Warning about kindle version of Assassin's Apprentice

[therapist]

I recently bought and read the book on kindle. At the the time of reading I was unaware that the book contains a large preview of the second book in the series. I always keep track on the % of the book I have read. So I got a very unwelcome shock when at 80% through, the book just ended. I was getting ready to read the final 20% and book's plot did not make it obvious that it was drawing to a close.
It left a pretty bad taste in my mouth, and I felt like I would've enjoyed the book more if I was prepared for it.

 

[.matthew.]

I know what you mean and I've seen that issue pop up on many occasions. It doesn't bother me as much as it used to but still irritating.

 

[tinkerdan]

A lot of books are doing that now.
However, I find it difficult to believe there was no warning.
I thought that book has an Epilogue; which should be a clue as to 'it's now ending'.
Anything after that would have to be added material such as appendix, index or sample of next book--usually marked that way.

 

[Pyan]

I have the two Robert Massie classics Dreadnought and Castles of Steel, (about the naval arms race leading up to, and including WW1) on my Kindle - for both books, the footnotes and chapter-by-chapter references take up the last 20-25% of the download. Most irritating.

 

[therapist]

I thought that book has an Epilogue; which should be a clue as to 'it's now ending'.

Well for me, being given a 3 page epilogue when you expect the ending is just getting started, is still extremely jarring. And the preview isn't separate from the rest of the book if you looking at the '% of the way through book' stat.

 

[Droflet]

I'm coming up on book 5 of my series and have never committed such a sin. And never will. It's slack, unprofessional writing, imho.

 

[HareBrain]

This really annoyed me recently with (I think) Gideon the Ninth on Kindle. But it can also happen with paper books. You're right, it throws off the pacing.

 

[tinkerdan]

I think the real issue is being clouded here.
It sounds like the OP didn't like the ending of the book.
This has nothing what-so-ever to do with what's beyond that.
Sure if it's a paper book it's a waste of paper--an ebook it seems would have no impact.

Whether the extra is there or isn't there--if you don't like the ending you don't like the ending; even if they take those pages away.

If this were a POD self published paper book then I might take some objection to the likelihood it caused the price to spike up by the number of pages time some x for each page.

Traditional publishing; you would have paid the same price whether they put that in or not.

The worst problem that this might pose for me is that in this case a 80% of a 440 page book is 350 pages so if it was time for bed I'd go to bed and then when I got up it wouldn't take long to discover there were only 3 pages left and I could have finished those before going to bed.

On the other hand the book in the OP is 440 pages without the sample.
So stopping at 80% means that 440 is 80% and the total is 550 which means the sample would have to be 110 pages and that seems excessive--I begin to doubt that 80% figure.

I do admit though that the next book is 675 pages and 10% of that is 67 so maybe it was cut off at 85% if they gave a full 10% sample.

 

[.matthew.]

I just checked my copy and for me the preview starts at 95%, though I have seen previews start at 80% before. I think the most common point is probably about 90%.

It is a definite annoyance either way. Either you liked the book you've just read or you didn't, a preview of the next won't change that.

Also, books usually end (not counting horrible cliffhangers) with some sort of resolution, and starting the next book is just a cheap ploy to try and trick you into immediately buying the next.

I also do like to know how much of a book I have left to read, as it does affect pacing and whether I decide to stay up for an extra hour to finish it

 

[Toby Frost]

To be honest, I think this would be a particular issue with Assassin's Apprentice for me, as the story only seemed to get going in the last 100 pages or so. The copy of Salem's Lot that I own has two linked short stories at the end, and I was a bit surprised and disappointed when the main novel ended and they began.

 

[therapist]

I just checked my version @tinkerdan, the epilogue begins and ends at 79%

I assumed all kindle versions would be the same. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the end; I was enjoying the way things were going. It's more that I didn't get a chance to experience the end as the end. I find myself mentally preparing for the landing when a book is at 95%. And at 80% I am gearing up for the final act. When the book instead ended at 80% I was forced to try and recontextualize the past 50 pages or so as the actual ending, but that didn't seem to work.

 

[tinkerdan]

That edition is supposed to have page numbers in the ebook those numbers base on the printed book.
What page number are you on.
The book is 440 pages because if you are at 437 then the sample has to b 110 pages which is pretty generous 15 percent of the next book.
my point being you got all that free so the only problem that could exist is that you didn't like the way it ends.

 

[HareBrain]

the only problem that could exist is that you didn't like the way it ends

No, because the expectation of whether the end is imminent or still a hundred pages away colours the attitude with which you read the current section. That's the OP's point, and I've experienced it myself. You might think that shouldn't be a problem, but clearly it is for some people. It's not a question of being tricked into thinking you've bought a longer book than you have.

 

[tinkerdan]

I have an extreme problem swallowing this entirely.

No, because the expectation of whether the end is imminent or still a hundred pages away colours the attitude with which you read the current section. That's the OP's point, and I've experienced it myself. You might think that shouldn't be a problem, but clearly it is for some people. It's not a question of being tricked into thinking you've bought a longer book than you have.

In almost implies that every time we read, what we read will be colored by our attitude and for me there is a certain closemindedness to this. Though I am certain that to some extent we can't prevent this from happening; I like to think I read with a bit more open mindedness than that.

Take for instance @Brian G Turner 's latest trilogy and the first book. The cover and title. The title is Destroyer and the Cover has this massive threatening looking ship in space and it all screams out Space Battles. Then the first chapter starts screaming out generation ship and space exploration and colonization. I could have let those color my expectation, but I didn't.

Traditional publishers do what the OP is complaining about because it is one of their cheapest forms of advertising. I've come to expect it. And in the above case as I've mentioned the only problem would be if I was expecting the twenty percent remaining and went to bed, because I knew I couldn't read that much in a short time, only to discover I had only three pages left. But then whose fault would that be.

When a novel ends--it ends. Regardless of expectations--just don't read that end material if so bothers you. It's like watching on demand tv and complaining that the 45 minute program took well over an hour of our time because of all the commercials.

And it's not like any of that book was missing.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

No, because the expectation of whether the end is imminent or still a hundred pages away colours the attitude with which you read the current section. That's the OP's point, and I've experienced it myself. You might think that shouldn't be a problem, but clearly it is for some people. It's not a question of being tricked into thinking you've bought a longer book than you have.

This is why I like what Orbit Books do (in print copies.) The "Extras" have a grey page border which you can clearly see with the book closed. As the extras usually include a long extract from a completely unrelated book, it saves a lot of frustration! It's also one reason I like contents pages and wish they were still common. I've sometimes been left disoriented when the novel finished "early" to be followed by an un-announced short story.

 

[althea]

I think one of the worst writers for using up half of the new book with a recap of the previous one, is Terry Goodkind.
I read the eleven book series of The Sword of Truth books, even though many times I swore I wouldn't read any more.
The gore and brutality put me off, but the basic ideas he had were so original and devious, I carried on.
My sister and I read them at the same time and she gave up on book seven.