It is 85 degrees Fahrenheit in Texas this morning. Y’all, it’s chilly. Hehe.
Why are your books around the 300-400 page range when they are so good and literally could be double the size and still be awesome and other books from other authors are 400-700 pages. You mention a word count limit. Why is that a thing with your past books? You’d think the editors, or whomever makes the rules, would just let you write the story and not worry about word count. Then edit and provide feedback….
This is market and genre driven. Those of you who have some old paranormal or UF paperbacks, take a look at your shelf. All urban fantasy and paranormal books from the mid 2000’s are roughly the same thickness. Why is that a thing?
It’s because UF and PNR are commercial genres. There are several considerations here:
Price point. There must be a balance between the cost to produce a book and the price to the consumer. Most mass markets and now ebook retail for less than $10. They used to be $6.99 but with the inflation and rising paper and printing costs, that price went up. The paperback of Magic Triumphs retails exactly at $9.99 right now.
Force of habit. Readers get used to reading books of a certain length. Because we’ve been trained by the marketplace to expect 90-100 K books, anything that falls outside of that limit feels either too short or too long. This is very arbitrary though, because we had people complain that Sweep of the Heart was too short and it’s 122,000 words. Also someone referred to Sanctuary as a “short story” and the full file is 39,000 words, just 1,000 short of a short novel category.
Retailer space. Thicker books take up more space on the shelf. That means fewer titles are available to the reader.
The original selling point of the paperback was that it was both cheap and compact enough to be stuffed into a pocket or a purse. They arrived on the US scene in late 1930s, and they democratized reading. While hardcovers were expensive and were stocked only in book stores, the smaller, cheapest mass market titles could be sold just about anywhere: supermarkets, gas stations, etc. Anywhere you could fit a leaflet stand. And while most of the mass market titles were genre fiction, publishers also printed literary classics in that format, making them available to a much wider audience.
If you are interested in some of the history, here are some articles:
- Mike Shatzkin: Ebooks are making me recall the history of mass-market publishing (a personal and less dry take)
- UNC: Mass Market Paperback History
- Village Bookshop: A History of Penguin Books
Now, a lot of the bargain hunters opt for ebooks: they are inexpensive, they don’t fall apart, and they are instantly available. Your phone can easily contain your entire library. They are also convenient as reference books. I’m a sucker for a pretty reference book, but I have to tell you, being able to word-search through a reference text is amazing and it saves so much time.
Because of the advent of the ebook, we are seeing the retail space shrinking. Stores are experimenting with things other than books to get people in the door. If you’ve gone to B&N recently, you know exactly what I mean.
Parallel to that, the number of published titles has exploded, because ebooks expanded writing in a way mass markets expanded readership many years ago. Books that might not have ever seen the life of day were self-published, found the audience, and then were purchased by the traditional publishing houses.
The retailers are still trying to pack as many titles as possible into that smaller retailer footprint, and we see the new taller, slightly thinner format of trade paperback come on the scene. Pretty enough to keep and show off on Instagram and TikTok, cheaper than a hardcover, takes up less space, and weighs a lot less, too.
All of that pushes the commercial writing toward that typical wordcount of 90-100,000 words. Everyone knows pretty much exactly how much space it will take up, how much it will cost, and how long it will take to read.
We are commercial writers. It’s a business, and we write to the market specifications.
How does this explain Maggie?
Maggie turned out to be an epic fantasy, and the standard for that genre is looser. Thicker books are common. The readers are conditioned to expect longer epic fantasies, so while it is a departure for us, it is typical for the marketplace. It is also possible that Maggie may get a significant trim.
I have a longer novel and I’m about to submit it to agents. Does this mean I should cut it?
The interesting thing is, the same self-publishing success wave now makes longer books more viable, because a lot of the selfpub titles run longer and readers clearly love them and buy them. However, staying within that 100K boundary is still recommended.
There are always exceptions. THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova was 240K, and a debut, and it hit #1 NYT. Lightning does occasionally strike. But occasionally is key here.
As far as your book, does it need to be cut? Is it lagging? If not, then don’t cut it. Trust me, the editors will point out where to trim if it needs it. Make sure you have the best opening you possibly can to impress an agent. Make sure it’s grippy and it pulls you in. Write the best book you can, not the shortest or the longest. As Nora Roberts has said, you can fix anything but a blank page.
Best of luck!
Ebooks are wonderful but have their drawbacks.
While researching how to eventually close my Amazon account, I learned that all of my digital books and any remaining balance of gift cards, etc. will be lost, permanently gone. It seems a shame to invest so much money in books I love and not be able to be gift them to family and/or friends. If anyone knows a way around this, please share!
I agree,
DRM has really changed the book market. We used to gift books to our local library and can no longer do that. We are only renting digital content not purchasing it. You have to buy a hard copy if you want to keep it or gift it. I have a huge Audible library and am starting to amass a lot of GA that I won’t get to keep if I close those accounts.
Seems a little sus to me…
Graphic Audio offers multiple format options that allow you to download and keep your files. It’s a couple of bucks more than just the streaming option, depending on the format you choose. The website description will say that there are only 3 downloads available per title, but customer service said all you need to do is call and they’ll reset the limit, any book, any time.
I’ve uploaded files to an mp4 player, my phone, my laptop, and a backup external hard drive. As long as you don’t publish the files anywhere, you’re okay.
DRM is the reason I seldom buy ebooks. I have never bought an ebook with DRM and never will. If here ever will be a time where I can’t find good DRM free books (paper or ebook) rereading my 2000+ paper books may be enough for the rest of my life 😉
See if there is an option to download the books onto a separate drive. I too have digital books and have wondered about this. A year or 2 ago my husband reset my Kindle and wiped my SD card. Stuff I will never get back. Now I back stuff up on multiple flash drives. I haven’t tried it with Amazon stuff yet.
And all of your ebooks can be backed up at least. Download them to your Kindle, plug it into your computer and drag and drop. If you have a lot, it’s a PITA, but it’s doable.
I read a lot of wuxia and danmei, and those books are considerably longer 😂. I glad to see longer books are becoming more accepted.
Due to the high amount of comments suggesting illegal workarounds and book pirating, this thread is now closed.
Thank you for your understanding.
I have a suspicion that this won’t be the case forever. Amazon does the same thing for movies and TV shows and there’s already been talk by some politicians on how it’s not right for them to be able to take away digital purchases.
You can download them all from the “Manage Your Content And Devices”, store them and copy them across to your kindle (you’d probably want to set it to airplane mode)
I’m not sure there’s really any point to closing an Amazon account
I also love the ebook format … can access my whole electronic library from single device, and it the device (in this case, an i-pad mini) fits in a purse or bag.
But I am starting to worry about the longevity of that electronic format — remember 8-tracks, cassette tapes, VHS …? So I am making a list of my must-have, frequent-re-read books, and will re-buy in a material format, just in case. Sigh. Looking at the dates on my bookshelves, seems that I switched to the ebook format around 2007 or so? So 18 or so years to back-fill. Oye
This is 100% my problem. My physical library is full, and I have exclusively purchased ebooks for more then a decade. I fantasize of getting at least my favorites of the ebooks in paperback, but the cost and the fact that I am already out of space, some of them are already out of print . . Man, its crazy to think about trying to back fill at all.
I qualify as a book dragon from library size. 3 1/2 tall book shelves with no more room to stack piled two deep from top to bottom and over 2000 kindle books and 500 plus pdf from early ebooks, how would I ever have room to back fill?
It is exactly for that reason (will format still be available in.. years, I switched to Google Play books.
Yes they have DRM but it is Adobe.
I trust both Google and Adobe are here to stay.
While I do not completely trust those two to behave themselves, they are they only platform I now use for DRM epubs.
Google lets me Export the epub to any device compatible with Adobe Digital Editions.
I suppose I would have a problem if I ever lost my Adobe ID.
I’m “old” (mid 70’s) so for me books are printed on paper, I’ve tried reading the digital but for some reason I can’t disappear into digital the way can print. So am thankful that I don’t have to worry about resets or water damage; though having dropped more than one book into water while fishing the possibility of water damage exists.
This is off topic: but I love Ilona’s books they are my go to when the world goes crazy. I also “love” that time is taken by authors to read what fans have to say and respond to questions, I had one author I enjoyed until series to a hard right turn. I wondered why if fans were no longer enjoying but buying because had followed for years the right turn continued; then read an interview were the author said that she had stopped reading what fans had to say since it was mostly criticism about where she was taking her main characters.
It’s a balance 🙂.
Having the transparency and foresight to keep a relationship with one’s readers and a supportive flow of communication can be wonderful. I know my life would be a lot sadder if the BDH spaces exist.
At the same time, authors are not short-order cooks, and their creativity and ideas should be allowed to be expressed without the pressure of the readers dictating where the story should go.
I too am an avid Ebook and audible user and I HATE that I can’t turn off my subscriptions without losing my library. It has to be active for me to access my books. It’s complete BS. Like I bought it it should be MINE!! I moved too much before and didn’t have strength to lug a library with me but we finally bought a house this past year so I may start repopulating after we finish basement and I have bookshelves again…
Subscriptions don’t have to be active, just having an account, which costs nothing. You do not have to close the account to turn off the subscription.
Thank you. When you explain the ins and outs of writing and publishing it helps do much in understanding the writing and publishing businesd
I really like having books on my phone. I’m your worst type of fan because I hate anyone knowing what I am reading. it’s a habit from growing up. I choose exactly what I show and to whom, and what I am reading gives way too much information to a casual observer. it doesn’t matter whether I’m reading classic literature, cutting edge science, or fluffy fantasy. I want control over who knows.
For reference materials I really like paper because I am very spatial and will remember the feel of how into a book and where on the page a piece of information is. PDFs are a good compromise for me, and I use them a lot for code stuff.
Another industry question that actually popped into my head this morning before I saw this post…
This is more common with eBooks (actually, I don’t think it’s a thing with print) but I’ll often see bundled options, like a bundle of books 1-3, another bundle of books 4-6, etc. It mildly annoys me because they’ll have a unique title and different color and I think it’s a new book from that author only to see that it’s a compilation of eBooks I already have.
I don’t recall ever seeing your books offered as an eBook bundle. I already have the books so I wouldn’t buy them, but that seems like a way to get some new readers. Who decides if some books should be bundled like that? Would that be the publisher, or can you request it? There are certainly enough Kate books to split the series across several bundles, and I can see a Hidden Legacy Nevada bundle and a Hidden Legacy Catalina bundle.
It’s publisher driven 🙂.
Amazing that you just referenced Elizabeth Kostova and her book. I had never heard of her before this week, yet she is speaking at my boys’ school this week and you now mentioned her here. I might have to read the book!
Learn something new every day. I had no idea my books would go away if my Amazon account was deleted! AACKKK!!! I have over 2000. OK, so if 2/3’s of them went it would be no great loss, but the other third I reread, sometimes a lot in stressful times! Would they vanish off of my device if they were downloaded I wonder?
That’s a really good question! I’m not about to delete my Amazon account because I have thousands of e-books (some portion of which I wouldn’t regret losing, but most worth keeping). I have a substantial e-book TBR, which I have nightmares about losing.
There really should be a way to legally create backups (other than buying a new Kindle device and downloading them individually). Maybe a protected storage medium from which you can only upload to a Kindle (Nook, etc) device?
We have thousands of CDs but no CD player (which are getting rare in new cars and will ultimately go the way of tape). We listen to the music we legally paid for on various digital devices. I’ve backed them all up, from the online source if possible, copying if not. I don’t mind paying extra for a CD plus download, because I BOUGHT that record and would not abuse the copies by pirating them. I realize that’s an attitude retailers can’t count on, but still…
Also, there’s no realistic way to prevent people from sharing downloaded music files anyway!
The Historian came up recently in conversation with a friend (as one of my favorite books), in a novellette I just read, and now here. This is one case where, yes, it’s… crap, I am absolutely brain farting on the term for when you suddenly become aware of something then see it everywhere. It’s not that because I am ALWAYS aware of The Historian. Seems like something is telling me it’s time for another reread.
The Stand, by Stephen King. I remember when it was newly released with an extra 100K words and people were saying “what an egotist! If his editor thought he didn’t need those 100K words… this is like a director’s cut where the movie was better WITHOUT those extra scenes!”
And it came to pass it was a purely financial decision. That King was told to cut 100K, they didn’t care from where, but that was needed to bring it to price point. So it happens even with the biggest of bestsellers (and while he wasn’t the icon in 1985 that he is today, he was definitely the biggest of bestsellers).
Serendipity? 🤔
Not quite ☺️. It’s the frequency illusion, also dubbed Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
In its simplest forms, once you learn about something, it suddenly seems to appear or be referenced everywhere.
Confirmation bias was what I was trying to remember. Only came to me about an hour ago. Same definition.
As a kid i had a lot of physical books but when I could buy books myself ebooks were already a thing. I understand in theory the annoyance the these books aren’t mine but I’m just renting them as long as Amazon exists in some form or another. But that really doesn’t bother me. The concept of owning my music or my books doesn’t seem necessary to me! Interested in both sides.
My interest in reading has waxed and waned over the 60+ years I’ve lived. It started early, and continued until I noticed girlz. I rediscovered my desire for escaping into a story after my first heartbreak which continued until another girl. Lather. rinse, repeat.
Storing printed books izza problem, so when I returned to reading this last time — ebooks and, wallah! No moar storage problems. There’s the added benefit of backlit text negating the need for strong light in bedside lamps . . . .
All that to say, Imma leave the writing to y’all perfeshional types and I trust you to use the requisite number of werds to tell a great story.
Yer doin’ gr8!
Hah! I just started reading Urban Fantasy a few years ago and I’ve always thought it seemed that all of them were short. Now I know why. Didn’t expect there to be a difference of length compared to some of the other fantasy genres. I for one, would love much longer books!
I’ve enjoyed House Andrews’ work in various word counts: short stories, novellas, and novels up to about 100K words…and I’m excited about what happens when one of their novels is well over 100K words.
I assume with each word count parameter there are different things you can do with story and characters.
I have been really struggling with the glut of ebooks as a reader. Novels with continuity issues, major grammar errors and just in dire need of a better editor to make them shine. I am so grateful to have authors that I can rely on like you guys!
Will we ever get Rogan pt 2 of wildfire?
Probably not 🙂
How far in advanced do you decide your plot lines? ie Hugh came out of an April Fools joke (iykyk) but became an essential part of KD, and likewise the way Caesar reads in White Hot is a very different interpretation then what we get in Emerald Blaze.
No, Caesar is exactly the same. His plotline and conduct are consistent. The character has not changed. You are simply seeing him through the eyes of someone with a different perspective. It is explained in the books in a lot of detail, and I am not going to go into it. It would take too long and I try not to explain the books because they speak for themselves. 🙂
As far as Hugh, his ancestry, rise, and fall was also decided from the beginning. We simply weren’t planning to devote a book to him.
For everyone losing their ebooks – I stopped payment for Kindle & Audible (&Prime) services, but can still use my account (email & password) to log in and access my purchases, just not any of the KU/Audible loans. In fact, I have two accounts and I can toggle between both to read/reread whatever I’d bought with either account. Is this different than the issues here?
Yes, you still have your account, you just stopped your subscription. The question was for termination of account/ Amazon & Audible ceasing to exist. We are not condoning the use or share of any pirating or copyright breaching methods, so that thread is closed.
I hate to say this, from San Francisco… today the temp was 60F this morning, and didn’t crest 70F. 85F is Hot Here. 90F is HOT HERE.
I had to put on a sweatshirt to stay warm this morning.
It’s all relative.
Stay cool.
Thank you for sharing all this great advice! I love to share it with my writer friends.
Recently, I was dropping off a haul of used books at 2nd & Charles…There are two in Charlotte & I have found great stuff there. The guy behind the counter said he would take them because they were in great shape but the store is cutting back on their paperbacks.
82 here in Charlotte Metro
I prefer e-books so have no visual length cues and am very surprised when the blog posts say how long House Andrew’s books are by wordcount compared to similar books. I definitely would have guessed Sanctuary to be a long short story. I think it’s a compliment, they are very absorbing and we eat them up too quickly, the way it’s hard to believe that was really a whole packet of cookies.
Fascinating. I’ve lived and bought books through much of it. Paperbacks, starting in the early Sixties, and who else recalls hearing about the ‘Toaster Test’? And on to hardbacks and finally dragged kicking and screaming into ebooks. I don’t recall my first ebook, but I do know it was a title I REALLY WANTED that wasn’t in paper, so I bit the bullet and went digital. So now my Kindle supports most of the reading this old fogy does.
I just got to finish GA Magic Rises. And I have to say that Hugh’s description of what he would like in a paramour seems to describe Elara to a T. Missed it before in “reading “book.
E-books vs paper books or both? Thanks to my mom’s love of reading and passing it on to me, I have both. As with anything there are pros and cons to both. I remember my mom having a first edition paperback of Dune, and the price was, I think, $1.99 at the time. I also remember some of her other books were $0.50 or something like that. Her first edition of Shogun was $3.99 or $4.99. It’s been so long that the prices are hard to remember. 🙂
My book account is with Barnes and Noble. When I have to buy a new Nook and reset the old one, all my books are on the Barnes and Noble cloud. So long as I don’t permanently delete the book off the account, I still have them. The B&N app is on my phone if I ever want to use my phone as an e-reader.
As for paper books, I have both hard covers and paperbacks. A lot of the paperbacks are books that are out of print that I bought over time and liked the story. I also have paperbacks with original covers on them that were changed over time. Those books I hold on to for dear life since I know I can’t get those books ever again.
Slightly off topic, I recently reread Sweep of the Heart on my Kindle & noticed after the end Sanctuary was listed at top of “Other books by Ilona Andrews”. Did y’all ask Kindle to add this to the list or does Kindle do it automatically? Can Kindle edit your books without your consent? As a frequent rereader this is a concern.
The list has always been there 😊
I wonder to what extent e-books have changed our understanding of length. Yes, I know that ebook details will tell you the number of pages in the book. The ereader itself can tell you where you are in the book as a percentage or even page number. But that’s not the same as the physicality of holding a book and knowing this will be a long or short book. I think we depend more on perception with ebooks. A book feels long or short . . . no matter the word count or number of pages.
I agree, I don’t seem to have much perception of the length of an ebook unless the story is dragging and I look at the index to see how long is left. If I’m enjoying the book then it’s always as long as it needs to be (although sometimes too short!).
Talking about editing to meet a word count.
Have you ever thought about doing a “director’s cut” and self publishing all the cut bits from your various books?
I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
Good grief. I was under the impression that I had bought these books not leased them. I worry about losing power and running down the battery on my Kindle. I have no plans to eliminate my Amazon account, but geez, I don’t like that at all. Like so many others in the Horde I have over a thousand books on there. At one time three walls of my bedroom were lined with books to waist height in stacks or ceiling height in bookcases, mostly paperback. I considered them extra insulation and vastly more interesting than wallpaper. When I moved I paid hundreds of dollars shipping books and more getting Kindle editions of others. I still go to the solid books from time to time just for the feel of it. I love books. As to book length, if House Andrew writes it, the longer the better. As a kid my worst punishment was not being allowed to read my books. I was desperate. I’d read soup cans and ingredient lists. No one can stop me now. except maybe Amazon?
Oh man! I to believed I was purchasing my ebooks not leasing them. This is distressing. I must have been living under a rock. How did I miss this??
Interesting as always. Thanks!
I have to say that sometimes less is more. For IA, I wouldn’t mind longer books becasue I know they have good editors that cull out stuff that drags down the storyline. But other authors go on and on and have lost me as a reader because dragged way to much.
I liked Karen Chance until she somehow convinced her editors to let her ramble on about timeline jumping and I gave up reading all her books because I got tired of skimming and skipping pages of text. It’s also why I’ve have a hard time making it through traditional epic fantasy. I haven’t been able to get through any of Robert Jordan or George RR Martin. I resort to reading plot summaries because the writing just doesn’t work for me,
I have quite a few ebooks but that started when I couldn’t get them in paperback or they were free. Paperbacks are about available space and money and familiarity. I like a book in my hand. All I have to worry about is light ( I have used a flashlight in desperation ) to read by. If it’s an ebook ( on a laptop ) I have to worry about charging and wifi. And what do you do when wifi goes out?
I know ebooks are the future….but I find it a little scary that so much information is stored on-line and no hardcopy. What happens to information, books, etc if we get a HUGE solar flare and electronics crash? Yes, sigh, I know….conspiracy much?
There are some very nifty book lights around now, light with say an AAA battery, and with a clip you can slip over a cover or a few pages and a cover, because they use little LEDs the batteries last for ages which is another reason the whole thing is light. I’ve a two LED one, but you can go down to one light or up to lots more depending on your needs. And the really aren’t expensive, maybe $10 or $15? The ‘?’ is because I paid in British pounds so can’t give a precise American price or store, I got mine at the local garden centre!
I just reread a book that came out in the 2000s (I kind of forgot the plot til I was reading it) where the heroine is a time traveling FBI agent from the future. Throughout the book she keeps talking about how they don’t know that much about this time period because everything switched to digital information (cd, computer memory, ebooks…) and this format did not hold up to time well. It gave me anxiety because I’ve worried about this since switching to ebooks. Don’t get me wrong, I love all books but the ease of my Kindle, even with Amazon’s crappy changes, makes it my go to these days. I do worry that all my books will just disappear if Amazon gets a wild hair up their butts or the apocalypse happens. Hmm, I should buy a solar charger for my kindle just in case.
I don’t want a quick read. I want a long read with good story/character development. Not fluff. Is it me or do most ‘series’ are actually one long story that is then chopped up into small novels? I’m pretty sick of it because the author then spends a great deal of time reiterating what happened in the previous book.
And thanks to you educating me about AI, I am now suspecting there are a lot of AI books out there.
I understand you have to bow to business for the many reasons given. So I am buying fewer books (except IA books, thanks!) and rereading more. Better a good re-read than a mediocre read like what I’m slogging thru right now.
Thank you.
This is an excellent explanation, one I wish I had back when I was in the consulting business.
Thank you for this question and answer. I have often thought about this since I am usually ready to keep reading a great story. Thanks for reminding me about the practical and business considerations. I never want to stop reading your stories about Kate and Dina. Great explanation.
❤️