How Small A Book Can Be?

[Nathan Campos]

Hello,
I want to write a book(an eBook to be more exact). I never done this before, just tried a few times, but stopped. By the way, I want to try again and I hope this time I will finish, but I want to start by making something simple, not too much complicated, fast to read and good... So I was thinking about writing nanoBooks(as I thought to call). They can't have more than 30 pages and no minimum number of pages, so I want to know if anyone already tried this and if it's a good way to start, since I'm not good on making big stories...

Best Regards,
Nathan Paulino Campos

[Worldwalker]

I believe those are called "short stories".

[jehane]

A novella is a term sometimes used for fictional prose typically between 17,500 and 40,000 words, and a novelette between 7,500 and 17,500. A Short story may be any length up to 10,000 words, but these word lengths are not universally established.

Wikipedia is your friend.

[mr ploppy]

Ebooks can be any length you want, but if you are planning to sell it rather than give it away you need to remember the minimum prices sites like Amazon will impose on you. People who buy it would want to get value for their money.

[Namekuseijin]

how about some haiku?

[Nathan Campos]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Ebooks can be any length you want, but if you are planning to sell it rather than give it away you need to remember the minimum prices sites like Amazon will impose on you. People who buy it would want to get value for their money.

I'm planning to sell them for free at Smashwords and sites like this, so it's ok

[Mayzshon]

One thing I like about e-books is that they've given new life to the novella. Finding a market for something that was under 80000 words, yet well over 10000 words used to be tough.

[jehane]

Originally Posted by Mayzshon

One thing I like about e-books is that they've given new life to the novella. Finding a market for something that was under 80000 words, yet well over 10000 words used to be tough.

Totally agree. Speaking as a reader, I've always liked novellas. They are long enough to have a substantial story, yet short enough to read in a single sitting. Unfortunately very few were published compared to the other forms. I mostly found them in author specific anthologies.

[LCF]

You can also put more stories in one book, if you want it to be compacter.
For example, if you have 10 stories on smashwords and I read 2 of them and like them, I would be really happy to download (buy?) the whole 10 in one book, so I don't have to go to 8 more download pages.

[Mayzshon]

Somewhat off-topic but:
One other thing I've noticed is that what is an acceptable length for a novel is getting longer. I've picked up a couple of 1950's spy thrillers from the used bookstore, and they came in at around 160 pages (roughly 60,000 words). Compare that to today when books are routinely 500 pages or more, but with the same amount of story.
Ian Fleming would never be able to find a publisher for Casino Royale today.

Again, another nice thing about e-publishing. You can concentrate on the story, without tossing in excessive padding.

[jumpingjack42]

Macmillan New Writing answered me that 65,000 words + was what they considered novel size. So I guess some traditional publishers still consider novels that aren't 80k+

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by Mayzshon

Somewhat off-topic but:
One other thing I've noticed is that what is an acceptable length for a novel is getting longer. I've picked up a couple of 1950's spy thrillers from the used bookstore, and they came in at around 160 pages (roughly 60,000 words). Compare that to today when books are routinely 500 pages or more, but with the same amount of story.

I've noticed that over the years, and frankly, I haven't been happy with it. I find the padding -- and that's really all it is -- tends to slow down the story. Instead of a clean, spare novel focusing on action, we get something reminiscent of the old Russian novels that take ten pages to dissect a character's thoughts of a moment. I don't want to read the same events from five different characters' viewpoints, either. What's wrong with having a protagonist and sticking with him or her though the book?

The problem I'm seeing is that books are getting thicker, but stories aren't. Either they're still telling the same story, just using twice as many words to do it, or they're sticking in bits of other stories to pad out the word count, and in the process distracting readers from the stories they're actually telling. Robert E. Howard's classic Hour of the Dragon -- the only Conan novel -- was 72,659 words. Fantasy novels today run from 120,000 to 160,000 words ... yet I would dispute that their authors are twice as good as REH. I got started thinking about this when I was wondering why my reading speed had slowed down so greatly since I was in high school -- I could read a SF novel in a few hours, then, and now it takes me twice as long. I realized I was still reading at the same speed -- I didn't have some mysterious reading problem -- but I was reading twice as many words for the same results.

So, when it comes to an ebook, the proper length is "as long as it needs to be, but no longer." Without publisher-imposed limitations on physical dimensions, there's no reason for something in electronic format to be anything else.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Fantasy novels today run from 120,000 to 160,000 words ... yet I would dispute that their authors are twice as good as REH.

Oh, come now. Twice as many words doesn't mean something has to be twice as good. Though it could be argued that you're getting more value for your entertainment dollar if it takes you longer to read something

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

So, when it comes to an ebook, the proper length is "as long as it needs to be, but no longer." Without publisher-imposed limitations on physical dimensions, there's no reason for something in electronic format to be anything else.

I don't mind my fiction being lengthy as long as it's not too tedious or repetitive. I like to get to know the characters, and I'm not in a time rush to read. I read for enjoyment, and if I get bored I stop reading.

I agree though, ebooks make it possible to sell both very short stories or novellas as well as very long books. Both traditionally shunned by publishers because they're either hard to sell or not worth the cost to produce.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by queentess

I don't mind my fiction being lengthy as long as it's not too tedious or repetitive.

Maybe it's because I grew up reading 70-80,000 word (or shorter) novels, both those current at the time and the older books I haunted used book stores to get, but to me, a lot of modern novels are tedious and repetitive. Okay, you've spent five pages telling me about this character's apartment, but when is he going to do something?

Maybe I'm weird. I don't want to get to know characters; they're not my imaginary friends (just Laurell K. Hamilton's). I just want to see them doing exciting things. Would Little Fuzzy have been better with a few dozen pages added about Jack Holloway's introspection? Would meticulous descriptions of everything in sight have improved Needle? Is At the Mountains of Madness really too short?

Frankly, I think most 160,000 page novels are 80,000 page novels in dire need of a good editor.

But that is, of course, just one reader's opinion. What I'm hoping for, in the coming of ebooks, is authors who recognize that people like me exist and will write books that we want to buy, as well as the ones with the half-million-word tomes that we read with such reluctance. There's a place for both, even if that place isn't on a bookshelf where it's to a publisher's advantage to elbow books by other publishers off the most visible space.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Maybe it's because I grew up reading 70-80,000 word (or shorter) novels, both those current at the time and the older books I haunted used book stores to get, but to me, a lot of modern novels are tedious and repetitive. Okay, you've spent five pages telling me about this character's apartment, but when is he going to do something?

Maybe I'm weird. I don't want to get to know characters; they're not my imaginary friends (just Laurell K. Hamilton's). I just want to see them doing exciting things. Would Little Fuzzy have been better with a few dozen pages added about Jack Holloway's introspection? Would meticulous descriptions of everything in sight have improved Needle? Is At the Mountains of Madness really too short?

It depends on what I'm in the mood for... sometimes I want what I'll call a "light, quick read", which is what you've described above. Mostly I like long books where I really get to know the characters. Though I wholeheartedly agree that I don't want to be told everything about a character's apartment. It needs to be seamless world building, not "here, let me tell you everything in an infodump".

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Frankly, I think most 160,000 page novels are 80,000 page novels in dire need of a good editor.

I can't really disagree with that

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

But that is, of course, just one reader's opinion. What I'm hoping for, in the coming of ebooks, is authors who recognize that people like me exist and will write books that we want to buy, as well as the ones with the half-million-word tomes that we read with such reluctance. There's a place for both, even if that place isn't on a bookshelf where it's to a publisher's advantage to elbow books by other publishers off the most visible space.

Agreed. I'd love to see a resurgence of novellas.