Would you be put off by a novel that was only 40-60k?

[Ned Marcus]

Would you buy and read a short novel or would you be put off by it? I ask because huge doorstopper fantasy novels seem quite popular, and because I'm increasingly writing shorter novels. My longest novel was 98k, but I usually write much shorter ones. As a reader, I prefer a shorter novel. Your thoughts?

 

[ThinkerX]

40,000 words is a novella. 'Empire: Country,' first book in my 'Empire' series, is only 53,000 words. (Though most of the subsequent books are in excess of 70,000 words.) Generally, I find it far easier and quicker to crank out a 25-35,000-word novella than a full-length novel.

I read a couple of fast paced fantasy series where the books are in the 35-45,000-word range. Immensely popular ones.

 

[Ned Marcus]

The Moorcock books are quite short—Elric of Melnibone is about 48k—and some others were sold as novels but would really be considered novellas nowadays. Some of them are well under 30k. George Orwell's Animal Farm was only about 30k.

It's interesting what's considered a novella vs novel. I've seen Facebook writers groups where anything under 70k is considered a novella. I was using the SFWA definition—40,000 words or over. I prefer this definition in case I actually start writing books about this length.

I'm not actually sure which is faster for me. I spent more time writing a 65k novel than a 98k one, but the shorter one was the start of a new series, so I had more thinking to do.

 

[pmmg]

Would you buy and read a short novel or would you be put off by it? I ask because huge doorstopper fantasy novels seem quite popular, and because I'm increasingly writing shorter novels. My longest novel was 98k, but I usually write much shorter ones. As a reader, I prefer a shorter novel. Your thoughts?

I dont mind reading things that are short. In many circumstances, I might even appreciate that more. But, I am sure there are many who might want a longer investment into the world you created. Cant make 'em all happy. For me, this would not be a show stopper.

But I dont tend to write things that short myself.

 

[Finchbearer]

Some of my best reads are what could be classified as novellas. They can pack more of a punch.

 

[Mad Swede]

"Traditional" publishers prefer longer novels, and I'm told this is because it gives a more economic print run. Novellas are expensive to print on their own and the resultant retail price can apparently put readers off.

I don't pay much attention to the length of a story when I'm reading, I'm more interested in the quality of the writing, the plot and the characterisation. A short story or novella can be every bit as good as a long novel.

 

[Ban]

I prefer shorter novels/novellas, though I do expect the price of the book to reflect that it is shorter. In general I'm willing to pay up to 17 euros or so for a 40-60k work, but 20 euros or more is reserved for longer works. I should say that I am partial to standalones, so I may not be the target audience for a series if that is what you are aiming for.

 

[Ned Marcus]

I prefer shorter novels/novellas, though I do expect the price of the book to reflect that it is shorter. In general I'm willing to pay up to 17 euros or so for a 40-60k work, but 20 euros or more is reserved for longer works. I should say that I am partial to standalones, so I may not be the target audience for a series if that is what you are aiming for.

I was thinking of both standalones and series. When you say you'd pay €17 or €20, do you mean for paperbacks? I guess you do because that would be expensive for ebooks.

 

[Ban]

I was thinking of both standalones and series. When you say you'd pay €17 or €20, do you mean for paperbacks? I guess you do because that would be expensive for ebooks.

I have never bought an ebook, so yes, up to 17 euros for a paperback of that size. Hardcover would be even better, but those are more expensive to produce. For an author whose works I haven't read previously or who hasn't been reviewed much, 10-12 euros would be reasonable I think.

 

[ThinkerX]

I have never bought an ebook, so yes, up to 17 euros for a paperback of that size. Hardcover would be even better, but those are more expensive to produce. For an author whose works I haven't read previously or who hasn't been reviewed much, 10-12 euros would be reasonable I think.

Charging $14 for my 53K (210 pages, I think) 'Empire: Country' gets me about $2 in profit. D2D wouldn't let the price go below $10. (where I make nothing). E-Book is $0.99 and I get about a third of that. Weirdly, print sales are almost neck and neck with E-book sales.

 

[Ban]

Charging $14 for my 53K (210 pages, I think) 'Empire: Country' gets me about $2 in profit. D2D wouldn't let the price go below $10. (where I make nothing). E-Book is $0.99 and I get about a third of that. Weirdly, print sales are almost neck and neck with E-book sales.

That's an advantage of traditional. With enough assured prints the prices can be lowered. One of the reasons why I rarely buy a self-published work.

 

[Insolent Lad]

Several of my books fall in that range so, yes, I'm fine with it. BTW, I'm inclined to put the novella-novel divide at 35,000 words though the 40,000 is okay (both are arbitrary). Definitely no higher.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Given that many book purchases happen online, and that a lot of ebooks are sold, I think most readers don't know (and consequently care less) what the page count of a novel is. Price does play a role, though less than you might think. You can't charge 3 times as much for a 300.000 word Stormlight Archive book as you can charge for a 100k word novel. And most indie authors price their books between 99ct and 5.99. And that's more dependent on what they're trying to achieve and what they think they can get away with then it is about the size of the book.

As a reader i sometimes feel books are getting too long. I dont have that much time to read, which means that a 300k novel can take me half a year if I'm not careful. Same with series by the way. Reading a 5+ book series would take me years to complete. Which makes me hesitant to start it.

In the end a book should be as long it needs to be and no longer (or shorter). And I'd much rather have a great and complete story in 50k words than a bloated one in 75k words. The conpleted is a big one though. I've also read an indie book which was part 1 of a series. It was short (in the 50k-ish range I think). But it also stopped at a weird point. Very little of the story was actually resolved by that point. Which made me feel cheated. I haven't continued reading that series.

 

[Fyri]

Would you buy and read a short novel or would you be put off by it? I ask because huge doorstopper fantasy novels seem quite popular, and because I'm increasingly writing shorter novels. My longest novel was 98k, but I usually write much shorter ones. As a reader, I prefer a shorter novel. Your thoughts?

I might be late to this, but I wanted to add... Lately, I've been looking for fantasy books featuring asexual characters because reasons and honestly, I do not care about the length if the premise interests me. If I find my new all time favorite book and it happens to be 40K words long, so what? A story is a story, and if it's good, then length doesn't matter. It's good.

I want a series that I can linger with for months or years, but I also just want a story that I can fall in love with. In the end, I buy the story I want to hear.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

When I was younger, I used to be rather proud of reading long books, 700-1,000 pages, but these days the books I usually read are in-between 300-450 pages, or shorter. I'm appreciating more and more, the skill it takes to write shorter books. There's no space for filler, and every word counts.

 

[Skyfarer]

I think the answers are backwards to the question...

 

[Rexenm]

A lot of people don’t even fantasise, so it relates, to me, on whether they would read shorter or longer, to increase sales - since we be such nerds.

 

[Skyfarer]

I think the answers are backwards to the question...

Oh wait now I see. Anyhow, yes of course. Long, short, whatever, good book's a good book. (I can't seem to edit that blunder above).

 

[Rexenm]

Oh wait now I see. Anyhow, yes of course. Long, short, whatever, good book's a good book. (I can't seem to edit that blunder above).

Ye, we be hitting the backboard.

 

[chongjasmine]

I don't mind reading a short novel, so long as it is good.