I LIKE BIG BOOKS

...and I Cannot Lie!

Does this outfit make my book look big?

"How long should my book be?" That's a question I hear several times a week.  I posted this response on our Facebook page yesterday: 

"The answer is...(you'll hate this)...It depends! Is your book fiction or non-fiction? Business book or children's book? Memoir? Novel? AND...how many pages are readers willing to commit to read? Or pay for? See? It depends! If you figure an average word count per page is 300, then a business book of 105,00 words will be about 350 pages. Next question? How does this affect cost and pricing?"

Does size matter? Well, yes...it does! The John Grisham novel, "The Racketeer", comes in at 352 pages. Works fine for Grisham, since he is an established author. However, if you are an unpublished author trying to secure a book contract for fiction, it's gonna be a tough sell. Sorry...that's the state of publishing today. You will have a difficult time even getting an agent to look at your manuscript.

This is one of the reasons that self-publishing has moved into the spotlight. Indie authors (unsigned by publishing houses) can take over the process and publish their own books quite easily.

Don't get me wrong: The cost to print a big book is greater than the cost to print a shorter book. However, you have options regarding eBooks, advance copies, and print-on-demand that can still get your big book in front of readers without a $35,000 financial commitment.

Whether your book is small or big, there's a market for it, and a way to get it published. 

And I cannot lie.

-Mary Beth Smith

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Here are some famous novels, old and recent, along with their word counts.

HARRY POTTER SERIES

Philosopher’s Stone....77,325

Chamber of Secrets.....84,799

Prisoner of Azkaban...106,821

Goblet of Fire........190,858

Order of the Phoenix..257,154

Half Blood Prince.....169,441

Deathly Hallows.......198,227

OTHER NOVELS – various genres

Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe...36,363

Anna Karenina...349,736

War and Peace...587,287

Gone with the Wind...418,053

The English Patient...82,370

A Prayer for Owen Meany...236,061

Crime and Punishment...211,591

The Brothers Karamazov...364,153

Sense and Sensibility...119,394

Great Expectations...183,349

Ender’s Game...100,609

Moby Dick...206,052

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...30,644

Emma...155,887

The Hours...54,243

The Golden Compass...112,815

The Fellowship of the Ring...177,227

The Two Towers...143,436

The Return of the King...134,462

The Lord of the Rings...455,125

The Tenth Circle...114,779

My Sister’s Keeper...119,529

A Tale of Two Cities...135,420

White Teeth...169,389

Atonement...123,378

The Mouse and the Motorcycle...22,416

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn...109,571

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer...69,066

One Hundred Years of Solitude...144,523

Memoirs of a Geisha...186,418

Snow Falling on Cedars...138,098

Cold Mountain...161,511

Midnight’s Children...208,773

A House for Mr. Biswas...198,901

All the Pretty Horses...99,277

A Suitable Boy...591,554 (est.)