The Author Guy Blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve

 2nd February 2024

Hello out there,

Welcome back. Last week, I wrote about my affection for short books and offered several recommendations. But what is worth sharing, I believe, is that for authors penning short manuscripts, they’re swimming against the tide. Actually, more like a tsunami of bias driven by arbitrary (in my opinion) word count thresholds.

To be considered “a novel” by agents, editors, publishers and professional reviewers, a manuscript must contain a minimum of 65,000 words, with 120,000 words carrying the author into a danger zone of overkill in terms of acceptability. When the word count fails to chin the bar of 65,000 words, the term “novella” comes into play – and more often than not, derisively.

I’ve read and been told that short books “cheat” a reader, somehow lessening enjoyment and not offering good value for the purchase price. Others may think that way, but not me. Last week, among the short books I recommended are Love Story, Bridges of Madison County, The Old Man and the Sea, and Of Mice and Men. What do they all have in common? They were made into award-winning movies.

For those who believe short books are unfair to the pocketbooks of readers, consider this – from readers. In 1970, the year it was released, it is widely reported that one in five households in America had a copy of Love Story. One in five. Oh, my! A little over twenty years later, Bridges of Madison County was released, and over time it sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. And more recently, I believe the illustrated book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy was the bestselling book of 2020 with a $22.99 price tag. And my guess is the word count is less than that of weekly columns appearing in the Wall Street Journal or the New
York Times.

Different strokes for different folks.

Until next week … Vaya con Dios

Larry B. Gildersleeve