Without Scouts

If you've visited the CSFF blogs (links in the post below), you may have caught the buzz about the third book in the Birthright Project, Scouts, being cancelled by the publisher. While the author, Kathryn Mackel, was incredibly gracious about the whole thing, my initial and current reaction was/is:

That stinks.

Forget about the whole business angle and the books not selling as well as expected, blah blah blah. I'm a reader (even more than I'm a writer, which is saying a lot), and I'm reacting to this as a reader.

(And readers are the ones publishers should be paying attention to, since they buy the books.)

When I read an excellent novel, my emotions get wrapped up with the characters. I care about their lives. It seems cruel for the rest of their stories to be cut off without warning. Sure, Niki's story stopped at a good note, but Timothy's?

Think about other trilogies, and imagine them without the last installment. Lord of the Rings? Dekker's Circle trilogy? A few may be written for each title to stand on its own, but the Birthright Project isn't one of them. Imagine if Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was cancelled. Or Spider-Man 3. Mackel's books fall somewhere between those two with unresolved plot threads.

Look at the flip side. What if an author decided not to write book 3 of an interwoven trilogy? Wouldn't fans be upset? They would understand if a family crisis delayed the work, but if the author only quit because they could get more money elsewhere? Yeah. I'd be ticked.

Then why, when a publisher does the same thing, do people excuse it as a business decision? If anything, it makes me more leery of buying books from that publisher until the entire series is out. And if other readers had the same reaction, it would create a downward spiral, as lower sales for the earlier books might prevent later books from being published anyhow.

Granted, most reader don't follow publishers, but authors. So it's a double slap in the face for an author - not only do they not get revenue from the book, but they start to build a reputation of unfinished series. And sales of the previous books continue to plummet as readers find out they may never get "the rest of the story." An unpublished series finale unravels publicity efforts for the earlier books (like the one Mackel has on her site for creating a mog for Scouts). And in the midst of all this, the author has to be gracious so he/she doesn't ruin future publishing opportunities - no one wants to be an author publishers find difficult. (Note: I'm not saying Mackel's response was only gracious to help her future endeavors. She went far above being tactful and kind with her reaction. Editors should be banging down doors to work with someone like that.)

So, WestBow/Nelson, the manuscript's on your table. Will you reconsider your decision and publish Scouts? Or will you break trust with your readers by not giving us the full story of the Birthrighters?