I'm caving to the pressure

[Consuelo Saah Baehr]

I have seven titles up on Amazon.  Most of them get good to very good reviews.  One book gets consistently poor reviews and the readers are angry.  They seem to have two issues:  the title and the ending.

1.  They don't feel the title reflects the content
2.  They feel the ending is "horrible"

With so many reviews saying the same thing, I want to change the title and the ending of this long book that was originally traditionally published. 
Am I right to do so?  I will put a disclaimer in the description saying it was previously published as..."

Has anyone else done this?

Oddly, the book has at times been a huge seller.  When it was free over 30,000 free copies were downloaded.  Also, in the U.K. it always sells very well and has good reviews.  It even got a rave review on Goodreads.

All opinions will be appreciated.

[tkkenyon]

Yowza. That is a conundrum.

Please see what other people say before heeding this advice.

Before you change anything, do some math and make sure that the average is lower than your other books and that there are more negative reviews, not just a few 1-stars dragging down your average (In other words, make sure the mean and the median are similar).

If you think you want to change, I would say to go ahead and put the disclaimer in as you said.

Alternately, make it a selling point: "New ending that YOU asked for!" or same idea but better worded.

I think that two of the benefits of indie publishing are the ability to interact more directly with readers and to not have one's work cast in stone for all eternity. I think I would do exactly what you proposed, at least in the US. Perhaps you should leave the UK edition as is, if it is more suited to UK sensibilities.

JM2c,

TK Kenyon

[kurzon]

Have you considered changing the blurb instead?  You could foreshadow whatever it is people are having issues with.

[Doomed Muse]

I would leave it alone, personally.  The people who left those reviews won't buy the book again, so why change it for them? It clearly has an audience since it is selling decently.  You can't please everyone.

[Donald Wells]

What if even more people don't like the new title or the new ending? Will you change it again? I say move on to your next book and take reviews with a grain of salt.

[Decon]

Tough one to call. The Washington post review gives it credibility, but I have to admit some of those reveiws (not all one star) do seem to harp on about the same thing, so I can feel your angst. It could be the herd mentality, in that they are viewing the other poor reviews and simply following on. Sales rank is reasonable at 44,000. I would be inclined to leave it as is for now and see what happens to sales. I would put somewhere in the blurb that it was traditionally published and by whom. I guess this can be a problem of putting a book up for free and having people download it outside their usual comfort zone.

Have you changed the title since it was trad published? It's not like publishers to get it completely wrong. The blurb tells them clearly what to expect as regards the story line and that it is not about friends living in each others pockets. Thinking about it, I would forget it, stop reading the reviews and move on and like you say it is selling well in the UK with good reviews

[Sarah Woodbury]

What Decon said.  Put it behind you and write your next book.

[Ruth Ann Nordin]

Are you happy with the title and ending?  If so, I say leave it alone.  You can't please everyone, so you might as well like the book. 

[Consuelo Saah Baehr]

Once again the wisdom of the Writers' Cafe has clarified everything.   I love TK's take on it - using it as a marketing tool.  "You asked for it so I'm giving the readers what they want."  Great marketing strategy. 

It isn't that I can't handle the reviews.  I've been in the writing business for decades and I take criticism well.  I'm noticing however that indie publishing is more immediate and intimate than trad publishing (an issue seldom stated).  Any reader can easily get the author's attention.  They can leave a review or go to my Author's page and reach me through my blog. Also, I think Kindle owners want the story they want and if you give them an ending that is not "happily ever after" they tend to get annoyed.  In this case, I would not mind changing the ending.

I kind of want to do right by the readers.  I don't see them as adversarial even though some of the comments are snarky. 
I'm going to sit on this for a while and see what happens.  Sales have slowed for this title but for many months, it sold at least 1000 a month.

And yes, I have another title almost ready to be released

[Herc- The Reluctant Geek]

You could make the changes and package the original text in with the new one.

This is a really good example of another change that digitization has brought to written literature: a dialogue between authors and readers. Readers have no qualms about leaving reviews but we, as authors, are reluctant to engage with them for a variety of reasons. It's going to be interesting to see how this develops and where it goes. In online gaming - another area of world creation - developers almost always provide forums for their players to discuss the game and often change aspects of the world to better please them. Could that happen with written literature? Could it be possible that an audience will, one day, be able to influence the way a literary world devlops? The most likely place it would happen would be a long running Fantasy or SF series, something with continuity that would attract some fairly hard core fans.

[Ian Marks]

Put this behind you and move on to your next project.

[Andrew Ashling]

Once again the wisdom of the Writers' Cafe has clarified everything.   I love TK's take on it - using it as a marketing tool.  "You asked for it so I'm giving the readers what they want."  Great marketing strategy.  

It isn't that I can't handle the reviews.  I've been in the writing business for decades and I take criticism well.  I'm noticing however that indie publishing is more immediate and intimate than trad publishing (an issue seldom stated).  Any reader can easily get the author's attention.  They can leave a review or go to my Author's page and reach me through my blog. Also, I think Kindle owners want the story they want and if you give them an ending that is not "happily ever after" they tend to get annoyed.  In this case, I would not mind changing the ending.

I kind of want to do right by the readers.  I don't see them as adversarial even though some of the comments are snarky.  
I'm going to sit on this for a while and see what happens.  Sales have slowed for this title but for many months, it sold at least 1000 a month.

And yes, I have another title almost ready to be released

I feel your pain. In my niche, most readers want a HEA-ending (Happy ever after) or at least a HFN (Happy for now).
Personally I wouldn't cave in to readers and keep the story as I wrote it. I think you should too... if this is the story you want to tell.
Of course, you would have to be prepared to lose (maybe) some readers for this book.

But you could write a second ending and insert a page before the penultimate chapter in which you explain things. "For the original ending just read on. For those who like a more upbeat ending go to page xxx." Or the other way around.

I think it has been done before, and I'm sure it has been done with some movies. Nevertheless it would be kind of original to let the readers chose his/her ending. And it would mean a "bonus" for those who want to read both endings. You could ask readers to comment which ending they liked best. It would give a whole new dimension to your book.

You could even write several endings.

Edit:

You could make the changes and package the original text in with the new one.

I should have read the whole thread before replying.  

[Consuelo Saah Baehr]

This so-called problem,has turned into something innovative and kind of exciting.  I'm going to do what several of you have suggested:  write an additional ending and give the reader a choice.  Maybe have a preface note acknowledging the outcries and letting readers know that I heard them and want to do something about it. 

Will keep everyone in the loop but it may be some time before this gets results.  The Writers' Cafe never disappoints.  Thanks, everybody.

[Benjamin A.]

You could make the changes and package the original text in with the new one.

This is a really good example of another change that digitization has brought to written literature: a dialogue between authors and readers. Readers have no qualms about leaving reviews but we, as authors, are reluctant to engage with them for a variety of reasons. It's going to be interesting to see how this develops and where it goes. In online gaming - another area of world creation - developers almost always provide forums for their players to discuss the game and often change aspects of the world to better please them. Could that happen with written literature? Could it be possible that an audience will, one day, be able to influence the way a literary world devlops? The most likely place it would happen would be a long running Fantasy or SF series, something with continuity that would attract some fairly hard core fans.

Love the point about online game forums and making changes, not sure how I feel about that in books though. Tailoring stories in such a fashion, to me (can't stress this enough) feels like it would take the imagination out of it. Part of reading books and such to me is the story is what it is. It plays out in a predestined way that I'm not meant to control. I get to control that in my own, but having books changing in such ways is a turn off for me.

Also, the game is much more interactive. Most changes they make aren't storyline related. It's mechanics and actual player control. There's no denying your points about the audience/media creator interaction are surfacing on a much greater level via the internet. It's an age of making it easy to contact you, so you can be found among the ocean of other identities. I agree it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

As to the original point of this thread, I'd say don't change it, unless it feels wrong to you. If the ending you wrote is what the story you've written should have, that's just part of reading stories. If it feels wrong to you too though, then you may consider an alternate ending. I love the idea about packaging both together, which gives people options. They can read the alternate ending if they so desire, or simply move on. It's a popular concept in movies, so why not?

[Consuelo Saah Baehr]

Benjamin:  I agree with all your points most of the time and I would never consider changing the ending to any of my other books.  The title in question is a book whose intent would not suffer from an alternate ending.  Also, I like the idea of experimenting and this is the right title for that idea.

[psychotick]

Hi,

My thought is that you have to trust your instincts. If you gave it an ending that wasn't forulaic and happy ever after, I assume that you did so for a reason. Presumably it felt right for the story. I have the same issue with one of mine and have had comments back that it needed a better ending. (They would have been really upset if they'd read the first ending that I'd actually planned - the glorious death scene!)

So my thought is stick to your guns. If the ending is right for your book, keep it.

As for the title, no don't change it. My reasoning is a little different here. The books been out for a while, people, readers and browsers know it by that name. Changing its title is just going to confuse them, and may well kick your sales back down to the levels it was when it was first released.

If you want to change something, I'd go with what others have said. Change the blurb and maybe the cover. The blurb can foreshadow things so that readers won't be surprised when the end comes, and the cover can freshen things up, especially if you add the words - revised edition, or similar. Maybe you can also work your way through the actual book, simply putting in a line here and there suggesting that a happy ending is not coming.

Hope that helps, Greg.

[Consuelo Saah Baehr]

Both good ideas, Greg.  Will definitely change the blurb.

[Dana Taylor]

Hi Consuelo--

Interesting situation. In the old days you wouldn't have been able to address making any changes. All the input has been valid. I imagine you will sleep on it, sift it out and come up with the best plan.

This is quite an adventure, isn't it?

Dana

[LisaGraceBooks]

I don't know. I hate that Romeo and Juliet die, but I'm sure glad Shakespeare didn't write it the way I would have liked it. Same with Old Yeller.

Just because people hate the ending, doesn't mean it doesn't stick with them. I wrote a piece of flash fiction that has a very unpredictable ending, and the reviews I get are often longer than the piece itself. I evoke an emotion of delight or anger depending on peoples' beliefs.
Would I change the ending? Hell no.

I can't wait to release it in my flash fiction book.

[TLH]

Why don't you hold live forum and allow your readers to explain what their problem was. Listen to them. Explain what you were trying to do. You might learn a lot. You might not need to change it.

[Debra Purdy Kong]

Are you happy with the title and ending?  If so, I say leave it alone.  You can't please everyone, so you might as well like the book. 

I agree with Ruth on this. As the author, are you happy with the ending and the title? You chose them for a reason and if the reason is still sound to you, then don't worry about what others say.

By the way, I think Stephen King's been slammed for the endings of some of his books and short fiction, too. Also, the negative responses might garner enough attention for readers to buy it to see what all the fuss is about. I know I'm curious

[Amber5885]

That is a huge problem and while I can't give you any big advice what I can say is ask yourself if you are personally happy with the ending?

Because yes, the readers are extreamly important no writer writes a story just for the readers...they, we write our stories because we love them. If you like it don't change it for anything but if you do make sure it's for the right reason, not everyone is going to like your stuff but those that do will stick around nomatter what.

I hope I wasn't to rambly and that this helps but it's just opinion and regardless of what I think I hope you find the best solutions for you

[Alan Petersen]

I would take the wisdom learned from those reviews and carry them onto my next book vs re-editing an already published book.

[Millard]

Don't change the ending, you're not George Lucas. I firmly believe that when something's out there, it's done, and that's that. If it didn't work, move on to the next thing having learned from that, but making changes to work that's already available is a bad path to go down, because like the famous quote says "Art is never finished, only abandoned." If you don't put your foot down to letting something go, then you'll be forever tinkering with things as your craft evolves and grows over time, and you look back at choices you'd never make now that you know better.

[Alan Petersen]

Unless the desire for the change comes from inside. I still wouldn't change it but I can see that more that making the change due to pressure from readers.

A lot of movies have "directors cut" because they had to make changes to appease test showings, audience, etc. so it's a similar situation for the OP.