What would you suggest? You have 70K to 85K. What if I come in at 65K. Thank you so much for these helpful guidelines! Would 70KK be an appropriate range to have in mind? However, the author and I might have a serious discussion about the possibilities to change the word count. Thanks Jessica. I understand having guidelines, BUT, if that were all that mattered, some great books were probably never meant to be written.
If every book is supposed to stand alone, having a series may not fix the issue. Jessica is giving us these word counts because this is what sells based on her experience. We can all write books for ourselves that are however many words, but will those books sell? Maybe yes, maybe no. This is super helpful.
What about prescriptive nonfiction? They both have their place. I tend to avoid the novellas and would certainly avoid the book shots. My preference is a well developed story with character development and at least some subplot.
He seemed to be more interested in making money than writing novels. Not that money is a bad thing…. It is exactly what I would have written. I was fascinated with his office. One of the things I like about his books besides the suspense are the short chapters.
He said in the segment that he loved writing and so I think he does it because it is his passion, not just for the money. I like the way he is promoting literacy for the younger readers. I would be willing to try BookShots as long as the quality is there. I am more than annoyed with the prices of ebooks lately. I also participate in 2 book clubs that each meet monthly and are usually over pages and look forward to reading a good book with less than pages.
KG, I thought that segment was terrific. And, WOW, what a writing room! Was that a Baby Grand in there? And all of those books he is working on! I would never read a BookShot. I feel a good book draws the reader in and includes them in the story. While I think the shorter stories have their place, I too prefer a longer, well developed story and tend not to buy novellas. Thanks for discussing this, Danna!
I think the page quota is yet another instance of how the big publishers are calling the shots. Bravo, Mr. Patterson for bucking the trend! Good writing takes time, thought, and effort, and five well chosen words can take the place of twenty.
It was my understanding that writing was considered an art. Silly me! I like the detail in the books. Also, do not read James Patterson anymore. Perhaps exploring beloved side characters, expanding on events referred to but not experienced in the main series, et cetera. However, I have said to myself that this book could have ended much better if it was much shorter on quite a few occasions. When I took a quick look back at some of my favorite cozies books on my bookshelf that I purchased in the past, they are typically pages shorter.
They seem to have written the story rather well without having to use an extended amount of pages. Now, it seems as though all cozies must have a theme glass making, jewelry maker, etc. A portion of the novel is always used to explain this theme. I also wonder if the cozy publishing issues, that costs are now a major factor into a books page length.
I sometimes look at number of pages before I buy. Losing some descriptions and subplots would also be fine with me. I sometimes skip over descriptions when reading. I agree with Mollie that I think each have their place. I never buy the Novellas as by the time you get started the book is over.
I like a nice long book. The length should evolve from it, not from a profit motive be it a short book or long. Carol, as I was sitting here reading this, that was my exact thought too. Bookshot is just updated new lingo for novella.
Lots of authors have novellas as in-between books. I just want to read a good book, the size truly does not matter. Eager to see what happens when the rest of the world catches on and this all becomes the next fad. I have to agree with the two of you on that! Whatever it takes to tell the story, be a a little longer or shorter… I feel like the very short ones would see like the story is being told in a rush to save pages!
The majority still use the same guidelines as beginning writers, because not to, is disrespectful to their publishing colleagues who set them.
The guidelines are there for a reason: economics. Not just managing the economy of word usage, but of greater importance, it is more economical to a publishing house to publish a book of a specific length, than to publish one that is longer. It costs money to proofread a book twice the length of another.
It costs time and money to have an editor work scrupulously with an author to condense their book down to an acceptable word count.
It costs a great deal of money to actually bind books. All of these costs can be drastically reduced by a writer demonstrating a professional respect for the guidelines outlined below. There are many writers who choose the more difficult path of convincing publishing professionals that the parameters should be stretched beyond the norm and that their manuscript justifies a larger word count. Now regarded as classics, these debut novels had to be edited to reduce them to these published word counts.
If editors had not taken a chance on these longer reads, their authors would not have had a single word in print. Instead, the rules were broken and guidelines were abandoned.
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