Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hi! Any advice is much appreciated.

I was planning on writing a novella but I loved the story so much it has turned into a fully fledged novel. The problem is length. I have 100,000 words and I'm only half way through the story. I've just reached the mid point/point of no return. The story is very tight, lots of action, no problems with lagging–it doesn't have any subplots diverting–though it does use rich language, but that is the style - being a modern gothic/supernatural romance. (Think Outlander/Da Vinci Code) The questions are:

1. I would prefer to keep it as a complete book, but it would likely be around 160,000 words. What are the problems I'm facing with that if I want to self-publish? (I've thought of some but feel I need extra insight.)

2. There is a point where I can split the book into two parts - 80,000 each - but it would only be because of length not because of story. I don't think readers would be keen on this as the first book would seem like a cliffhanger (no resolution). What do you think? I'm aware of how many people don't like cliffhangers. Though, I would love to give the first half of the book away for free, as a taster.

3. The book will have to be self-published without a doubt (for so many reasons). All self-published author seem to prefer to cut their books up into tiny chucks if they can. Have you seen any that don't?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

160,000 isn't bad. It's a good thick book, but not too big. I have one that is 145,000 or 150,000.

You might even split it up into a serial to begin with, and then combine it into a novel when all the parts are published.

In the traditional publishing industry, I've read that agents want 60,000-100,000 words for novels but will let fantasy and SF got higher, but not usually above 120,000. However, self-publishing allows you to do whatever you want. If you're in it for money, splitting it in half and doing a duology can make you more money. However, if you're not focused much on money then go ahead and do whatever you want.

It costs more to have it in one big book on the production side. Editing is more, buying the book wholesale to give out, postage to mail physical copies. If you have an e copy or Kindle, I imagine size won't matter, but if you have a paperback, your price point will be higher on Amazon. Tanner is absolutely right. If you can split it into two books, you can repackage it as a boxed set later on. If you turn it into two separate books, you can lay out the expenses for the first and hopefully make the money to pay for the production of second half. However, a lot of readers do love a big book.

As a reader, if the story arc is not complete in book 1, I will not read book 2. I hate that.

I agree with Carole. The cost of having to pay an editor to clean up a 160,000 word manuscript alone would make me blanch. Besides, having more books allows you to make one free to hook readers, and allows you to release new material every so often to keep the momentum going.

If it's a genre story my editor makes me keep mine to around sixty thousand words. You probably have a series of three or four with some smart editing. That's what I'm doing now. I started off with 90 thousand and I'm breaking it up into a series of four of about 240,000 words total or somewhere around there. Just keep going.

That's smart C.A. using the book as an advertising tool. The hope is that if they read one, they'll want to do the entire series. A lot of authors are doing it the way Wally describes. It keeps readers following for the next book. You have the choice of making it a stand alone or cliffhanger. A lot of people hate the cliffhanger and don't mind the standalone. My son did a series. The beginning and end books were standalone, the middle a cliffhanger. The middle is is least bought and least reviewed.

Look at some of the books that fall into the 150,000 word range. These are not huge books like War and Peace.

http://commonplacebook.com/art/books/...

If you are publishing a paperback or hardback, a novel that length will mean that your books must be priced higher to cover production costs. If it is ebook only, it won't be so much of an issue.

I would say look for logical places where it makes sense to cut the story. If you can't find any, keep it as one book. If you do, then you have a decision to make.

Every once in a while, I get that Dr. Evil inkling of wanting to create a single massive book with 1 million words. So far, I have resisted. I don't think anybody would buy it.

I would finish it first. You may find ways of making the second draft shorter once you've seen the finished story.

Personally I enjoy a good, thick book. For the ebook the price won't change. In fact it might even be more for two books. For a print book I would rather pay a bit more once, than fork out for two books.

I'm not a big fan of books ending on a cliff hanger. I always feel cheated. make me want to buy the next book because the first book is so brilliant, not because the first book isn't finished! But if you do make it into two books, make it plain that it's a part one and a part two. the thing I dislike even more than a cliffhanger is an unexpected cliffhanger when I'm assuming the story is about to be wrapped up!

Good luck with your writing! I think my next book is going to end up at well over 100,000 words as well!

Wow guys, thank you so much for your responses. There is a lot to think about.

Yes, I've wonder about publishing costs (pro-editing, etc) and production costs (book thickness, etc). I'll have to see how long the story will actually be (160,000 was only a guestimation). I won't find out real pages until the 2nd/3rd edit, I guess. But, I'm glad to see that a few other people have their word count above 120,000.

I'm worried about cliffhangers as I've read so many reviews on Amazon of disgruntled readers feeling cheated because of them. But, I guess if it is clearly stated–readers know what they are getting into before they buy–then it's a good option for me to have two parts. If the first part is 80,000 words, I'm thinking the readers should feel satisfied with it even though the arc isn't complete.

I really like the idea of using the first half of the book as an advertising tool - free to readers - but I've been reading on other support threads that places like Amazon are making it hard to have free books now.

Cheers guys, you're awesome!

Racy wrote: "3. The book will have to be self-published without a doubt (for so many reasons). All self-published author seem to prefer to cut their books up into tiny chucks if they can. Have you seen any that don't?"

I don't. So, no, not all self-published authors do that.

I second Dwayne. I'm self published and I don't. So please, don't generalize.

As for the length, many people love long books, probably just as many don't. Cliffhangers? It will be easier on readers if you don't cut the book in the middle of an action. Choose your place carefully. People don't always require a full arc, but most will complain if the book stops at a weird scene.

My last book was about 130k words, and it never occurred to me that it was too long. A story is as long as it needs to be for the telling; any longer and it ends up padded, any shorter and you leave stuff out. I may be mostly alone in this, but I never end a story with a cliffhanger because I hate 'em; I always write each novel as a stand-alone, even if I plan a sequel. If I read a book that ends with a cliffhanger, it's an automatic one-star review for me.

If you're writing to serialize I believe every story should have an arc to lead the reader on. The individual arcs should lead to the final one. I think Game of Thrones is a good example of this technique. You have to make the reader want to continue. Each story should act as its own reason for being to keep the reader interested.

My first book was 130k words and I worried it was too long. My 2nd book was 135k, and my third book topped out at 148k. I fretted the entire time I was writing the third book, because I was worried it was too long. My writing pace suffered because of it, and I got really depressed because honestly there was nothing that could be cut out. Then my friends here in SIA told me to tell the story that needs to be told, and don't worry about the word count. That's what I did, and I have had a great response about book 3 so far.

Remember why you write. To tell the story that needs to be told. Do it justice. Don't get caught up in "should be's".

Missy is right. Word count isn't something to get hung up on. Make your book exactly the length it needs to be to get your story told.

In the end, you need to make these decisions for yourself, but I will tell you how I would handle it. One book, be it 100,000 words or 500,000. I would not break it up at all. And if I did, I would not have the first book free. Maybe I would price it less than the second, third, etc., but not free. I'm fine with giving away a short story now and then, but not novels. I spend too many hours on those to justify giving them away.

I think an author has to be true to the story, however long or short it may be. As a reader though I look for a length of 300-400 pages. Some long books seem short and vice versa, but anything upwards of 700 pages will probably be TBR a long time.

My advice is write the thing, then worry about issues like this. If you are going to self-publish an ebook, length is immaterial. If you are going for dead trees, the costs are proportional to page length, plus a constant.

I have had this problem with three. Two of them I split into trilogies, and in each case I had to write more, the reason being that as a reader, I cannot stand it if a book does not have a plausible finish. Of course it can indicate that there is more to follow, but when you close the book, you should feel that something has been completed.

The last one, I left as a whole, the reason being that the only place where there was a plausible place to split it was over 2/3 through

I was facing the same issue with my book, which is due to be released in early 2017. I emailed my publisher asking "how long is too long?", and his reply was, "A book should be as long as it takes to tell the story. Write first and worry about length later". I did so, exceeding my planned word limit, but now at the editing stages I see it is possible to tighten the text and omit unnecessary parts that don't really forward the plot or contribute to world-building.