Thread: Large book (150k) in 3 parts or 1 part?
View Single Post
Old 06-23-2013, 08:53 PM   #4
VydorScope
Wizard
VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.VydorScope ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
VydorScope's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,418
Karma: 35207650
Join Date: Jun 2011
Device: iPad
Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70 View Post
150,000 words comes to about 600 pages which would be a bit thick in paper but I don't think it will matter much in an ebook format. 10 pages or 1000 the book will weigh the same and be the same thickness (the thickness & weight of the ereader). And assuming it's mostly text and doesn't have a lot of pictures in it the file shouldn't really be overly large either.
600? No way. I know people quote that 250 word per page number all the day long, but my paperbacks are 110k and are not long in page count. I know this because, well I have them in actual print - trade paperback size - on my shelf - from two different POD houses. In fact my longest is only 326 pages in print. 150k book might be 400 pages, but not 600.

Some other examples:

Ender's Shadow 140,238 words
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell's The Mote in God's Eye 178,674 words
Ben Bova's Mars 175,598 words
Kevin J. Anderson's Hidden Empire 171,596 words
Brandon Sanderson's Elantris 199,091 words
Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice 164,088 words
Robert R. McCammon's The Wolf's Hour 197,684 words
Dan Simmons's Ilium 220,520 words
David Gemmell's Legend 113,314 words


And tons more. You can Google them, you'll find the same kinds of lists I did. Those are all one volume books. Orson Scott Card lists a Sci-Fi novel length as "75k-150k" (on his writing web site)if you want to "be accepted by traditional publishers." Many others put it in the same range, with Fantasy some times being longer.

Also check the study Smashwords did on length of book verse sales. Longer sci-fi and fantasy sell better then shorter works. Its the same slide show where they talked about pricing ebooks, that has been quoted on this forum many times. That slide show also showed shorter romance (50-80k I think it was) sold better then longer romance.

Again, I know there is this "250 words per page" number, but IME it has nothing to do with actual print. 150k words is good sized single volume sci-fi or Fantasy book.

Still with out knowing the OP's actual genre it is hard to give advice more concrete advice.

So, yeah, hope this post does not come across harsh. Being editing it over and over to try and keep it conversational (which is the intention), but still feels a bit aggressive. My apologies if it does!
VydorScope is offline   Reply With Quote