[crich70]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

Centennial was over 400,000 words-- an epic. Probably 400+ pages in paperback depending on type size.

There have of course always been those who wrote big books, 120,000 words and over. The Victorians loved enormous books, look at Nicholas Nickleby. However, if you scan the bookshelves in the nearest bookstore, you'll find books run to around one inch to one and a half inches thick, roughly the 80,000 to 120,000 word bracket.

Authors who have a lot to say often say it over several books rather than a single vast tome. (Good marketing, too; three books worth of royalties is better than one.) Anthony Powell's Music of Time sequence ran to 12 novels, each quite compact at around 80,000 words, but coming close to 1,000,000 words in total. Or, sticking to printed pages for comparison, around 2,000 pages!

I think one of the things about digital books is that the size is not immediately visible. You can buy an e-book and not know, until you dig in, whether it's a zippy 80,000 words, or a prolix 250,000 words. But a shelf full of paperbacks, spine outward, gives you an instant visual guide.

For myself, I don't mind long books, but if, for instance it's a whodunit, and you can't bring it in under 100,000 words, then you're padding. Ditto straight action thrillers.

Thanks for the numbers Pulpmeister. I can't say I disagree that genre does have an impact on how long a book can be without seeming padded. Certainly there would be more need for more text in a historical fiction than as you said a whodunit. Since we don't live in 18th century Colorado (ala Centennial) I imagine Mr. Michener did feel the need to include a lot of details to flesh the setting out. A whodunit though can be set anywhere and the mystery is more important than the setting. Which isn't to say no details of the setting are needed, but that the mystery is the reason for reading the book. A historical fiction though has to have a lot more detail to help us relate to the story. At least that's my opinion.