcing ourselves to write something will rarely work. Oh, we can write something if we have to, but it won’t be pretty. Just because a book is next on our release planning doesn’t mean the characters will cooperate. Sometimes we end up switching things around because other characters are louder. The struggle is real.
That’s also why authors end up in different subgenres. I started with contemporary, but when I had a phenomenal idea for an mpreg story, I went with it. In the same way, a premade cover triggered the story for the Ignite series and I had to write it. It wouldn’t let me go. Some readers were disappointed because they’d preferred me continuing my mpreg series first, but I couldn’t. Ignite had to be written first.
It’s sometimes hard for non-writers to understand, but we have to follow our characters’ lead. If we want two men to end up together but we can’t make it work, that’s because they don’t belong together. And even if our readers feel they do, if we can’t write the book, it’s a good indication that the characters are showing us something else.
In my No Shame series for example, some readers were upset that Indy ended up with Josh as well as Noah. I understood, but it was true to these men, to their feelings for each other. I didn’t know it would go that way when I wrote No Filter, the first book, and not even when I wrote No Limits, book two. It wasn’t till the third book that I got a clue and when I read back, the hints were there the whole time. We have to be true to our characters, even when it’s not what readers expect.
Life Happens
I’ve mentioned a few reasons so far why authors sometimes disappoint readers, but I need to add one more. Life. As in: life happens. We can make all the release schedules we want, but reality has a funny way of catching up with us. It can be anything, ranging from an unexpected death to illness, anxiety, the weather, or even Amazon who thwarts us. And let’s not forget money. Sometimes, authors have to cancel a series because it’s not selling. That’s a disappointment for the readers who did love it, but at the end of the day, authors have to make a living as well…
So yes, I totally get the disappointment when you’re emotionally invested in a series, a book, or even an author, and things don’t go as you had hoped. It sucks.
We (authors) don’t do it on purpose, trust me. We want our readers to be happy, we really do. But life happens and muses go on strike and things conspire against us…and we can only hope you’ll understand and go with the flow, much like we ourselves do. Because it’s not much fun for us either to have to announce that we won’t release on time, that the book everyone is dying for won’t release soon, or that we’re struggling to find the time to write in the first place. We try, but in the end, that’s all we can do.
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There’s a part of me that wants to think readers getting invested enough to be disappointed (because another book comes out before a series resumes, etc) is a good thing. But I also think there may be some who express that investment in some not-so-healthy ways.
Oh yeah, I agree that it’s a wonderful thing when readers are so invested in a series. That’s a massive compliment to an author. But that still doesn’t mean they’re entitled to anything…
2 things hurt me the most. I use hurt because I come to love the characters as if they were my bestestest friends, lovers, or family. Then the writer not only stops but with no word as to why (with so many amazing WIPS’s they are posting.) Go AWOL. Not a trace, no one has heard from them in years. If they wrote, “folks I have a mental illness can’t write sorry , or I am no longer inspired due to real life.” Then I would be crushed but my heart would go out to the writer. As a writer myself I have has the first 29 days of 2019 explode in the most Mythbuster-McGuyver-y way possible! I am a train wreck that got run over by a plane and a a monster truck-twice. My real life is shot to hell with no hope. BUT I escape with my reading and I am inspired by my characters as they honestly cheer me on. These people in my head want their story told and keep me plunking away.
The second thing was when I waited 10 years for the final book, the author was almost 100 years old and I was terrified it would never make it! Finally it came out and I was on cloud nine…until I read it. It had all the amazing richness of facts from the ice age, it had all the people I had grown to love…but the two main characters the two the whole bloody 7 book (really thick book) series had been about, how they overcame everything in an ice age trek from the Asian continent back to ice age France and started a family. The author, hardly wrote about them at all and when she did the dude was having an affair and the gal caught him (in the most awkward way for the guy, but the bitch on her knees was wickedly happy. The poor heroine was on a quest to become a healer and wise woman and had to dedicate a whole year to the studies. she was able to be with her family just at odd times. Then she has a violent miscarriage and the story goes to hell from there. I MADE myself finish that book I had invest 20 years of my life into that series. But from now on I don’t read the first book or the last and have an HEA in my head that one day i will write. Sorry my ADD escaped again, I write far too much for a simple questions.
I agree that communication is essential. That’s a responsibility we as authors have toward our readers. We don’t need to explain or share all the details, but it helps if we let them know what’s going on and what to expect. And that second example you gave is just really, really sad. You have to stay true to how a series was written originally. I can’t even imagine what a disillusion that must have been for you, ugh.
As a reader, what bothers me the most is an unfinished series, particularly when there are cliffhangers involved. I understand that there may be many reasons for it but for me, it’s blatant disrespect for the readers. When authors intentionally write cliffhanger endings and know ahead of time that’s what they’re going to do, why don’t they write the entire story before they release the first one? And almost worse than that is when you buy a book that gives no indication it’s the beginning of a series, until you turn the last page and there’s no resolution of the story.
I no longer automatically buy a book by a favorite author now. I wait.
I can understand your frustration. As I said, I’ve had this happen to me as well. But the solution is not that simple. I don’t think authors start series and plan not to finish them. It’s just that circumstances force them to. And as for finishing writing a series before releasing, that means also not getting any income as long as you’re working on that series. Not every author can afford that…
All the “disappointments” you list are not equivalent. I’m actually more than disappointed that you have on this list about including non-binary, transgender, and characters of color. If you don’t see the huge difference between that and the other things on the list, I don’t know what to say. Second, the fact that you did have that on the list at all but didn’t even bother speaking against what it means if a reader is “disappointed” about that inclusion deeply, deeply sickens me. You go into detail about so many things on the list but can’t be bothered to even say a single word for the inclusion of everyone in Romance, that there’s no place for racism or transphobia in a genre that’s about everyone having love, support, and acceptance. I’m not one of your readers, so I went to your site to see what books you wrote. I saw in your bio the phrases “proud ally” and “unapologetic feminist.” An ally is one who speaks up and steps up or there’s nothing to be proud of; an unapologetic feminist shouldn’t use non-binary, trans, and people of color characters as an example of a creative choice and then also fail to champion them.
I’m sorry that’s what you read into my post, Carolyn, because that’s certainly not what I meant. I was championing ALL creative choices, and that includes including diverse characters. I fully agree with you that there is no place for transphobia or bi-erasure or racism or any of that in this genre, or any genre for that matter. That’s completely self-evident to me, and the only reason I mentioned it in passing was because of a recent push back against a book with a non-binary character. I felt mentioning it was a clear sign that this is a creative choice, without explaining it further. I decided to focus on some other aspects because of recent posts about this in MM groups on Facebook. I’m always upset when books that feature diverse characters get criticism, and my record on this is crystal clear, even if I didn’t spell it out in this particular blog post. Just because I didn’t go into details here doesn’t mean I don’t speak out on the issue at all. If you look at my record as a whole, for instance on Twitter, you’ll hopefully see that as well.
All I know of you is this and a quick visit to your site, which I did to make sure you were a romance writer and not an erotica writer. You are doing a guest post on a site that reaches all readers, not just your readers who know you. I’m not going to do a deep background check on someone to reply to their blog post where they decided what thoughts to include and what thoughts not to include. I don’t know about recent pushback against non-binary character. I’m not on facebook. So, I’m responding to what you said in this post, and nothing you said in your reply negates any of the points I made. I didn’t expect you to sit with my words, honestly. Because I think if you had instead of just basically defending your crystal clear record, you might have seen something in what I wrote. At the very least you could have seen a way you could have improved to make your thoughts crystal clear the next time. I won’t take up any more of your time.
I’ve deleted that sentence. I was trying to make a broad point and wanted to include something that I know authors have gotten pushback against. In my reasoning, including a trans character, for example, would fall under the creative choice an author makes, just like choosing a different love interest. So from the author’s perspective, they would be the same category, so to speak. But from a readers point of view, they’re not because resistance to a different love interest is not the same as resistance to that trans character. I should either have made it clear it was different or not mentioned it at all. Thanks for the push back.
I honestly do not see your point at all….To me she is stating that people get offended if an author has a non-binary, person of colour etc character. Which is a true statement as I have witnessed the complaints by readers. I honestly don’t know why readers act this way towards any particular characters sexuality, race or anything else other than they do not agree with them…that’s on them not the authors.
Well said. Thank you for sharing your views and voice.
You’re welcome!
Yes, so much agreement with this post as a lobg time reader of Fantasy and Sci-Fi where we can wait years between books, I’ve never understood the instant gratification demand in a minority of readers in the Romance genre, MM included.
That’s definitely a genre where you need patience, I agree.
I’m waiting patiently for the next Ignite book. Loved the first one and can’t wait for the 2nd😀
Yay, thank you!
People who object to the presence of POC in books aren’t “disappointed readers”, they’re racists. It’s really not proportionate or reasonable to compare the emotions of “I wanted fictional character X to have love interest Y” and “I am offended by the depiction of minority groups because I don’t want them to exist.”
There is an interesting discussion to be had around the topic of reader disappointment with the development or cancellation of series, etc. But when you put that on a level with racism or transphobia, it trivialises those serious issues. And it is incredibly inappropriate to cite the presence of marginalised people as a thing that might “disappoint” readers and then conclude your piece “I totally get the disappointment when you’re emotionally invested in a series, a book, or even an author, and things don’t go as you had hoped. It sucks.” That suggests that you understand and sympathise with the distress of bigots. If that wasn’t your intention, I suggest amending the piece.
Fair point. I wanted to be as broad as possible in including things I know readers get upset about, but you’re right, that one is different. I should’ve either not mentioned it or been more specific on how it’s different. I deleted that sentence.
I am so in awe of authors who have the courage to put their ideas down on paper and then share them with the world. How many times have any of us had to defend ourselves in person, let alone on the printed page. Keep writing and informing. Continue to broaden our viewpoints and share your world view with us.
I just read ‘The Princess of Baker Street’ by Mia Kerick and wish every legislator and person of influence in the country would read it. I want it to be available in all schools. I want the conversations to continue and for personal agendas to be dropped regarding those in the military and bathroom bills.
We as a nation should be so above and beyond our bigotry in all forms.