Forum: Bug Report and Feature Requests

the ability to mark the series as either "Complete" or "In Progress"

The question is, what would an author gain by declaring a series Complete or In Progress? All I see is unnecessary effort and nothing to gain.

In a case like that the author could either himself, or by a request to the site admin, simply ask the series to be changed from Completed to In Progress.

way too much hassle.

Is the an end to the Rivers Region series of mine - no idea beyond it's likely to be after I die and I have no plans of doing that ever. But I expect it will happen. The same is true for the Chaos Calls series.

Should I decide that's it and then do another story in a series, that means closing the series then reopening and then reclosing it. Ugh. I'm not going to put in that sort of effort for little return, and I doubt anyone else will.

In a case like that the author could either himself, or by a request to the site admin, simply ask the series to be changed from Completed to In Progress.

I see no difference to a serialised story in that respect. The author decides when the story is complete but has the ability to change the status in the future.

While I'd like to see this facility, I can see problems. Most series currently on SOL would have to default to 'incomplete and inactive', and that's not a good look.

AJ

The real question is, "Why does an author need to declare their series/universe as complete or in progress?"

Another way of looking at it is, all series/universes are complete until something is added. Once something is added, the series automatically reverts to complete.

The real question is, "Why does an author need to declare their series as complete or in progress?"

For readers, obviously. Those who won't read incomplete Stories are likely to baulk at incomplete Series too.

Equally obviously, complete or incomplete doesn't apply to Universes, but might be useful for Writing Events.

Another way of looking at it is, all series/universes are complete until something is added. Once something is added, the series automatically reverts to complete.

Substitute 'Story' for 'Series' to see the parallel.

AJ

but it's unfair to get them invested in a story only to stop it.

The problem is, you've come across an incomplete story that the author broke up as multiple parts in a series. Like a trilogy without writing the 3rd book.

Each book should be complete in a series so it doesn't matter if the series is complete or not.

I have a Lincoln Steele series of 3 novels. Each novel is a separate story, however, there may be some characters and references to events that took place in earlier novels. But you don't have to read them in order (although that might be helpful) or read all of them.

I never thought of grouping those novels into a series on SOL. When I create the metadata for the ebook I indicate the number of the series. When I publish it on Amazon I also label the number in the series. But only two of the three novels exist on SOL. If I were to create a Lincoln Steele series on SOL but only have 2 of the 3 novels available for free (the other is on Bookapy, which happens to be the first in the series), I doubt Lazeez would be happy. And I'm posting the 2nd in the series now even though the 3rd one is already on SOL.

An author may be planning 10 stories, or more, in a series. It may require 4 years, or more, to write those 10 stories. and additional stories could occur to the author.

Are you the reader going to not read the stories because the series in marked In Progress? Why should Lazeez mark a series as Incomplete and Inactive, if the author is posting other stories?

Personally, I think identifying the status of a Series/Universe is not worth the effort. If I have to give a status to my Series/Universes, I will make them In Progress and never change the status, which is essentially what we have now but without a posted status.

Those who won't read incomplete Stories are likely to baulk at incomplete Series too.

There's a big difference. Think of the James Bond series or maybe more recently the Jack Reacher series. Each book is complete but the series might be over or not. I don't see how that would leave a reader hanging like with an incomplete story. Should the reader really wait for the author to say he wasn't writing any more James Bond or Jack Reacher novels before they start reading them?

IIRC, those series don't possess overreaching series arcs. And James Bond will probably go on forever, written by replacement after replacement for the late Ian Fleming.

On the other hand, Vincent Berg has written some well-planned series for SOL, and missing the last book in each series does leave you hanging.

The much-missed Xalir's 'My Journey' series leaves readers hanging (but it's worth reading anyway). (Is there no way of getting book four into the SOL series, or is that contrary to the wishes of the author who completed it?)

AJ