Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad
Giving away a free book is fine if you have other books to sell. Me, I just have one, so that won't work. So I make the first 50% available at Smashwords and that's as generous as I can be.
Someone may read the first half and still think, "Yeah, but it could fall apart in the 2nd half."
|
Books that "fall apart in the second half" are generally matters of reader preference rather than writing quality. If a person liked the first half, odds are they'll like the second half; disliking a plot twist is no reflection on the writing itself.
Okay, it's possible the author does great buildup for the first 75% of the story and then rushes an ending together and leaves a bunch of plot-threads hanging. But there are plenty of professionally-published books that do that, and plenty of readers who like that style (at least, judging by those books' sales). I don't believe there are any ebook authors who are saying, "bwa-ha-ha, I shall write 2/3 of a novel, and not bother with a decent ending--I'll just slap together a few pages of 'and then they got married and all lived happily ever after', and since the first half is all they can read for free, they'll pay me for the rest and I won't have to write a decent ending!"