Thursday, September 11, 2008
Deep Thoughts With Jeff: Does Size Really Matter?
Well, not really. But here is a Deep Thought With Jeff.
I’ve taken a bit of heat from some reviewers and fans for the Plague novels being “short” books. Generally this person will come on fairly strong about how they enjoyed the novel and say that it was a quick enjoyable read, but, well, maybe it was short...
To which I say bullshit. There’s no question that I’m not writing the gigantic 200K word door stoppers you find in epic fantasy, for example, but I take exception with the idea that my books are short.
Oo! A nerve! We’ve touched a nerve! :)
Plague Year is 100K words, which is slightly on the long side of average. It’s just that it was published in paperback and in the tiniest legible font known to mankind. The book clocks in at 304 pages total, including maps and blurbs and one ad in the back... but those are densely packed pages, folks, full of flavor and satisfaction. Mmm.
My contract for Plague War mandated an identical count of 100K words — yes, this stuff is in the legalese — but my editor and I fought for more after I found myself halfway through that word count but not halfway through the story. The scope of the sequel is even bigger than in the first book, with more POV characters and a larger background.
War clocked in at 115K words even after a brutal tightening-and-polish of the final manuscript. I figured the finished book would run at least 330 pages and show those short people a thing or two. But an interesting thing happened. When I received advance copies, I was flabbergasted to discover that War was exactly 304 pages, too!
What’s happening here? My editor tells me that books are printed in 16 page increments. More, they love ‘em thin. You get more books in a box that way, saving on warehousing and shipping costs, not to mention paper and binding costs. You also get more books on the shelves in less space. Welcome to the future!!!
I asked her, But what happened to the extra 15K words? Did you guy chop out a bunch of stuff without telling me?
Nope. If you examine War, you’ll find that its pages are even more densely packed than those of Year. They used the same tiny font, but with even narrower white margins on either side and several more lines from top to bottom. Shazam! Magic!
Here's more evidence that my books aren’t short. The gorgeous hard cover from Minotauro runs 320 pages, a nice, standard thickness for a book... and hard covers always have a lesser page count than paperbacks because, well, the pages are bigger! Even with a normal-sized font and normal spacing between the lines, those lovely big pages hold more text than a paperback page.
Also, the German paperback is 400 pages. Why? They’re not using the smallest typeface ever discovered by scientists. So in your face, short people!
(Have I unintentionally begun a flame war with individuals who are vertically challenged? Tune in next week...)
Labels: Deep Thoughts With Jeff, German edition PLAGUE YEAR, Plague War, Publishing, the writing life
Another reason the Spanish book might be longer is that a Spanish translation is, on the average, about 25% larger than the equivalent English. Coupled with a larger font size...yeah, it shouldn't be surprising it's longer.
Don't ask me about German.
Still, this is fascinating. Now, I didn't notice the font being extraordinarily small when I was reading either Year or War, which means it's not supersmall. :)
-kat
It is an unfortunate choice that your publisher has made re: text size and margins, however. For some time now, I have refused to read any book that isn't printed in a manner that makes it easy to read the text. So many books are well-laid-out now that it's spoiled me and even made me loathe to read older books from a time when printing standards were very different. But for a modern book to be published that way when it is no longer customary to do so is unforgiveable—think of the Baby Boomers and their failing eyesight! (or of us younger folk who want to hold onto ours a bit longer...)
From your previous posts, I have learned that you don't have a lot of say over your publisher's decisions, but you really might want to present the case for a modern font and a generous text size in future publications. It couldn't hurt.
No, I know, sometimes (not always) the phrasing in Spanish can be longer. But I'm telling you, the hard cover "La Plaga" has 10 more lines per page than the paperback "Plague Year," which, at 320 pages, should more than account for a longer translation. And yet the book, gorgeous as it is, *not* with a giant font but with a very normal one, is still 20 pages longer. In the big lovely hardcover.
Yes... I may be obssessing too much. You think? ;)
I actually prefer to buy and read paperbacks myself. They're easier to hold and easier to shelve and stack. But as a writer, I yearn for the *presence* of hard covers.
"Mind Plague" will definitely be in the same format as the first two Plague novels. We'll see what shapes up with Carlson #4.
I wouldn't even sweat those folks complaining about book lengths. If they complain about that they probably complain because the temperature today is 73 instead of 72.
Bottom line is - you're published, they probably aren't. 'nuff said!
RWC, I believe I may be disturbed by the mini-skirt image... Ha ha.
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