I am never sure what I think about short books on Amazon, often when I get reading them and get to the end I feel that really the story should be one book, there has been no real end to the storyline and it is more like the end of a chapter than the end of the book. You are then left with the problem of payout out more money and buying the next in the series or deciding that it is not worth it. After that you have to weigh up how many there is in the series, $1 for a book might sound really good value but when you find out it has 10 short sections in the series and some are $2 you can find yourself paying £15 plus for a book, so it is no longer the original bargain you thought you were getting. Something else that happened to me recently was I got to book 6 of one of these series and the the author has vanished, stopped writing in 2012! I looked on Goodreads and found other people had hit the same spot as me, the story is mid plot and now we have no ending, one lady had even found the official facebook for the author and tried to contact her with no luck. Should Amazon still be selling these? I did wonder if I would get anywhere putting in a complaint to them and asking for a refund because they are really not fit for purpose. No one buys half a book do we? What are your thoughts on these styles of writing?
I think I would approach Amazon with the facts to make them aware that the books are being sold and the transaction is not being completed, you are giving money away. I could be possible that Amazon could refund the unused purchase. Then again the person may have died thus the reason for the uncompleted books.
I think it has become a trend now, those short novels or what they call "novellas" that aren't too interesting for me to read really do sell, not just on Amazon. There is a local website called Wattpad that is pretty popular here in our country which sells those kinds of books.
I hate it that some writers think they can write short "books" and get away with it. Amazon made a mistake when they ruled that anything above 1500 words would be considered a book. I once bought an Ebook [I didn't know it when I was buying it] which was 10 pages long. The most annoying thing was that there was nothing new in it, even though the review promised that. Since then I never buy any Ebooks. If I need to read stories, I'll find free Ebooks on Manybooks, Guternberg and a few other similar sites. I don't think Amazon really cares as long as they make some money from the books that are sold. Only when angry customers start buying fewer books on Amazon will they do something about it.
That's one of the marketing tricks to get people to buy multiple books (looks good saying how many you have written and sold) and then compile them together for a cheaper price once done to boost more sales. It has been done for years and will carry on. I do think short books can be a bit of a con, but because you can't see them, you need to look at the word count as each page may only be half full of text anyhow.
Publishing 2,000 word "books" allows writers to test the market before they commit more time to writing. Book sales would let them know whether they'll make any money from their books should they choose to write longer books. Calculated risk-taking . . . But I've also heard that since there are so many distractions these days — the net, TV, movies, clubbing, etc — those who like stories tend to prefer shorter books which they can read at in one sitting and writers are forced to give them what they want. Maybe that's why these books still sell.
