Are Stand-Alone Teen Books Becoming Extinct?

Do you suffer from series overload?

It seems like every paranormal or dystopian book is part of a trilogy at a minimum.  As much as I enjoyed
"Imaginary Girls" by Nova Ren Suma, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a stand-alone book.

It made me realize that it is difficult to find stand-alone teen books, but there are some good reasons to read them.

Reasons to Buy a Stand-Alone Teen Paranormal Novel:

1.  No cliff-hanger endings

You don't have to wait years to find out whether the main character chooses the vampire or the boy-next-door (or werewolf, faerie, immortal etc.).

2.  It's lighter on your wallet 

Once you buy one book in a series, you feel obligated to collect them all.  And don't forget all those limited special editions, and boxed sets.

3.  The quality of the writing is less likely to decline. 

"Breaking Dawn", anyone?

The longer a series goes, the more outlandish the plot-lines seem to become.  I stopped reading the "House of Night" series for this reason.

4.  Less time commitment.  

Too many series, too little time.

The more series there are, the more difficult it becomes to keep track of the latest releases in each series, and to find time to read them.  However, if you keep enjoying the books, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.  

5.  If it becomes popular, it may become a series.

Just kidding.

But sometimes this does happen, especially with new authors where the publisher is less likely to commit to publishing a trilogy so they market the first book as a stand-alone novel and see how well it sells.