Length of a Teaser

[ScipioSmith]

I'm about to put my first book out, and since I have the sequel written already (originally one book, split in half for length) I want to include an excerpt from it at the end of the first one.

I was hoping that someone might have some advice about what kind of length would be about right for this kind of excerpt.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

Is it in print, an ebook, or both?

I would guess like 1 - 3 chapters depending on the # of words in ea. But this is really a guess.

 

[BWFoster78]

I'm putting an excerpt from my upcoming novel in a novella I'm about to release. Rather than worry about length, I tried to choose the perfect cliffhanger spot to end it. It ended up being close to 9000 words, a little over 7% of the book.

 

[wordwalker]

I've always thought the most elegant teasers were limited to one chapter, or maybe part of one. Seeing something go past that single unit looks a little wrong to me-- although I know very well a "chapter" might be just a fraction of a scene.

Which might just mean that, if your right teaser is something that looks like a total of one chapter's length, take the "chapter" marks off it.

 

[BWFoster78]

wordwalker,

I guess that the fundamental question is, "What's the purpose of the 'teaser?'"

I tend to think of it as trying to hook the reader so that they'll immediately go out and buy the book. I think that I'm more likely to do that with several chapters, even more than my Amazon sample, rather than something that is a fraction of a scene.

I got hooked on WoT by getting a free copy of about the first 1/3 of Eye of the World. I drove back to Waldenbooks the next day and bought the full book. Finished it in two days, and went back for the sequel, repeating until I reached the end of what was then completed.

I'm not sure I would have done the same from just a part of a scene ...

Thanks.

Brian

 

[wordwalker]

True enough. There are different schools of thought on what a teaser could be; I'm just sharing a lingering impression I had from the days of print-books-only when using more than a chapter was considered too much paper. Doing it all with one chapter can be impressive... but it might not do the job as well as several.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

My advice would be to keep it short, relative to the main story. Nothing annoys me more when reading on a Kindle than to get to the 90% mark and find the book ends earlier than I expected and the rest is just filler, advertising for the next book. If I really enjoyed this book, I'll buy the next one anyway, but I don't want to read any of it yet. Some people don't mind, but those that do really mind, and are liable to leave bad reviews complaining about it. All you need is a 2-3 page teaser, in my view.