Why is everything a series?

Does this happen to anybody else? You’re reading a book, it’s pretty good and you enjoy it a lot, and then when it’s done it’s done. But for some reason, there’s a sequel? Even though everything you were curious about got resolved in the end and there’s not really a reason to keep reading about these characters?

There are definitely times that series are a good thing. There are plotlines that are just too long and intricate to wrap up in a single novel, especially if that novel is going to be a reasonable amount of pages. But just as frustrating as a single novel that doesn’t finish anything, or goes on too long to finish plotlines, is a book that wraps everything up and still wants you to be invested in the next installment.

I don’t want everything to be a series, especially when there’s not enough plot to continue. For example, Blackhearts was a decent romance novel but I have no interest in continuing the story because I don’t think there’s a reason to keep reading beyond the first book.

I think that there’s this pressure to turn everything into the next big series; to hook readers onto your writing for long enough to keep getting new interest with each installment while also growing the overall following. People get excited over the release of a new series installment, and boost the whole series as a result. But we’ve really moved away from the days of midnight releases and lining up for the latest book, to read it ASAP to avoid spoilers. I prefer to read series that are already finished so I can continue to read at my own pace, and not wait on new releases.

So why does everything have to be a series? Why can’t we just have stand alones where they make sense, and series where the plan was always to put forth a series with multiple plot lines?

Do you like the abundance of series in most genres? Are you enjoying the surge in “the first of the X Saga” kind of adverts for these books?