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Bestselling books have been getting shorter

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Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#31

Post by ghaff »

zwieback wrote: post #23

I would love to see this broken out by fiction/non-fiction. I read mainly fiction and some stories just take longer to tell than others so I don't really take page count into consideration. When I do read non-fiction I almost always think that the book could be improved by heavily editing down the second half.

A lot of non-fiction books are IMO longer than they need to be, especially "business" books and things in that vein. Really fleshing out an idea takes more than a magazine article but a lot of the time it also doesn't really need a 250+ page book--but that's about the minimum that publishers will generally take on. One might have hoped that ebooks would have changed that but a lot of readers presumably would feel shortchanged paying regular book price for a 75-100 page book. But, as a publisher, my costs are pretty similar whether the book is 100 pages or 300 pages.

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#32

Post by boppo1 »

elmomle wrote: post #16
yojo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my first thought. Maybe it’s not “books are getting shorter,” but “publishers are getting cheaper.” Decreasing margins, decreasing font size, etc could all explain a diminishing page count to save on printing costs. That said, from looking into publishing, it seems like consensus is anything over 100k words (approx 400 pages) is basically unsellable unless you’re Stephen King or something. It’s not clear to…

Many of the longer novels in classic literature were originally serialized, and only later compiled into the lengthy tomes we know today.

Yep! Count of Monte Cristo is known as a long read but it was originally serialized. You can kinda tell too, the plot meanders a couple times. Nonetheless extremely entertaining, I'd highly recommend.

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#33

Post by karaterobot »

I'm very okay with books being shorter. Most non-fiction bestsellers can be summarized in a blog post, and (in my opinion) most of them should be. With fiction, there is nothing inherently better about a long novel, nor is it intrinsic to the form. There are great long novels, and great short ones, but in general it seems like most of the long ones have some fat on them. Usually, with a really long novel, I don't think "they couldn't have cut out a single word!" Instead, it's "oh, this author has enough power that they can just ignore their editor."

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#34

Post by ghaff »

j0hnyl wrote: post #7
msmenardi wrote: post #5

It could also be caused by authors getting better at expressing themselves succinctly.

I think it's because publishers have loosened up a bit on their requirements and self-publishing is easier than ever. Traditionally, publishers wouldn't really invest in putting out short books aside from some notable exceptions.

Though I doubt many of the books on the NYT bestsellers list are self-published. In general though I agree with you. For a lot of non-fiction books 100 pages is probably plenty but, if you go through a publisher, you'll have to go longer. It's one reason I likely won't use a publisher again.

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#35

Post by rr888 »

IMSAI8080 wrote: post #4

I mainly buy books online and I don't really actively look at the page count before I buy a book. I can see that if you buy a book in a store you get a sense of the page count from the thickness and maybe some people dislike long books. Presumably though most books are now sold online and I wonder if other people do not check the page count either. I therefore wonder about the author's conclusion that it's reader dri…

I have had the same problem. Open the package you already feel like you've been scammed. Its almost makes it worth paying the extra to use regular bookshops again.

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#36

Post by mtillman »

boppo1 wrote: post #32
elmomle wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of the longer novels in classic literature were originally serialized, and only later compiled into the lengthy tomes we know today.

Yep! Count of Monte Cristo is known as a long read but it was originally serialized. You can kinda tell too, the plot meanders a couple times. Nonetheless extremely entertaining, I'd highly recommend.

Same for Count of Monte Cristo and some of his other works. Also Don Quixote if I recall correctly. I actually read them one to two chapters a week to stay on a similar to original schedule.

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#37

Post by ngoilapites »

elliekelly wrote: post #29
nineplay wrote: post #25

I'm so weary of this sort of 'society is in decline' clickbait articles. Let's take some minimal amount of data, analyze it by some absurd criteria, and then present as some stunning insight. There's so much wrong with this article that its hard to know where to start. The fuzziness of 'page count'. The absence of any consideration of digital readers and whether they even know the page count when starting a book. Who…

No one said longer books are better? Good writing is often concise. And the article doesn’t at all conclude “society is in decline”. You seem to be the only one making these leaps and drawing these conclusions.

"Good writing is often concise" is flawed logic when relating to long books, except for myopic planners.

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#38

Post by CadmiumYellow »

mc32 wrote: post #3

Many things are competing for people's attention combined with people's ability to stay focused[1] going down may contribute to this. This is probably to be expected as we take the discipline out of people. [1] Universities discussing whether classes should be delivered in 10 minute chunks because students can no longer stay focused for 50 mins to an hour any more.

"Universities discussing whether classes should be delivered in 10 minute chunks because students can no longer stay focused for 50 mins to an hour any more."

Do you have a source for this? That's absolutely wild (though believable).

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#39

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

nineplay wrote: post #25

I'm so weary of this sort of 'society is in decline' clickbait articles. Let's take some minimal amount of data, analyze it by some absurd criteria, and then present as some stunning insight. There's so much wrong with this article that its hard to know where to start. The fuzziness of 'page count'. The absence of any consideration of digital readers and whether they even know the page count when starting a book. Who…

I don’t think society is in decline but my best friend is a university teacher and if you allow me an anecdote it’s become obvious to him in the past five years that first year students are less and less familiar with the written world and increasingly good with images and videos as a medium of communication. The shift seems real.

Long works of literature were always fairly niche. If you read the articles you will see that bestsellers are going from short to shorter rather a decline in the publication of long novels.

Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter

#40

Post by cafard »

blockwriter wrote: post #22
UIUC_06 wrote: post #9

It is true that literary agents are less likely to take on a book that's "difficult" in any way, and "too long" is one of those ways. As slimy as they are, they do have a sense of what publishers want, who in turn have a sense of what readers want. And lots of people do not want to read books anymore, broadly speaking. There are too many other entertainment options.

There are a select few agents who specialize in literary fiction. If you start a naive search of literary agents, you will find that their stated interests zero in on books that are of the political moment. The majority of agents are looking for a book, preferably young adult fiction, that focuses on a protected class, of which the author should also be a member. This is not a complaint, but the evident regression to…

A look at the Pulitzer Prize for fiction suggests to me that production has been uneven for a long time
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