Would be curious to see this broken down by fiction vs non-fiction. I read very few non-fiction books cover-to-cover. Most of them could be probably cut by 50% and not lose much.
Bestselling books have been getting shorter
91–100 of 118 posts
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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).
Here is one example: https://nceo.umn.edu/docs/presentations/nceo-lep-iep-ascdhan...
Did you link the correct document? This is about reading comprehension and the previous poster was asking for a source about class length (i.e. changing from the standard 50 minute class to classes of 10 minutes)
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#93Before jumping to conclusions, it's ten years over a lot of centuries of book lengths
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's something I have noticed with a lot of programming books. They are super long and are just pages of unfocused blablabla and screenshots. I miss books like K&R that are well written and concise. Problem is that padding most non-fiction books is really easy while padding a fiction book is hard. So expect non-fiction to get longer and fiction to get shorter.
Actually, as a writer of two fiction books: it's really easy. You just include more pointless description. Some popular fiction writer (James Patterson? not sure) said, paraphrasing, "You know all those parts you tend to skip over? I just don't write those."
He doesn't write those, but he works with a team of writers to deliver books at the cadence he does, so probably he meant someone else writes those.
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, as a writer of two fiction books: it's really easy. You just include more pointless description. Some popular fiction writer (James Patterson? not sure) said, paraphrasing, "You know all those parts you tend to skip over? I just don't write those."
He doesn't write those, but he works with a team of writers to deliver books at the cadence he does, so probably he meant someone else writes those.
I don't think so. I think he meant "that doesn't appear in my books." I'm sure he reads them over critically before sending them off.
anyhow, I'm not even sure he's the one who said that.
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many books are padded by: 1. using thicker paper 2. using a larger font 4. more spaces between lines 5. larger margins 6. a bunch of blank and/or pointless pages at the beginning 7. ad pages at the end I see it all the time. A book's contents can vary 2:1 in length compared to another one of the same physical size.
Which is longer: a game of thrones #1 or Harry Potter #6... I think they're similar page lengths but got is probably at least 2x the words. Kindle sections or word count really do make more sense for pure length. But thickness and heft are real as well as is paper cost :). I have the above analogy from teaching my kids not to be afraid of long books. It actually works both ways. "Look you finished hp6 when you were 1…
I've never read Harry Potter #6, but AGOT#1 has more words than The Two Towers, and The Return of the King put together.
Each of AGOT #3 and #5 on their own have almost has as many words as the entire LOTR trilogy. And while there are a lot of memes about how half of those words are detailed descriptions[1] of incredibly elaborate meals, I wouldn't say that they detract from the story.
[1] Onion grease dribbling down double-chins as wedding guests are gorging themselves on large pies, wide as wagon wheels, stuffed almost to bursting with carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, and chunks of seasoned pork swimming in a savory brown gravy.
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#97The last 10 years isn't a great sample (was 2011 really not part of the "digital era"?). It'd be interesting to see this spread across the last century -- my suspicion is that bestsellers have increased in length over the last 50 years, due to diminished serialization.
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's something I have noticed with a lot of programming books. They are super long and are just pages of unfocused blablabla and screenshots. I miss books like K&R that are well written and concise. Problem is that padding most non-fiction books is really easy while padding a fiction book is hard. So expect non-fiction to get longer and fiction to get shorter.
Actually, as a writer of two fiction books: it's really easy. You just include more pointless description. Some popular fiction writer (James Patterson? not sure) said, paraphrasing, "You know all those parts you tend to skip over? I just don't write those."
Brandon Sanderson wrote about his process of writing Mistborn and putting it through focus groups.
There were apparently several rounds of female readers complaining that he wasn't doing enough description of ballgowns.
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#99IMO most popular non-fiction books don't have enough content to justify their length. I'm not saying that the content is bad, or you shouldn't buy the book. The book is just padded out so you feel better about buying it. Who would buy a 40-page book for $15? The book gets padded out to 200 pages by repeating itself, adding filler sections, anecdotes, graphic design choices, etc. I am happy to see books get shorter if…
I've noticed an enormous number of business and self-help books are little more than checklists. Each chapter's title is essentially "Do X", and the contents give examples of when someone "did X" in a specific scenario. "X" is often very general advice, so the examples usually lack nuance or depth, resulting in a whole lot of fluff
Re: Bestselling books have been getting shorter
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I have wondered if the reading of Don Quixote serially was a very different experience from reading it as a novel. It was a serial satire, so I could see reading the "new episode" every week being funny. Before I got side-tracked, I was reading it like any other novel and, while any particular episode is set up comedically, Don Quixote's mostly harmless delusional actions being given exponentially more brutal respons…
There’s a really great app called Serial Reader that breaks books in the public domain down into ~15 minute chunks and “delivers” the issue to you every day. The app is free (no ads, even!) but you can pay a small fee for a few extra features like scheduling the delivery days/time and being able to read ahead. I think it’s like $3 or maybe $5? I can’t recall. But I’m pretty sure it’s a one person operation. I have no affiliation with the app other than being a happy paying user.