By Paula Munier
There’s a saying in publishing: First page sells the book, last page sells the next book. This is a truth that we writers ignore at our peril.
That’s because when readers consider buying a book, they look at the outside—the cover, the title, the author, the jacket copy—and if that all looks good to them, they turn to the first page. And that’s typically where the buying decision is made. Right there on the first page.
Then they read the book, at least part of it. Completion rates vary, according to genre and format. Readers finish about half of the e-books they read. Mysteries rate a 62 percent completion rate; thriller and romance novels earn completion rates as high as 83 percent. Nonfiction and academic titles do far worse. Even bestsellers are not immune to abandonment, with completion rates of around 44 percent.
When readers do read a book all the way though to The End, they expect to be rewarded with a satisfying ending. If the author delivers that satisfying ending, and readers love the ending, they can’t wait for the next book. But if they don’t like the ending, they don’t invest their time or their money in the author’s next book.
That’s why endings are so important for career authors.
HAPPY, HOPEFUL, UNHAPPY
There are basically three kinds of endings: happy, hopeful, and unhappy. Let’s take a look at each.
The Happy Ending
Who doesn’t love a happy ending? After all, we’ve all grown up with them: And they lived happily ever after.
Speaking as an author, happy endings are the easiest to write. Speaking as an agent, happy endings are the easiest to sell. So if you want to hedge your bets, write a happy ending like these:
- “Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this.” –Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
- But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union. –Emma, by Jane Austen
The Hopeful Ending
Hopeful endings are harder to write well than happy endings, but much easier to sell than unhappy endings:
- “I’ll think of it tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” –Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
- “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.” –Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
The Unhappy Ending
Unhappy endings are the hardest to write, and the hardest to sell, depending on what sort of unhappy ending it is.There are two kinds of unhappy endings, or what I like to call “life is shit” endings:
1) “Life is shit so we might as well slit our wrists and call it a day” endings. This is George Orwell territory. If you’re going to write an ending like this, do it like George.
- He loved Big Brother. –1984, by George Orwell
- The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. —Animal Farm, by George Orwell
2) “Life is shit but it’s all we’ve got so we may as well make the most of it” endings.
- “P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard. –Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
- “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” –A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
As you might guess, it is much easier to sell Life Is Shit #2, although it may very well be harder to write.
THE END
Like it or not, happy endings sell. That said, as we’ve seen with these examples, a skilled writer can make any kind of ending work. No matter what kind of ending you choose to write, take care in the writing of it. Write a satisfying ending, and readers will come back for more every time. End of story.
This post originally appeared at Career Authors