Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard was way too long by at least 1/2. It could have ended in a number of places. But it just went on and on way too long.
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In my opinion that was a book too long by its number of pages - 1. The cover would have been enough for it, no need for text
Regarding length of novels - it is author and genre dependent. As a general rule, the more bestselling the author the longer the book - or maybe better put, long books from bestselling authors only, all the others need to split a long story in volumes, though there are bestselling authors that do moderate length novels too.
Similarly fantasy - long books, romance and mysteries shorter books, with sf and historical fiction in-between.
For "pure" mainstream I think there is very little chance of an author having a 400+ novel with no track record of selling tons of copies unless as a big advance/big gamble hyped/promoted debut.
So yes - the marketplace shows that people are more willing to spend money for bigger books than for slimmer books.