17145 Followers
60 Following
msknight

Michelle's corner

Michelle Knight. Writer, photographer, programmer, truck driver and general, all round nut case. Life is a journey and that's what this blog will probably end up being. Let's see where we go, eh? ;-)

Currently reading

Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics
Dalai Lama XIV, Ian Coghlan
Progress: 23/433 pages

How much is good enough?

I'm sat here on this glorious Sunday morning. I've done everything I could, supped coffee slowly, watered the garden before the sun gets warm, but I know I'm going to have to go back to Check Mate shortly.

 

You see, it's like this. It went out to friends for review at 45,000 words. Among the negative feedback was that it felt too short. I've got it to 50,000 after a number of reviews; the heaviest being yesterdays where I spent all day tuning it. But the average length is 50,000 to 60,000 for a novel to be considered a novel.

 

Now, I'm not too happy by the pigeon holing we do. "Novels should go for this much, and a book needs to be between so much and yay much to be called a novel, otherwise it's a short story and should be priced at this level ... " *blech.*

 

I'm indie published. Sort of a cross between self-pub and traditional pub. Either way, there's another person in the mix; and as far as I'm concerned, he earns his money; so even if I could drop the price to something stupid ... I'm not gonna.

 

On the other hand, I need to leave the reader feeling they've got value for money. But I feel the story is already complete at 50,000 and I think that if I expand it in the wrong way, then that will ruin the balance.

 

I have to admit to also having some dual emotions in there, as it is ... stuff that you want to both laugh and cry about.

 

Today ... I go through the manuscript again. I've physically printed it so I can go through it with a pen. Whatever is left, be it 50,000 words or 55,000 ... that's how it goes out.

 

But what are your opinions on how much is good enough? Should we be drawing such hard lines, pricing by quantity rather than quality?