No. I’m not leaving quite yet. It gets closer day-by-day, but I haven’t had my final call yet. Actually, I was wondering about the length of a book. How long is too long? (as the bishop said to the actress).
‘It’s as long as it needs to be’. ‘It’s as long as it is.’ Fair enough. And if thousands of readers know and love your work it probably can be. If you’re unknown, or relatively unknown and books in that genre are typically 50K… and yours is 400K – well, being unusual might make it a buy. But the genre plainly sells a lot of 50K books – that’s the expectation. Equally much if they were settling down to a great summer goat-gagger, and found it was a novella. Finding expectations not lived up to, is death to your future sales with that reader, and, because people can be amazingly spiteful when they spent $4.99… and didn’t get exactly what they wanted.
Why I am thinking about this is my current WIP – aimed at 10-14 year olds (so, ideally 50K IMO) is at 70K… and could have (depending on direction I take) 30K to 70K more). And the first real ‘break point’ possible is at 70K (not end, just ‘break’, with the annoying need for a ‘set-up’ section explaining the first half (complex) if the book is to be split.
I was wondering if the best was to finish it, and offer it in two halves (costing more) or both costing more than 1 but less than two?
What are your thoughts? And what lengths do you feel readers expect of different genres.
I’m off island for medical reasons in a few hours’ time, but I look forward to your ideas when I get back.
Mad Genius Club 
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