THE Group for Authors! discussion

My latest self-published ebook is 1060 words long. Ideally, I'll write much longer works in the future, but it got me wondering: Is there a word limit for works listed on Goodreads?

Given there are dictionaries and bundled series listed on GR that are thousands of pages long, I doubt there is a maximum limit. I am surprised there's not a minimum. Isn't 1,000 words flash fiction and not even a short story? (Just curious, I know there are guidelines somewhere and I can't remember the division between flash fic and short). I think a work has to be a minimum of 2,500 words to be published on Amazon (although I can't find an official source that says that) so I'm not even sure you can"publish" something under 2.5k unless its part of an anthology?

Most adult novels are in the range of 80,000 to 250,000 words depending on genre.

My first children's book was around 20,000 words.

If I write 30,000 words I'm told it's a novella, and a full length novel has to be 60,000 words. From a personal point of view I find longer than 80,000 are OK on long distance flight!
But these figures are for fiction.

I suppose a lot depends on what your customers expect. If I've paid novel prices for something that looks and feels like a novel, I'd feel pretty short-changed if it ends on page 50.

But I wouldn't expect a children's book for a five year old run to 120,000 words.

There is a semi scam where an author cobbles together a non-fiction book by copying and pasting from the internet. These books are generally 50-60 pages long. Recipe books themed around a particularly ingredient are very popular for this tactic.

I call it a "semi scam" because the author is genuinely selling us a book with recipes for that ingredient. But the reader is likely to be disappointed when they find out that they could have got exactly the same recipes with a google search and that the book is very short. I've seen these semi scam books at less than 20 pages.

Amazon allows some pretty short books, so I'd guess that GR would accept them too.

No, but there are rules around what is deemed published and allowed on GR. A short story on a author website deemed a short story -allowed, deleted scene not allowed.

Story that a user needs to join a mailing list for or sign up to a website to gain access not allowed.

The polished manuscript for my novel contained 126,000 words. The copy and conceptual editing process reduced the published paperback and e-book formats to 111,000 words.

None of the commercial vendors carrying the book posed a word-count limitation. The only length restriction was that imposed by the publisher for the audio book format. In order to comply with an 8-hour maximum listening time, the work had to be abridged. The audio download and audio book on CD contains 85,000 words.

The Goodreads Librarian Manual entry on Non-book items is here: https://www.goodreads.com/help/librar... Items

Regarding short stories, it has this to say:

Not to be added as books:
***Short stories only published in an anthology or magazine
***Deleted scenes
***Extras only published at the back of a specific book edition
***Incomplete and in progress works (this is different from "forthcoming" works, which are considered completed but as yet unpublished)

OKAY to be added as books:
Shorts are retained in some cases. Shorts that belong are those that are:
* Published separately
* Published online as a specified short story (i.e. not a 'bonus')
* Complete flash fiction

So, to OP, it looks like your book is a book as long as it's published as one.

Personally, I'd be shocked if I went to download a "book," especially if I paid for it, and found that it was four pages long. But as a unique publication, it goes in the database.

Before I buy a book, an eBook, I can check on page and usually word length. Don't other readers?

Adam wrote: "Before I buy a book, an eBook, I can check on page and usually word length. Don't other readers?"

Many probably do. And I'm not accusing you of deception or anything, just saying my first instinct is to think differently about books and short stories.

As a reader assuming I love a book i want it never to end... and of course most of the books I read are digital so it does not matter how long it is. As a writer who has written a fairly short novel and a long one-- both part of a series, I think it is worth mentioning that given the greater time commitment -- my second one is 690 pages- it seems a bit harder to gather early reviews. I plan to make the next in my series (Sino-American Tales) closer to the size of the initial book.

R.S. wrote: "My latest self-published ebook is 1060 words long. Ideally, I'll write much longer works in the future, but it got me wondering: Is there a word limit for works listed on Goodreads?"

There are no word limits (minimum or maximum) for works listed on Goodreads.

When I was younger, and a visit to the library was a once a week event, and my group of friends passed around our books- a thick book lasted longer. Now it is more the story than the length; although I could never tell a story in a thousand words! That's so tight! But Stephen King and Louis Lamour wrote short stories and it was "good". I heard 50K to 80K words is the "novel" length for digital. Some genres holding at about 60K words. Amazon tells page length by "page turns" or the printed book. Does anyone have a rule of thumb for words=pages for digital books?

Gwen wrote: "...Amazon tells page length by "page turns" or the printed book. Does anyone have a rule of thumb for words=pages for digital books?
..."

Amazon actually calculates a "Kindle Normalized Page Count" for each book, according to some secret formula, based largely on the number of characters (i.e. letters, punctuation, etc.) in the book. The reason there are typically no actual "page numbers" in an ebook is because there's no way to know how many page turns it takes to read a book... readers can customize the font and font-size, they can use different devices with different screen dimensions, etc. So a book might take 1000 page turns to read on a kindle paperwhite at a particular font size, be "383 Kindle Normalized Pages" in length, and the same book could be 290 pages printed on paper at 5.5" x 8.5"

Examining my own book, I found the kindle normalized page count divided into the actual word count in the book came to about 180 words per page. Other books will have a different ratio, and that may depend on the average length of "words," amount of whitespace and margins, etc. As far as I know, the actual formula is not publicly available.

In print, I would expect an average of around 300 words per page, but that can vary dramatically as well. 250 sounds normal. So does 350 on a larger page (maybe 6x9") without big margins, with a smaller font, without much leading between lines, etc.