The last of my 3 fantasy novels ended on what I suppose you’d call an “open downer”–not a cliffhanger in the suspenseful sense, but leaving the story built up in the first three books at a low point for the characters that would begin to turn around in the next book. The 2nd story ended on a similar note.
Unfortunately, that may be where the whole thing ends. There were meant to be five stories all together, but sales were disappointing on the last one; even though my publisher has been encouraging about going on with at least the 4th story in the series, I haven’t had the heart to finish it yet.
When I read the 50s/60s Nancy Drew books to my daughter, I noticed that every single damn chapter ended in a cliff-hanger. The very worst was in a chapter where Nancy and friends were on an ocean liner in the middle of the Atlantic. Not bad guys on board, The cliff-hanger - a giant meteor heads right for the ship!
It splashes in the ocean, no harm done, and the story proceeds as if it never happened. Yeesh.
Despite what I said above, I have to disclose that I once published a story right here on the SDMB that consisted entirely of a series of cliffhangers. In my defense, none were left hanging for more than a day…except the last one.
Heh. I hope they were real cliff-hangers, not the old movie serial kind. I just finished watching the Crash Corrigan visits Atlantis one which MST3K did some of.
Typical cliff-hanger.
Episode N - hero and heroine are hanging from a tree over a chasm. Tree breaks. They fall to their doom.
Episode N+1. Amazing, they say. The chasm was just a painting, and we only fell four feet.
Cliffhangers work in contexts where you are sure to get the next part relatively quickly. It can work on a TV show, since you can tune in tomorrow or next week (or right away, with Netflix and such.)
And, yes, it can work on chapters of a book for the same reason. Though, as readers of children’s mystery books noticed, it can get old if you do it all the time.
Yes, there are season cliffhangers, but they work because the show has had many resolutions before that. The cliffhanger is an exception, not the norm.
To do what you want to do, the best is to set up a new story hook. One that can be interpreted as “what’s next” or just “life goes on.” Finish one story, and bait a new one. That’s how everything I’ve read that made me want more has worked. (Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Gray is a great example.)
The Lord of the Rings is a bad example. It is one book that was broken up for publishing reasons.
Too many continuing stories (books and TV) seem to have the protagonists getting the shit kicked out of them constantly. I find it exhausting. If you do a good job and make characters that I like and want to follow give them a damn win now and then. Peril and conflict is fine but after a while it’s just watching the characters I like get tortured.
I have written a three book series and I am working on another, and even when I know there’s another book coming, I make a point not to make the end a cliffhanger or even leave too many plot threads hanging. A book needs a resolution.
Sorry not to have been very helpful… All we can do is tell you how we, as readers, feel.
Prove us wrong! Publish, and sell a bazillion copies, and come back and tell us, “Haw!” Next thing you know, everybody will be copying your style, as happens with every successful innovation!
Seriously, it’s your book, and nobody likes intrusive publishers and editors. Editors, by and large, should either accept or reject a submitted work, not fiddle with it too awfully much.
(In the thread on the SF story “The Cold Equations,” it was noted that an editor told the writer to change the ending completely. Ick! What a ham-fisted thing to do! It completely changed the story – but it also shot the story into immortality! Editor$ only have one thing on their minds…)