I grabbed TSOT1 from podiobooks and was intrigued enough to get TSOT2. However, now that has finished, it seems that the only way to get TSOT3 is to pay for it? Is this true?

If so, I am very, very dissappointed in you. While I totally understand the desire and need to make money from your creations, I beleive you are going about it in a deceitful, duplicitous way. I feel like I had not been given enough honest information to make my decision to listen to TSOT2 – if I had been told it was only part, and that part 2 required me to pay, then I would have been able to make an informed decision. But I was not told that I would have to pay for the second half of the book, and so I feel mislead and betrayed.

I have been known to pay for audio books that I got free from podiobooks if I feel the deserve it, but I am far more reluctant to pay now that I am being forced to – that is no way to treat your customers.

You may not think that TSOT3 is just part 2 of TSOT2, but in my mind it certainly is. So many plot threads were not resolved that the story was not finished in any sense. Sure, they got back to Earth, but so what – we don’t know what Earth, what time, what circumstances, so the only thing that was ‘resolved’ is essentially not resolved at all. Therefore, nothing was resolved. Therefore, TSOT2 is not a complete book. Comparing this to other series, or even trilogies, like Lord of the Rings, there is a definite resolution at the end of the book, but avenues are left open for the next. And even then, you knew you were going to pay for the subsequent books ahead of time. Sure, TV series use cliffhangers at the end of seasons (which is becoming increasingly despised anyway), but they don’t force you to pay for the next season. An apt analogy is drug dealers that hand our free samples to get people addicted so they can sell more drugs. Is this a business model you can adopt with a clear conscience?

Do you also realise you are bypassing podiobooks’s system, and therefore depriving them of a share of the fee you charge? If you appreciate creators getting paid, then you should appreciate (and pay) podiobooks for their had work in creating their site and promoting your books.

Also consider the price for a minute. It is effectively 7GBP for me in New Zealand – that is about $15 NZD. Sure, I get all 3 ‘books’ but lets be honest – all I want is TSOT3. I can buy a full, published novel for $15 that includes professional illustration, editing, publishing, and writing. While I got engaged in your work, I am afraid I have to be honest and say it is not professional in any of these regards, and yes, I felt this before I found out about being forced to pay. I find the writing often pulls me out of the story by switching from 1st person to 3rd person and back etc – something any writer is told to never do. And saying things like “John thinks…” is very lazy exposition – professional writers are very artful and clever in conveying the same things without stating it outright. It may be tolerable in screenplays, but not in novels. Audio production was generally quite good, with a few moments that impressed me, but was still not professional – e.g. the music often had varying lengths and in general lasted too long, loosing momentum and getting frustrating.

So you may be wondering why I care to hear TSOT3? I was intrigued by some of the concepts, and I am curious about the unresolved elements (what happened to Paul, how there could be a plausible explanation for people being deleted, etc). However, given my experience so far, I am not 100% confident that these will be resolved plausibly and satisfactorily. Therefore, I was just willing to invest my time in hearing TSOT3, intending to donate if I thought it deserved it. However, that seems impossible now.

Please bear in mind even free transactions have a transaction cost – readers have to contribute their time – considerable hours – to downlaod and listen. So I currently feel like I paid (my time) and did not receive the product implicitly promised (aka a story, which by definition has a start, middle and end). I would be (just) willing to pay more of my time to receive what I originally expected, but I am certainly not willing to pay money because 1) I feel forced, 2) I feel it is only half a book, and 3) it is priced at a professional level, which it is not.

I would appreciate you: 1) making TSOT3 available for free, or 2) making it very clear in TSOT2 in at least 2 or 3 ways that the story is not resolved until TSOT3 and that people are forced to pay for TSOT3 (though this still leaves many existing, disgruntled listeners).

I would be interested in hearing your response.

I have subscribed to 69 Podiobooks. I’ve enjoyed some totally, while others I couldn’t get into and didn’t finish.

In the books I enjoy most, music is used sparingly, as ‘punctuation’.

I have over 5,000 songs on my iPod so I do not listen to Podiobooks for the music… My enjoyment comes from the stories and I tend to get impatient with long intros of the installment or interruptions of the story, especially if it’s a good story.

And as I said I am enjoying your story.