The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #285 -- Cliffhanger Novels

What are your thoughts about leaving a novel with a cliff hanger ending? (Thanks to Ralph Angelo for today's question.)

 As a reader it really ticks me off.

But then again, I also don't buy long fantasy or sci-fi series that can't tell a single story in a single book. And for the record, I still get irritated by Empire Strikes Back for the same reason, so it's completely possible I'm not your target audience.

I do however love book series that are based on a character and each book is a stand-alone or builds on elements from the previous books, but a series that has to split a single story over multiple books... No thank you very much.

I have a pretty strong opinion on this, obviously.