So a lot lately I’ve been experiencing preconceived notions based on book page counts. There’s been Stephen King’s massive tome, Under the Dome, clicking it at 1074 pages. Now I’m not a King fan, but I do have an appendage or two stuck in the horror pie and it’s impossible not to hear about the god that is King in those circles. I have to admit I wouldn’t pick up Under the Dome, even if I was wanting to reconsider my dislike of King’s style because my major problem with King is that he’s just way too long winded for my tastes. If i feel this way about his 300-400 page books, I can only imagine how bad this book would be.
Then there’s also been The Passage, an 800 page, much hyped book by Justin Cronin. Again at 800 pages I can’t help thinking something somewhere could have been cut out to make it a tighter book. Heck, I’m a Harry Potter fan and I still think the last few books could have been improved with the loss of at least a hundred pages each.
On the other side of things I’ve read two novelettes for review lately that at about 30 pages each just weren’t enough to do more than pass a bit of time. Now in the modern world of smart phones and ereaders a 30 page story still could mean the difference between sitting at the doctor’s office or DMV and getting agitated and angry, or having a decent way to pass that unavoidable wait time. But since most readers still aren’t reading like that, ow am I, Michele sitting on her couch looking for a great story, supposed to take one that takes me less time to read than wating an episode of CSI would take?
Of course, I’m not exactly neutral on the subject. My novella Rot is about 60 pages, including illustrations, not necessarily a satisfying length for some readers. But after I wrote it I spent a lot of time considering how I’d market it. It’s a damn awkward length, not a novella that might show up in bookstores, since those seem to be around 100 pages in length to sell well. But it would have been impossible to cut the length down to a longer short story.
As a writer I know that sometimes these kinds of stories just happen, and you’re stuck wondering how or even if you should try to sell it, or just wait until you’re famous enough to put out a collection and stick it in there. As a reader I know I also judge a book based on word count, even sometimes shying away from long works from writers who are new to me, or not being willing to pay for a very short work from an author I don’ t already auto-buy.
So what about you, do you get intimidated by, or pass on books based on their page count?
