Best sellers are getting shorter

[Astro Pen]

Interesting to note that best sellers have got considerably shorter over the last decade.
And, if I have any eye for graphs, it is an increasing trend.
It doesn't impact my own writing which averages around 80k words but some of you, who write longer works might be interested in the change.
There is much interesting info in this digestible little article.
If you are writing for the joy of it it won't matter so much but if you are thinking commercially it may be worth getting out the editorial pruning shears for a bit of literary topiary.

Why are bestsellers getting shorter?

Are novels getting shorter? In recent years, the trend has become even more pronounced, with over half of #1 bestsellers falling into the narrower 250-350 page range. A recent study conducted by Wordsrated (June 2022) looked at 3,444 titles (fiction and nonfiction) from 2011 to 2021. All of the...

goodereader.com

 

[Wayne Mack]

Interesting to note that best sellers have got considerably shorter over the last decade.
And, if I have any eye for graphs, it is an increasing trend.
It doesn't impact my own writing which averages around 80k words but some of you, who write longer works might be interested in the change.
There is much interesting info in this digestible little article.
If you are writing for the joy of it it won't matter so much but if you are thinking commercially it may be worth getting out the editorial pruning shears for a bit of literary topiary.

Why are bestsellers getting shorter?

Are novels getting shorter? In recent years, the trend has become even more pronounced, with over half of #1 bestsellers falling into the narrower 250-350 page range. A recent study conducted by Wordsrated (June 2022) looked at 3,444 titles (fiction and nonfiction) from 2011 to 2021. All of the...

goodereader.com

Personally, I would have liked to see a little bit more statistical analysis than simple averages over a ten year period. Has a significant change occurred? How much can a single very long or very short book skew the results? Are there simply more books hitting the best seller list (which might be shorter) rather than a reduction in the number of long books on the list? Is Brandon Sanderson simply slacking off?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

We see this in the shop. Getting shorter and, also, able to be critically recognised - Small things like these, by Claire Keegan, was shortlisted for the booker prize and it's really short.

 

[therapist]

All of our practice in the 75 word challenges about to pay off.

 

[Danny McG]

I felt the same with the Murderbot books. They could have made one decent size novel really.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

All of our practice in the 75 word challenges about to pay off.

Interestingly I had a customer last week who bought the first book in my trilogy, not knowing I was the author (although I signed it for him, and then he did ) - he came back the next week to buy the next two and said one of the things most refreshing about it was the length, that I hadn't gone made and turned it into a 600 page opus.

 

[The Big Peat]

Obvious question for a predominantly genre website - is that still true for every genre when broken down?

 

[msstice]

What's the Average Book Length & How Long Should a Book Be?

Think you know how long your book should be? We analyzed the NYT bestsellers to see what the optimal length and word count is. Check it out now.

scribemedia.com

(Data upto 2017, it seems)

But, @Wayne Mack

More fun graphs on that page.

 

[The Big Peat]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1656287677380022273

 

[HareBrain]

If there is genuinely a growing taste for shorter books among readers, I wonder if it's a reaction to big bingeable series on streaming TV. Maybe those are now giving people what they used to want from big fat epics?

 

[Wayne Mack]

If there is genuinely a growing taste for shorter books among readers, I wonder if it's a reaction to big bingeable series on streaming TV. Maybe those are now giving people what they used to want from big fat epics?

Is it necessarily a preference by the readers for shorter novels? Perhaps it is a choice by the writers to create shorter stories? Or perhaps, as hinted above, it is a cost preference. People may just set an upper limit on what they want to spend on a book and the longer ones may be on the other side of their threshold.

I still would prefer to see a scatter plot of a longer duration before assuming that anything has really changed; that there is something more than random variation going on with the average values.

 

[Dave]

Just checking this thread was about the length of the books and not the height of the booksellers!

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I've been limiting my recent novels to 90k. Maybe should trim them down to 85k...

 

[BT Jones]

I've been limiting my recent novels to 90k. Maybe should trim them down to 85k...

I wouldn't want to put words in your mouth, @Stephen Palmer, about how you should feel cutting your work down to suit an ever-shrinking attention span / ever-tighter bottom line. So how do you feel?

 

[BAYLOR]

This is all sounding a bit like Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I've been limiting my recent novels to 90k. Maybe should trim them down to 85k...

Any particular reason for this decision and this particular word count? At what point do you focus on the word count? Before you start? In a later editing phase?

I'm asking because when I start writing, I have no idea how long the finished story will be and my attempts at an editing pass always seem to make the story longer,

 

[OuttaInc]

I, for one, welcome this trend, and it's not just because of the catchy little slogan beneath my avi. It's because I'm one of those weirdos who feels compelled to finish a book once started, no matter how bad it is. Shorter books mean I can get through the bad ones faster

Having said that, I did just DNF a book for the first time last night(!) and I admit to feeling a little ill about it this morning. But that should tell you how groan-inducing it was. *shudder*

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I'm with Dave. The first thing I had to do when I read the title of this thread was check my height!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Re: printing and paper costs

Amazon just announced that their print-on-demand books self-published in KDP are going to cost more:

Hello,

Since launching KDP print books in 2016, we’ve enjoyed helping you publish and sell your books around the world. During this time, we've kept our printing fees the same, despite increasing costs of materials and labor over the past six years. On June 20, 2023, we're changing our fees to better align with today's cost to print books. We have not taken this decision lightly, and have reduced printing costs where possible.
Changes to your printing costs effective June 20, 2023, 12:00 AM UTC, include:

1. An increase in the fixed cost for all paperback and hardcover books to cover the higher cost of materials, suppliers, and labor.
2. A new fixed and per-page cost for paperback and hardcover books with large trim sizes to cover the additional costs to print these books. A large trim size is either larger than 6.12 inches (155 mm) in width or 9 inches (229 mm) in height.
3. A decrease in the per-page cost for certain color-ink print books ordered from some marketplaces. See full details in the printing cost tables on our Help page

These changes will affect your royalties for paperback and hardcover books. While not required, you may choose to update your list prices to avoid a change in royalty payments or zero royalties on paperback and hardcover books where your list price drops below the new minimum list price. If you make updates to a print book after June 20, it will need to comply with the new minimum list price in order to publish the updates.

...

 

[Astro Pen]

Best selling author = A person.
Best seller = A book.