Novel Length
A commenter writes:
Are you telling me that you write a whole book in 60k words?!
I've written plenty of stuff (some science fiction) but I've always thought a full on book ought to be at least 100k...
Well, to put things rather bluntly, I think the notion that a book ought to be a certain length is...well, wrong. I realize that in SF&F there's a trend towards having longer novels, but this is no reason to assert that all books within the genre should be a certain length.
My writing style lends itself to shorter works. I tend to use short, fragmented sentences and often opt for dialogue over prose. This shortens a piece considerably. Mind you, even writers who utilize a somewhat more traditional style often turn in works far under 100k. Consider the following well-known SF novels:
Jennifer Government - Max Barry (82,063 words)
Neuromancer - William Gibson (78,797 words)
Man Plus - Fredrik Pohl (75,217 words)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick (62,076 words)
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin (56,557 words)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow (50,019 words)
Word is that publishers are leaning towards shorter works these days, on account of people having less time to read (but then why is the Barocque Cycle doing so well?). Anyhow, I'm curious...
When you walk into a bookstore or library, does the size of the book play a role in how likely you are to pick it up? Or, if you're a writer, do you strive for a certain word count?
Are you telling me that you write a whole book in 60k words?!
I've written plenty of stuff (some science fiction) but I've always thought a full on book ought to be at least 100k...
Well, to put things rather bluntly, I think the notion that a book ought to be a certain length is...well, wrong. I realize that in SF&F there's a trend towards having longer novels, but this is no reason to assert that all books within the genre should be a certain length.
My writing style lends itself to shorter works. I tend to use short, fragmented sentences and often opt for dialogue over prose. This shortens a piece considerably. Mind you, even writers who utilize a somewhat more traditional style often turn in works far under 100k. Consider the following well-known SF novels:
Jennifer Government - Max Barry (82,063 words)
Neuromancer - William Gibson (78,797 words)
Man Plus - Fredrik Pohl (75,217 words)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick (62,076 words)
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin (56,557 words)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow (50,019 words)
Word is that publishers are leaning towards shorter works these days, on account of people having less time to read (but then why is the Barocque Cycle doing so well?). Anyhow, I'm curious...
When you walk into a bookstore or library, does the size of the book play a role in how likely you are to pick it up? Or, if you're a writer, do you strive for a certain word count?
15 Comments:
Interesting blog!
The Right Left
I usually go for long books. But some of my fav. books of all time are short (one of them being "We", which I was very excited to see mentioned by you because I've never come across anyone else that's read it!) - so I don't think a novel's length should be that big of an issue.
Shorter lengths are easier to sell, at least for first time writers.
Plus, it seems a lot of editors and agents are leary of 300K tomes from newbies. (Often means a bloated manuscript with every writing mistake know to humanity.)
Heck, in my experience critiquing, I find that when the writer says "this is the first chapter in a 150K novel, in a 500K trilogy," usually its bad. Train wreck bad.
Not always, but usually.
"it's bad" not "its."
Argh.
As a reader, book length doesn't affect me in the least.
As a writer, I try to use only the words I need to convey the desired concept and not one word more.
The novel is only a collection of short stories written in chapters on one or more subjects.
My experience with publishers tells me that they expect a novel to be around 100K words or thereabouts unless you're someone like Stephen King where word count doesn't really matter.
However, for new writers, I agree with Pat's comments. A 300K novel is difficult to sell. Personally, I think a good novel is between a wide range 75K (shorter end) to 150K (longer novels).
Also, it depends on the genre. Historical novels, my favorite, tend to be a little longer, due to some additional detail that is necessary. However, detective and action / thriller novels can be written in 70K words or less.
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think cube captures my own sentiments best in his response.
aitooh - Yes, We is one of my favourite books. I'm always surprised at how many people have never heard of it before.
As an avid reader, it's of my opinion that the count doesn't matter. More that the content does.
If it's crap, then it's a waste of time to try to salvage anything good from it. Especially when the book is a large one. The opposite is true as well...have a very well written short novella and the reader will beg for it to be expanded upon.
BTW... it's my personal opinion that Stephen King is overrated. Just my opinion so please no hate mail.
Have a great day!
I read "We" in the original language at school! It was a real eye opener; one of the first science fiction novels I got my paws on.
As for length - from a writer's point of view, it depends on two things a) how big your idea is and b) whether the publisher has any specific requirements (submission guidelines, etc). The End. So the person making the comment that sparked your post was clearly projecting some other issues into it. Perhaps they've written something that has been rejected? Who knows.
From a reader's point of view, length doesn't influence me one way or another, although if the short novel was priced at exactly the same level as a mammoth tome, I might feel a little put off.
Hi Cavan,
As a writer I usually aim for 100k, but that doesn't mean I always hit it.
I'm really tired of reading books that go on forever, and as a reader am actively looking for shorter fantasy and sci-fi. Given a choice between two new writers with similar reviews, I'd take the 300 page novel over the 800 page novel every time, regardless of price.
Lest we forget Fahrenheit 451, also quite short (I think around the 50,000 mark).
I never thought about length as a reader, only as a writer. It doesn't matter to me, especially before I start reading. But once I read the book I may get so attached that I would want it longer, alas, it doesn't happen often.
I write only the words that need be written and leave out the 'fluff'. It drives me nuts to read three paragraphs of flowy description when one would do it. Plus I find I start to wander (my mind does) when there is an excess of words that aren't helping move the story along. An instruction once told me make sure you need every word in the story, if you don't need it cut it. So my opinion is write and not worry about word count.
Mmmmm, well I'm the guy that started this (I feel so honoured), but I'm glad I did. It's interesting to see the examples of shorter novels. I thin perhaps I overestimate the number of words on a standard novel page. I'm also rather surprised to find myself in the process of writing something that's already clocked up 40k, makes me realise it's not SO hard to write a novel if you set your mind to it... It's only taken me 6 months to get this far (with a full time job + full time girlfriend etc.)
As a reader, big books don't daunt me. In fact, I have a tendency to look for bigger books, since I know more of my time will be occupied reading good material, whereas with short books, I whiz through them so fast. So to keep myself reading more, I like larger books.
As far as writing goes, as someone who hasn't yet finished my fantasy novel manuscript...I had this tendency to want at least 100 pages. But now I'm past the 100-page mark, so now I'm just trying to get the story and message I want across, without unnecessary words, but not cutting out anything I think important to the story as a whole. So how long should a novel be? I don't really have a say on that.
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