An eccentric request: 1,000 page Indie novel

[elemenoP]

As I understand it, an extra space between paragraphs will increase the length of the book by the number of those spaces, each one is just a character. And if it's set up a certain way (as space below each paragraph rather than two hard returns), it won't increase the length of the book at all. The page count is based on character count, not white space or page turns, at least in ePub. For example, I read a book that had pictures in it, and although each picture took up one screen and caused me to have to page forward, the page count remained the same for each of these screens.

Help us out with your motivation here. Are you writing a 1000 page indie novel and you want to see if anything else is out there that compares?

eP

[Dr. Drib]

My understanding (perhaps flawed?) is that each extra (blank) space - if it's a hard carriage return, is an extra line. And the way some of these horribly formatted 'novels' come out, I wouldn't be surprised to find this is the case.

With a longer novel, which is what we are talking about, that could artificially lengthen the novel.

I'm writing my own novel, but then who isn't? I suspect someone's Grandmaw or Grandpaw is, at this very moment, working on one.

The reason for my search is that I like to read long novels (and short stories and normal-length novels, too, of course), but it occurred to me while looking, downloading and reading all the Indie novels I've been reading and enjoying for the past 3 years, that I've yet to see an Indie writer commit to such a length.


Don

[BexBits]

Not quite 1000 words but The Book of Deacon ( https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9354?ref=jrlallo) and the second book in the series are both between 800 and 900 pages on my Nook.

[caleb72]

Here you go. I've found something for you. I believe this is indie/self-published, so apoligies if I'm mistaken.

The Drought by Lily White. Amazon has this clocked in at the Kindle equivalent of 1040 pages. It's literary fiction which I understand was OK for your criteria.

Here's an Amazon link for you: Amazon (US)

Does this suit?

[caleb72]

Here's another. It almost looks like it's part of series, but I don't think so somehow. Looks like they might have created a world in which several stories or books may be released but as separate entities. Amazon only reports it as 720 pages though so it's dropping a bit far from your target.

It's an epic fantasy called Raven's Heart and although it has a publisher name listed, I can't really find out much about them and expect it's just a front for self-publishing or similar.

Here's an Amazon link: Amazon (US)

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by BexBits

Not quite 1000 words but The Book of Deacon ( https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9354?ref=jrlallo) and the second book in the series are both between 800 and 900 pages on my Nook.

This has gotten some great reviews. Thank you, Bexbits! (I think you meant 'pages' and not 'words'.)

I've just now downloaded it and will pop it onto my Kindle and give it a try.

I'm showing 813 pages on this thing.

The Kindle edition shows 323 [real] pages, so I'm wondering if this is really as 'big' as it is. It has about 144,000 words, which tends to make me think it's not as long as I would like.

Here's the Kindle link, by the way, for anyone who may wish to look at it from a different site:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-of-De...book+of+deacon

However, as I said, I downloaded it and will attempt to read it. It certainly looks like a good read.

Thank you!

ADDED: The thing about 'real' page length and 'screen' page length is one of the issues most of us face who love ebook Readers. So, still looking......


Don

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

This has gotten some great reviews. Thank you, Bexbits! (I think you meant 'pages' and not 'words'.)

I've just now downloaded it and will pop it onto my Kindle and give it a try.

I'm showing 813 pages on this thing.

The Kindle edtion show 323 [real] pages, so I'm wondering if this is really as 'big' as it is. It has about 144,000 words, which tends to make me think it's not as long as I would like.

Here's the Kindle link, by the way, for anyone who may wish to look at it from a different site:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-of-De...book+of+deacon

However, as I said, I downloaded it and will attempt to read it. It certainly looks like a good read.

Thank you!

ADDED: The thing about 'real' page length and 'screen' page length is one of the issues most of us face who love ebook Readers. So, still looking......


Don

Yeah - something fishy about the page numbers coming up on Kindle. Even the paperback edition at Amazon is only showing 322 pages. My Calibre reports it as 484 which still seems to be quite an inflation.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Here you go. I've found something for you. I believe this is indie/self-published, so apoligies if I'm mistaken.

The Drought by Lily White. Amazon has this clocked in at the Kindle equivalent of 1040 pages. It's literary fiction which I understand was OK for your criteria.

Here's an Amazon link for you: Amazon (US)

Does this suit?

Yes, this may be it. Thank you.

The author would appear to be an Indie writer. By the way, she looks like she's all of 15 years old.

I'll download a sample and see if I can get into it.

It certainly looks to be over 1,000 pages.

....but, ACK! - the writer used the dreaded space-between-paragraphs gimmick.

If I find myself getting into it, I'll buy this sucker!


Thanks, again!



Don

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

....but, ACK! - the writer used the dreaded space-between-paragraphs gimmick.

Good Lord - so she does! And it looks like she doesn't indent. Yuck!

If I ever get around to reading this, I might see if I can make it a bit more pleasing to the eye.

I've been following your quest with some interest. After all of that, I hope this book isn't 1000 pages of drek.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Good Lord - so she does! And it looks like she doesn't indent. Yuck!

If I ever get around to reading this, I might see if I can make it a bit more pleasing to the eye.

I've been following your quest with some interest. After all of that, I hope this book isn't 1000 pages of drek.

Well, the Prologue (all that I've currently read) is all 'talky' and seems rather contrived. I'm from the South and raised in the South, so I know a little bit of what I'm talking about.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with having a preponderance of dialogue, but it can be rather tiresome in the hands of someone learning his or her craft, in addition to someone learning how to tell a good story.

(For an example of unmediated dialogue, look at 'JR' by William Gaddis. He's a literary writer - and certainly not to everyone's taste.)

About this curent book, some paragraphs are indented and other paragraphs are not. If this was my book and I saw it like this on Amazon (or anywhere else for that matter), I would immediately pull it and attempt to correct these formatting issues before making it available. In fact, I would NEVER make this available in this condition, until the problems were solved.

Running it through calibre may or may not correct these issues.

Anyway, I'll read through the entire sample to see if the writing is engaging for me.

As a corollary to this discussion, those readers who dismiss this novel mainly do so in relation to use of the 'n' and 'f' word. (To be fair, the novel has some negative comments on length and also typo issues.) I may start a separate thread on this, but I find it disconcerting that some readers of Indie writers feel a 'warning' should be posted about language use. We don't see this in literary novels. About this novel in particular, using the 'f' or 'n' word is consistent (so far in what I've read, anyway) with the characters and with their socio-economic background. Too, the subject matter itself would seem to lend credence to the use of these words. But, as I said, this may be an issue of discussion in a separate thread.




Don

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

As a corollary to this discussion, those readers who dismiss this novel mainly do so in relation to use of the 'n' and 'f' word. (To be fair, the novel has some negative comments on length and also typo issues.) I may start a separate thread on this, but I find it disconcerting that some readers of Indie writers feel a 'warning' should be posted about language use. We don't see this in literary novels.

I think you don't see the "warning" request for literary novels because the audience is different. Generally, the people who read Gaddis are more sophisticated readers who look for other positives and negatives than language.

[DanT]

Well I was curious so after some search on google. I found something

The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion

By Henry Darger

Unfortunatly it is unpublish,

15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger



As for Publish book there this guy: Mark Leach

http://www.marienbadmylove.com/
"Marienbad My Love," the world's longest novel, is being offered for the first time in print and Kindle formats. This multi-million-word, multi-volume work has been meticulously assembled through calculation and chance from fragments of pre-existing texts both written and appropriated by Mark Leach over the course of 30 years

As of Feb. 1, 2013, "Marienbad My Love" consists of 17 volumes totaling 17.8 million words and 10,710 pages.

For now I only see vol 1 and 2 available on Kindle but it just came out on Jan 1st 2013 so I guess the rest will be Available eventualy

http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Leach/e/B...7931727&sr=8-1

[Dr. Drib]

The Henry Darger works sound interesting, but will probably never be published.

I"m going to get a sample of the other work by Mark Leach and see if it's anything I want to involve myself in.

Thank you!


ADDED: Wouldn't you know it. The formatting for the Leach sample is all screwed up. It may be unreadable.....




Don

[Dr. Drib]

I've looked at Leach and find his writings to resemble the last gasp of a spastic colon. Not for me.

I certainly do, however, love the work of Claude Simon and J.M.G. LeClezio.




Don

[mitford13]

Why not take your quest directly to the authors themselves, by starting a thread on the Amazon Meet Our Authors forums? Seems the odds of finding such a 'mega-masterpiece' would be much higher straight from the horse's mouth. So to speak...