Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
I don't think most readers have a good grasp on word count. But we've all grown up with paper books and are able to get a general picture of length going by page count. Yes, there's a million variables. But even so.
Page count:
Below 200 - Short novel. Also the average genre novel length prior to the '80's
250-450 - 'Average modern novel length'
500-700 - Prepare to spend some time on this one. Could be a victim of author indulgence
750-> Likely a fantasy door stopper
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I've no idea of how a word count would correlate with my understanding of page counts, and my general expectation of how long a book is. I do know that a page count on many Kindle books isn't a good gauge of the actual length, due to some authors use of padding and or weird formatting to intentionally make a book longer than it actual is.
But in general, a page count is fine with me. It is what I'm used to, and since there seems to be no rush to start listing word counts. I glance at the page count when considering a new author, and tend to pass on books that are less than 200 pages, as I'm not a fan of novellas. I make a note of indie authors who intentionally pad their books, and don't read their offerings.