Fool Me Once

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There is a definite way NOT to end a book.

Recently I purchased an e-book -- From Man to Woman by Lindy Smith on Amazon. It was a compelling story marred by typos and some continuity issues, but still worth spending considerable time reading, EXCEPT it stopped in the middle of nowhere. From the way it was written, to that point, I would estimate several chapters were missing.

Since I’m a trustworthy individual I purchased another e-book book online through Amazon by Lindy Smith called Boy into Woman. The very same thing happened. I’d invested several hours when the story just stopped. Again it would seem several chapters were missing.

Can anyone tell me how to contact Lindy Smith? I’d like to know just what she did with her characters during the rest of the story.

By the way, I’ve purchased dozens of e-books and these are the only two books that came without all the pages.

Jill

Comments

a suggestion

you could leave a review and mention it.

DogSig.png

I notice that those scams

I notice that those scams steal money from other authors, but I wonder if Amazon is going to disburse that money to the other authors?

Reading the reviews and looking at them

via Kindle Unlimited it looks like they were ended that way deliberately. There will probably be continuations. You can comment via a review and hope the author reads them.

You could also return the books as incomplete. If that happens enough times Amazon pays attention and will pull the books. That will get the author's attention.

Commentator
Visit my Caption Blog: Dawn's Girly Site

Visit my Amazon Page: D R Jehs

disappointed in stories

Ever notice, the best books/stories come from authors who first posted stories here at Big Closet ? Also check the number of pages!

Karen

In this case

The books are actually substantial -100+ pages each and while not the best edited are reasonably well written - up to the point they abruptly end. I don't think Angela's complaint is about the writing or the value but simply that she was left hanging.

Commentator
Visit my Caption Blog: Dawn's Girly Site

Visit my Amazon Page: D R Jehs

I was very suspicious of Lindy Smith ...

... because when I looked at the preview, various symbols (Greek letters?) were substituted for the normal Latin script which is always a clue that the book is a copy of someone else's work with a copy/paste of some letters to make direct automatic comparison more difficult. Moreover there was another book by (IIRC) a Lindy Schimdt (or another close spelling of Smith) which exhibited the same characteristics.

I was unable to identify the original writer/story so I just ignored it. I've spotted and reviewed very negatively in the past.

Plagiarism is disgusting. When I was gainfully employed as an engineer in charge of a small team I was always very careful to acknowledge the individual efforts of others in a particular design because it's the right thing to do .

Robi

The perils of cut and paste

What you are seeing Robyn is more likely a cut/paste from a system with one base Character Set to another one with a different Character Set.
I first got involved with stuff oh... around 1984. I could lecture for hours on this stiff and have at least 3ft of bookshelf dedicated to this topic. One person I worked with in the 1980's was largely responsible for the creation of the first verion of the ISO Standard 8859.
For most people this is not a problem but when the two systems have different Character sets you see this sort of thing.
If anyone wants chapter and verse then please contact me offline. It is a very boring but important subject

Samantha

I have read a massive number of e-books via Kindle Unlimited

WillowD's picture

and I have occasionally found books that seem to end abruptly. It's particularly frustrating because sometimes it would have only taken minor changes to make it end properly.

Most of the books I've read on Kindle Unlimited probably sold and rented so few copies that the author didn't make much money on it. So I'm not particularly worried if the editing isn't the greatest or of the occasional odd flaw. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience yourself. I just read the free part of Boy Into Woman and I'm intrigued enough that I think I will borrow it and read the rest, despite your warning. Even though I am sure I will wind up equally frustrated.

Mind you, I have read so many awesome stories on BCTS that end abruptly that I am quite used to dealing with this. And in almost every single case I'm glad I got the opportunity to read part of the story instead of none of it. Thank you, all authors who have posted here, for enriching my life so much.