As someone who works in a bookstore we still get people coming in now and then asking about book Z. Definitely not as many as we used to, but it’s sad to have to explain that it’ll never be finished. Apparently she left instructions not to finish it with a ghost writer as well.
Working in a bookstore we see stuff like this a lot. It’s hard not to feel bad for authors who are throwing so much of themselves into their work and seeing how brutal the industry is. I sincerely wish that I could say “yes let’s get it on the shelf” to every author that asks, but realistically you can’t. Some aren’t polished enough, others there just isn’t a local market for them, and most simply aren’t sold in a format that we can order from (self published via small/vanity presses or Amazon). Something I love about our modern self-pub industry is how easy it can be which has opened the gates for so many authors who might’ve been overlooked by big publishers and how it’s given a voice to some traditionally voiceless communities. Something that I hate about our modern self-pub industry is how easy it can be which has created a massive “I can do it too” mentality, mixed with hustle culture and predatory vanity presses. It’s flooded the market with everything and everyone and for every success story there are easily 100x as many people who will never sell more than 5 copies. I’ve had to explain to so many people that a publisher offering to “get your book in stores” for a couple thousand dollars is lying to you. It’s a double edged sword of our modern industry, sadly.