How Long Do You Think a Sci-fi Novel Should Be?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Dune started as a novella, Dune World.

It's kind of a matter of expectations, for me. If I was expecting a book and got a 16-page pamphlet, I would not be very happy. And if I got a 3000-page monster I would think it was pretty good value. That's orthogonal to the quality of the story and the words, and is what I'd expect before I read something.

200 pages - Kind of slim. OK for a classic.
350 pages - About average for a modern book.
500 pages - Generous for most genres. Still kind of average for fantasy.
1000 pages - Big.

If it's under, say, 150 pages, I'd expect the normal selling price to be lower.

If it's over 1000 pages, publishers will quite often split it into two and charge you twice.

You can't go by pages. You have to go by words. We have Hardcover, MMPB, Trade PB, and eBook. None of them have the same page number.

So please change your pages to words.

[DNSB]

On a physical book, it is easy to tell how many pages there are since the pages tend to be numbered. Word counts are rarely given.

[DrNefario]

Indeed. I don't know how many words that is. I'm not going to count them.

I do know that 200-page Agatha Christie books mysteriously have 350 pages in their newest editions. It's about perceived value before you've even read a word. But it doesn't really matter that much. It's just a rule of thumb. Some words are longer than others, too.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Indeed. I don't know how many words that is. I'm not going to count them.

I do know that 200-page Agatha Christie books mysteriously have 350 pages in their newest editions. It's about perceived value before you've even read a word. But it doesn't really matter that much. It's just a rule of thumb. Some words are longer than others, too.

200 pages - Kind of slim. OK for a classic.
350 pages - About average for a modern book.
500 pages - Generous for most genres. Still kind of average for fantasy.
1000 pages - Big.

If it's under, say, 150 pages, I'd expect the normal selling price to be lower.

If it's over 1000 pages, publishers will quite often split it into two and charge you twice.

But you could replace pages with words to specify your book sizes.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But you could replace pages with words to specify your book sizes.

How could I?

I don't know how many words those page counts equate to. It's rare for a book to say how many words it is, while I can get a page count very easily. I don't know what a word count means to me.

Seems like a lot of extra work for something that's still basically meaningless.

[JSWolf]

Short Fiction & Middle Lengths

• Flash Fiction (100 – 1,000 words): Under 4 pages
• Short Story (1,000 – 7,500 words): 4 to 25 pages
• Novelette (7,500 – 17,500 words): 25 to 60 pages
• Novella (17,500 – 40,000 words): 60 to 140 pages

Novels & Epic Fiction

• Novel (40,000 – 100,000 words): 140 to 350 pages
• Epic / Mega-Novel (100,000+ words): 350+ pages (with many sprawling fantasy or historical epics easily crossing 500 to 800+ pages)