By Ailna Chase
Since deciding
that life is too short to struggle through books—no matter how much I paid for
them--I finish fewer than 50% of the fiction and nonfiction books I began reading
with great enthusiasm. It’s not ADD; it’s
boredom. Which I attribute to fluff. And the prevalence of fluff, I believe, is
driven directly by traditional publishers’ book length expectations.
Even if we don’t
plan (initially, at least) to go the traditional publishing route, we are
influenced by the standards. Take a step back and consider if and how streamlining
to 30,000 words might create a better reading (and writing) experience than
polishing a 70,000-word draft. Ask yourself whether trying to make a cookbook look
like what’s already on bookstore shelves is a waste of creative effort. With viable
self-publishing formats and marketing alternatives limited only by our
imagination, why write ourselves into a creative rut based on guidelines that
have nothing to do with quality—or even what readers want?
Check out this
eye-opening post about what’s driven some publishing industry standards. And
imagine a future when everything written is not a word shorter or longer than
it needs to be.
Charlies Diary: Why books are the length they are:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/03/cmap-5-why-books-are-the-lengt.html
