Given two alternative, strong endings to a novel, how to decide which one to use?

Question

I'm in the final polishing stages of a novel and I have two endings that both blow me away and I feel are very, very strong.

Obviously, I can only have one ending. The story doesn't lend itself to a trick where I can write both into the book, but one of them turns out to be a dream and then the real one follows (I remember one or two stories like that). No, with my story and especially my protagonist that wouldn't work.

The problem is that they are opposite endings. One of them is a final turn towards the good, where after everything is lost and all scores settled, the POV MC at least is reunited with his lost love (lost her around the middle of the book, with the loss setting off most of the second part). Strong, happy ending.

The other ending also has him find her, but this time she reveals that those he hunted down and eliminated were actually her allies and she stayed hidden throughout the 2nd part of the book by her own choice because she wants to be as far away from him as possible. Fade to black, closing off all the loss and destruction with the only personal loss that actually matters to the MC. Strong, dark ending.

And I keep reading and re-reading them. I've settled on the dark ending for now, but the scales are pretty balanced and a tiny swing in mood could convince me that the happy ending is the better one. Both endings provide closure and finish the story so nothing else can be said. Both bring all character arcs and storylines to an end. Both provide closure for the reader. Both leave me personally satisfied, just in completely different ways.

I have a low number of test readers, so not a statistically significant sample to question.

Is there a tested and proven way to decide which ending to choose?

Answer 1

Do you wish to sell the book?

Happy endings outsell unhappy endings about 10 to 1. This has actually been studied to some extent, and the difference comes down to word-of-mouth: Even if people say they liked a book with an unhappy ending, they are much more reluctant to recommend it to friends, out of fear their friends won't like a downer ending.

Unhappy endings, like the one you describe, make the hero the reader has been identifying with feel like a fool and a stupid loser to not have realized the truth. Which is alienating to the reader, almost an insult. They read to identify with the hero as an escape from a life where nearly none of us are actual heroes, and an unhappy ending ruins the whole fantasy.

Agents know this, publishers know this, and they are less likely to represent or buy a book because of it. It means the book is much more unlikely to "go viral" with enthusiastic reviews, fans or celebrities recommending it, etc. All of that is free advertising they want and seek and try to encourage. Unhappy endings poison that well, and the sales studies prove it.

I am sure some geniuses have written best-sellers with unhappy endings, but those don't prove the averages wrong. In plays tragedies were once common. But that was in a very different social culture, and in the modern culture, most films and movies have happy endings, or at worst, consequences but net positive endings; i.e. evil was defeated but at a heavy price.

I'd go with the happy ending.

Answer 2

You may want to consider what the reader has been prepared for. What have you promised, either explicitly or not? Both endings might be strong to you, but I don’t know that a reader would be equally satisfied by both.

How can a main character betraying (as I read it) the other be as viable as a happy reunion? The story surely points one way or the other?

Are there small hints that she is allies with the bad guys, besides her disappearing? Does she come off as untrustworthy? If there aren’t, it will feel like unearned, cheap drama. (Like if Han ye-hawed in to shoot down Luke in Star Wars).

If there are hints, the happy ending may feel unsavory.

Also, at the beginning of the story, is the question of betrayal brought up? Is it a hopelessly dark story, or is there a promise of a hard fought happiness and optimism?

I think the character arcs and story must be very ambiguous for both endings to be viable. You might be too close to the story to make an unbiased assessment. I’d suggest finding a couple readers to read the first half and ask them if they want or expect a more happy or more dark ending. If they want a certain type of ending, that will be the satisying ending. If they expect one, that’s what the story is leading to.