The Familiar by Mark Z. Danielewski is one. It was supposed to be a 27-volume series, but only five volumes were published. The publisher ended up putting the project on an “indefinite hold” because the books were too expensive to produce and not enough people were buying them.

Tolkien was working on a lord of the rings sequel but he found all of the story lines he could come up with really depressing so he dropped it.

Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman got buried by her because she hated it but when she died her heirs published it because money. It was awful and if you don’t realize the author didn’t like it either you’d like her a lot less after reading it.

Mark Danielewski, author of House of Leaves, had started a series titled The Familiar. He actually did get the first 5 books published, but eventually it was decided that there weren't enough authors to justify publishing the planned 27 BOOK SERIES.

I work at a used book store. I see copies of Volume 1 on the regular, 2 is uncommon, I may have seen 3 once, and I don't know if I've ever seen 4 or 5. House of Leaves was amazing though.

libs certainly aren't. Look at this thread for instance.

Summer Crossing by Truman Capote.

He wrote the whole novel, but then claimed to have destroyed it. It turns out that a houseguest had retrieved it from the trash and held on to the manuscript for about 50 years. It was then published in 2004.

Capote also was supposed to write a follow-up to In Cold Blood about the Houston Mass Murders in 1973 but was too sick to travel to begin researching. The sketches of what he planned to write are kept as “the Houston Diary 1973-1974”.

As a true crime fan, I cannot begin to imagine what Capote would have had to say about serial killer Dean Corll and his two accomplices. Definitely would have been one for the ages.

Wrong call

For a very long time midnight sun by Stephanie Meyer. Some hacker got the first 100 some pages she went nuts and posted it all to read then stops writing it. Then published it 15 so years later

All of Terry Pratchett's unfinished novels when he died, destroyed by steamroller

People complain that it doesn’t have enough depth but I felt that it was one of those books that carried a great deal of underlying philosophical and spiritual content.

Ironically, I purchased it at the airport in Rio de Janeiro during an 11 hour layover, when I was returning home to live in the US after spending 6.5 years living abroad.

To me, the concept of the character coming full circle at the end, with the underpinnings of the experiences and lessons he had learned along the way, was very powerful.

While some people find the book boring, I came away with a sense that there is richness and profound meaning in this life that a great deal of people overlook.

I suppose some are looking for clever entertainment, and not a contemplative narrative. I found it odd that others would dog it in this subreddit, but it is a book I have gifted to more than one person since I read it.

She buried the tennants of wildfell hall because she hated the book leading it to become the least well know of the Brontë Sisters works

“As Helen, Edward and Louise grew up they had come to recognise their mother's outlook for what it was. They realised with discomfort that she was not so much egotistical as fettered –trapped within a perpetual adolescence. She moved forever within a landscape whose only point of reference was herself."

from "Passing On" by Penelope Lively

Dead souls by Nikolai Gogol. He had severe depression and burnt the following two parts of the book

Then do I have good news for you

Someone dared to say they enjoyed a book and every single person here decided to tell them immediately how wrong they are.

Guess what guys, taste and art is entirely subjective, and unless you've won the Nobel Prize in literature, your opinions mean jack shit.

1. Shockingly, teenagers are interested in boning. See: high school.
2. "staked together?" I wish I knew what this question means. I have no idea. I dunno man some people totally marry their high school sweethearts so....
3. Welcome to: the resolution of the plot is beside the point. The point is the romance/betrayal/friendship-fest/coming-of-age/whatever

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David Starkey's second part of his Henry VIII biography was cancelled after his publisher dropping him when he was accused of making racist remarks. It's a shame because he's a great historian.

Not exactly what you're asking, but I think of The Exorcist as a partially cancelled book (and it pisses me off, lol). William Blatty admitted he had to rush into the end because they were pressuring him to publish and that's why it felt WAY TOO out of place with the rest of the book. And it's such a shame, honestly, I would have loved to read the original idea for the exorcism and the ending

I believe there are a not to measure number of books out there that have been written, but didn't find a publisher interested in publishing it.

So so many writers out there who never got a break.

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War of dragons by Jessica Cluess. Had arcs and everything and they just canceled/pulled the book after the author went on a racist and classist tirade on Twitter. Publisher dropped her and we never got the ending

This quote sums up my love of literature (and de Botton):

“I explained — with the excessive exposition of a man spending a
lonely week at the airport — that I was looking for the sort of books in
which a genial voice expresses emotions that the reader has long felt
but never before really understood; those that convey the secret,
everyday things that society at large prefers to leave unsaid; those
that make one feel somehow less alone and strange.” - Alain de Botton, A Week at the Airport

Maybe Emma by Charlotte Bronte? She only wrote a few chapters herself. There's speculation that her husband discouraged her from writing it so it was unfinished upon her death.

In the 1980s (as well as 70s to 90s) having a book series cancelled happened fairly frequently. At least one fantasy series per year, it seemed.

The usual cause was poor sales of later books in a series. Fans don't understand that for most readers, until they read book two, they are not going to buy book three (or later) in a given series. If book two or book three was released the month some other blockbuster was released, even cross-genre like Stephen King, that could be enough to kill an otherwise successful fantasy series. As books had to sell in the limited time that the store was willing to dedicate shelf space to a given title.

I have the opposite opinion so maybe ugly is just subjective