A little while ago I posted in a book group about buying books from
authors when they are published (whether the reader reads them right
away or not) as opposed to waiting till the series is complete. The
post was focused solely on books that are a part of a series and that
impacts an author or a publisher. The response was varied and I won't
go into any detail about it here because that's not the point of this
post. I will, however, share what I wrote below.
I
see a lot of people (in the book group) commenting that they only want
completed series and don't buy the books or read the books until the
series is complete. Here's a perspective from the point of view of the
author or the publisher, and this applies regardless of whether it's
indie or trad pub. If all readers decide not to buy a book in a series
or read it until the series is complete, this means that the book will
have little to no sales or page reads. If the book does not do well,
then the author and publisher do not make money. At the end of the day,
no matter how much authors love writing, they need to make a living. If
there are no sales or no page reads, there is no income for the author
or the publisher. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have seen
authors and publishers stop writing and publishing a series because of
lack of sales or reads regardless of how good it is. It's just not
worth their while. So waiting till a series is complete = no sales = no
page reads = no income for authors and publishers = books or series
being pulled before they are complete. Consider this the next time you
decide to wait on a series when a new book is released.