How long should a good book be?

Question

I'm just wondering. Because some people think that the longer books are boring and drawn out, while other people love to read them.

Mostly I'm asking this question because I'm writing a book.

I'm not asking this based on what is good for a first time writer. I have written a great amount, so it's not my first time writing a novel length book. It's my first time to try and publish something.

I'm having a hard time though, because many of these answers deal with length by quality. I agree with those views greatly (I'm a bookworm...I tend to read what would consitute an insane amount of books to anyone not familiar with me...).

But then there are the answers that talk about page length as well. Now I'll add in: What makes a good book good?

Answer 1

A book that is good is one that opens with something that grabs your attention. It pulls you in and doesn't let you hang there or drop as you move onto the rest of the story.

A good book opens each chapter with something that makes you want to keep reading and ends with something that makes the reader unable to wait to begin reading the next chapter.

A good book has chapters that have a point to them. Basically, filler chapters tend to annoy people and make them break away from the interest in the story, even if only a little.

Word wise, it's not so much how long it is, but how everything is presented. Ever heard of 'Show, Not Tell'? Well, if you haven't, I'll explain it.

When my Writer's Workshop teacher provided this exercise, he gave us fifteen sentences, each completely different with a new idea. He told us we needed to show each of these sentences since they were in 'tell' format. So if you have a sentence, show it to people by giving it a few sentences of description, but don't do this every single time. Use this method mainly for emotions.

Good books have well developed characters, also, and more often than not, they are characters people can relate to having suffered a loss in the form of a loved one or having been bullied when they were younger.

A note, sympathy and empathy are your best friends in writing a book, for if you can invoke those traits in your readers, you've pretty much got yourself a hook.

Another thing you'd like to think about is the people of today and your target audience. Who are you hoping will read this book? Keep in mind that the teenage attention span (as offensive as it is to me since I'm automatically grouped in with the others in my age, ranging from 13 to 17) is dwindling, and not many kids are willing to read full length novels.

As long as you make sure your opening flows continuously and it keeps everyone's attention, you could have yourself a book teens will like.

If your target audience is in older people, make sure you understand that your writing needs to be something they'd find interesting. Make sure you appeal to their taste.

Writing isn't just something that everyone can do. While being a good writer is what you'd imagine to be your best asset, it's not. Writing is a business, so you need to know everything about your audience and your publisher before you even start to write. In any good writing proposal, you're more likely to get your book published if you can provide a statistics chart of the likelihood of someone reading your book.

So what makes a good book isn't just the author's ability to write but the author's ability to make people believe, and especially think. In order to assist that writing, the author needs to be aware of the new world s/he is stepping in to.

Answer 2

Hi,I'm a real bookworm and I read almost anything good I can lay my hands on.
What I've learnt is that in a book, it's quality that counts rather than quantity.A book may have 1000 pages but if it's for the most part nonsense,it's really useless. on the other hand, abook of even 50 pages may be worth it.
The length of the book depends on your creativity.It may be a long book,but so beautiful that your readers get enmeshed in th plot and feel as though they are each of the characters in succession.At the end of the book,they should be able to put it down and say 'That sure was a marvellous book'.If your book is short,the people may feel it's a pity it is over so fast.
A good book is one that can elicit spontaneous responses from readers.
No matter how long it is,you should make it enjoyable,which I'm suer u're capable of doing.Remember that quality overrules quantity.Good Luck for your book.I sure hope it will be successful.

Answer 3

I need to accept as true with Persephone Hellecat. I suppose for a guide to represent lengthy, it should be no less than over four hundred pages. a hundred and seventy-250 is brief, 250-399 is medium. Anything below a hundred and seventy is a novella, now not a singular. And I decide on lengthy books, so long as they are well. Like, I'd so much instead learn Ethan Frome (that's particularly a novella) or The Picture of Dorian Grey than The Once and Future King (sorry, T.H. White lovers. Tried to learn it approximately 4 seperate occasions, could not get beyond the primary guide in any of them). It's tough to mention "if they have got the equal content material," considering that there are books that WORK as lengthy books and books that paintings as brief books. If you had been to check out and make The Great Gatsby or The Catcher within the Rye longer, they might be dreadful. Likewise when you attempted to shorten War and Peace. Good books are written at precisely the period that go well with them, with precisely the quantity of element. But given too books of same valued at, I'd opt for the lengthy, distinct one any day. I'm now not this kind of huge fan of rapid, bang/reduce/increase, flashy form of books. I like subtlety. I like books that draw me in, books that create worlds, books that I can LIVE in for an afternoon or 2.

Answer 4

The quality of a book does not depend on its length - there are exceptional books which are long (such as Lev Tolstoi's "War and Peace") and there are great books which are short (now...Mircea Eliade's "19 Roses" comes to my mind as an example - he's a Romanian author). Still, I would say that only experienced writers may adventure themselves and write long novels with a complicated plot - a novice might get lost along the road.
Since it's your first book, I think you should keep it short as it will be less risky for the publishers and the public will be more receptive. In time, you could "try your hand" at writing long novels.

Answer 5

Hi there. I can tell you from 20+ years experience that most publishers won't consider a manuscript worth reading unless it has at least 40,000 words. Why? Because it needs a good beginning, a mild climax about a third of the way, which then builds to a major climax at the end. It's hard to write any worthwhile story and get all three parts into it with fewer than 40K words.

Also, many publishers now are accepting LONGER manuscripts, thanks in part to H.Potter's success. My latest hard cover release is 126,000 words, which seemed long when I wrote it, but the publisher wanted an epic style book and that's why they bought it. So, to answer your question, think longer rather than shorter. The current average for published fiction is about 80,000 words for novels, I believe.

Good luck with your writing!

Jon Baxley
Author, editor, proofreader and ghost writer

THE SCYTHIAN STONE (eBook fantasy adventure)
THE BLACKGLOOM BOUNTY (hard cover and eBook medieval fantasy epic)

Answer 6

As long as it needs to tell its own story.

Some books may be too long at 300 pages. Others may keep moving along to page 1,000. It depends on the size and scope of your project.

But I think most publishers hesitate to accept anything longer than 400 pages by a first-time writer. Most (although not all) of the epics you see released are written by established authors.

Answer 7

Ur book needs to be between 200 to 300 pages if its a novel in the likes of Archer's . If a general book focussing on providing a message ,then the optimum length is 150 pages or so.This is best suited fr the laymen or the gen. public.

Answer 8

Well, i love dostoevsky books which are about 800 pages written in 10th size letters. I love Hermann Hesse's books, which are like 150 pages, twice smaller than Dostoevsky and written in 14th size letters. Its not the size of the book that matters [although I dont deny that dostoevsky looks scary before you actually start to read it]. Write a good book without counting the pages.

Answer 9

As long as it holds my interest, I don't care how long it is. If it is interesting,I wish it would never end. Number of pages is irrelevent. I too love to read ,and have read many.many books. I read Exodus by Leon Uris when I was in the 5th or 6th grade. It was my first reading of a book with at least 1000 pages. I have since reread it. It just has to be interesting.

Answer 10

I really think that depends on the reader. You can have a book you enjoy so much its finished in a couple of days but some people just like to take their time and read at their own pace.