Why do authors pretend novellas are novels?

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  • Опубліковано 22 жов 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 6

  • @ArkaKun
    @ArkaKun 7 років тому

    Good advice. I've seen a lot of those in bookstores where the font size, margins and line spacing are increased just to make the book look thicker. I'm working on my very first "novel" and so far, I have about 25,000 words written. I'm halfway there, so I'm estimating that this book will contain about 50,000 words (maybe a little more), so it'll be a very, very short novel. I'll be sure to mention that it's a "Short Novel" and specify the number of words. Thank you :)

    • @EricMussBarnes
      @EricMussBarnes  7 років тому

      Excellent. I admire your honesty and I'm sure your readers and fans will appreciate it too. There is nothing wrong with writing a short book, as long as you disclose it as such.

    • @ArkaKun
      @ArkaKun 7 років тому

      Absolutely! People should know exactly what they're paying for before buying any book. Maybe somebody is busy and actually WANTS a 30,000 words novella, not a 100,000 words novel. Sure. There is nothing wrong with any size, as long as the price is reasonable and the buyers know exactly what they're getting.
      By the way, what I'm writing is a crime fiction story. A private detective's journey to solving a murder mystery. I know that 50,000 words is a bit too little for a crime fiction novel, but I also don't want to make things wordy just for the sake of making the book thicker. I love reading crime fiction, and one of the things I don't like in many crime novels is too much descriptions of irrelevant things. I think it kills the suspense for me. I'm trying to avoid that, which is one of the reasons why it's coming out a bit shorter. I'll see where this goes.

    • @EricMussBarnes
      @EricMussBarnes  7 років тому

      Well, don't over-think it. One thing I can tell you with 100% certainty is this - you will find your book pretty embarrassing in 5 years. All true artists eventually cringe at their older work, because we are always improving. Sure, you might like parts of it. But, no matter how much blood, sweat and tears you pour into your story now... in 5 years you will think, "Ugh, this could have been SO much better! What was I thinking!?"
      So, do your best, but don't sweat it too much.

  • @wolfmatic399
    @wolfmatic399 7 років тому

    I write shorter works. While I haven't published anything yet I plan to publish a novella at 2.99 and short stories at 0.99 and explicitly mentioning word count and story length.
    Does that seem fair?

    • @EricMussBarnes
      @EricMussBarnes  7 років тому

      The whole point of this essay was simply to encourage writers to have some honesty and integrity. You can write a book that is 5 pages long and charge $60 for it, so long as you are honest about it.