Posting some Q&A; about Frost Moon from an email…
- Q. How long is Frost Moon?
A. Frost Moon is ~90,000 words. The version my friends and beta readers read was 87,000, but the draft the publisher and I are working on has expanded that to 91,000. - Q. How does that compare to a normal novel?
A. “That depends.” The scuttlebutt in the writing community led me to believe that are about 60,000 to 90,000 words, and I was shooting for 75,000 when I wrote Frost Moon. Since then I’ve done some research, and it seems like novels range from 60,000 to 100,000 with a sweet spot at 75,000 to 80,000 words … but again, that depends:- The always entertaining Orson Scott Card weighs in, giving us this answer with many caveats: “a book feels like a normal novel somewhere around 100,000 words and is hard to publish at less than 75,000”
- Wikipedia presents a range of evidence on the topic, ranging from Animal Farm at 30,000 words (typically considered a novella) to War and Peace at nearly 600,000.
- Fantasy novels tend to be larger … 250,000 words is not unusual.For comparison, Atlas Shrugged is almost 650,000 words, and Lord of the Rings (considered to be one novel published in three volumes) is 525,000. Romance novels, on the other hand, tend to be shorter … 50,000 to 60,000 words.
So, it looks like Frost Moon is typical for the genre.
- Q. What format will Frost Moon be published in?
A. The publisher is thinking Frost Moon will be a trade paperback, a slightly larger sized format that’s easy to print on demand. However, depending on interest, this publisher will basically reissue Frost Moon in whatever size and format sells. - Q. Why aren’t you mentioning the publisher’s name?
A. Two reasons:- Until we have a signed contract that would be presumptuous, and
- Don’t jinx it.
Hope that clears all that up…
-the Centaur
