Lynne

As a buyer/reader I am offended when I spend a big chunk of coin only to find out that I bought a novella or short story. EBook sellers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble need to do a little better job in providing the information to the buyer. Page count is not the industry standard for categorizing books. Word count is.

Why is the category based on words and not pages? There was a time when the cost used to be in the typesetting, so more words equaled more expense. Writers used to be paid by the word. As I mentioned in a previous post, editing costs are still based on the word count. The other reason is that font style and size can affect page count, as can format. Big print equals more pages even though the word count doesn’t change. If the book is in print format than the actual paper size affects the count – a traditional 6×4 paperback will have more pages than the “flat style” 6×9 soft cover.

There’s a wide variety of views on the number of words that constitutes a novel – and it is words not pages that are counted by publishers. The category based on count actually varies by genre. However, the averages seem to work out at about:

Short Story = Under 10,000 words
Novelette = 10,000-19,999 words
Novella = 20,000 – 49,999 words
Novel = Over 50,000 words
Super Novel = Over 100,000 words

Young adult books often fit in the Novelette or Novella category. Harlequin shoots for a target of 40-50,000 words for a novel in most of their lines; although, some of their lines are a maximum of 35,000 words placing them in the Novelette or Novella ranges. The sci-fi and fantasy genres consider 40,000 and above to fit the novel category, while several of the mystery and suspense groups say 60,000 is the minimum to meet their requirement of a novel. National Novel Writing Month requires 50,000 words as a minimum for novel status.

Most readers are not familiar with this so all they have to rely on is page count. Here’s another breakdown. There is anywhere from 300 to 400 words on about 35 lines per page. (35 being the industry average on a traditional 4×6 paperback.) Romance books, which are characterized by lots of quick dialog and short paragraphs, will be on the low side of that number. More line returns means less material per page. Many romance novels are also utilizing an additional line between paragraphs much like my blog, hence even fewer words per page. A suspense or mystery novel will generally be denser per page due to the background and descriptions, so those will average on the high side.

I average 380 words per page with no additional line spacing.
One of my favorite romance writer averages 310 with the additional spaces.

My book of 80,000 words (according to Amazon) is estimated 215 pages. My friend’s book of 35,000 words is estimated at 140 pages.

When I see the book in a brick and mortar store, I can tell by the thickness and font size what I’m getting.

How does Amazon come up with the estimated page count they list? It’s based on the number of times the page needs to be turned on the Kindle. The utilize the file size uploaded, the word count, the number of line returns, and page breaks. I don’t have a problem with that, but once again, the style and spacing can vary greatly, so the estimate is not overly helpful.

I’d really like to see Amazon and Barnes and Noble require and post the word count so the buyer can make a better informed decision. What would be really nice is if they would flag the size clearly so the buyer knows what they’re getting.

Let me just bitch for a moment. I know, I said I was trying to lay off, but sometimes I find things annoying and have to vent a little. Anyone can create an email account at Yahoo or Hotmail, sign up with Amazon, and purchase a single book for 99¢. And as long as they have made that single purchase, forty-eight hours later, they are allowed to drop their precious words of wisdom on anyone and everyone. That’s right, as many reviews on as many books as they want to write. The price of admission to the reviewing party is one item.

A very small (miniscule really) part of me wants Amazon to stop letting people post reviews on books they didn’t pay for, unless they acquired them under the Prime program. At least under that program, the reader has paid an annual fee, and if the book is downloaded, the author sees some return.

It falls under, “If you don’t pay for my book, you shouldn’t have the privilege of commenting on it.” Paying for the book earns you the right to bitch and moan. One of the common complaints among authors who have offered one of their books for free is the bad review from the idiots. Most of whom appear to have downloaded something outside their normal genre. These are the folks who got something for free and then bitched that it wasn’t something they ever would have bought anyway.

I love these rubes and their comments.
About a Sci-Fi:
“I don’t read Science Fiction but thought I’d give it a try. This is awful, I didn’t get it, and you won’t either. It wasn’t even worth one star.” (Looking at the reader’s other reviews makes it clear they were outside their genre, but I love that they think no one else will get it.)
About an espionage thriller:
“Well, I normally read romance, but thought I might try this. Who wants to know all about that city and the political stuff? It was just way too much to take in. I quit in the second chapter. Boring! (Well, yeah! We didn’t see Jason Bourne’s rippling abs and dark passionate gaze in the first two chapters. And nothing else in the world matters but short paragraphs and snarky prose.)
About a paranormal (a book with the word vampire right in the title!)
“I don’t see what all the fuss is about with vampires. I found this book to have entirely too much sex and it’s not even Christian! The description should say that it has graphic sex and lots of it. I finished it, but I can’t recommend it to my friends.” (If you’re worried about the Christian aspect – what the hell were you doing with a vampire book??? As soon as I finished that review, I downloaded that book. I also found the contact info for the author and sent her an email, telling her to post that review in the product description and raise the price!)

Thanks, folks! Appreciate your participation in the review system. Not!

The only drawback with not allowing someone to review without purchasing the item would be that the so-called professional reviewers couldn’t post since most of them are supplied with the books by either the author or the publisher. Perhaps they need to be registered – like lobbyists.

Amazon has now added something that says “Amazon Verified Purchase” next to the review. You will notice that most reviews do not have this beside them. This is also a fairly new feature so I’m doubtful they went back too awfully far in their records to verify purchases. Amazon encourages people to post reviews about any book they’ve read, whether purchased from them or not.

I’m not sure what the answer is, but the validity of the really good and the really bad can always be called into question when it comes to reviews. I have heard about one author (and no this is not a joke) who has created separate accounts and posted reviews on her own books under different names. She at least purchased her own books so I suppose that gives her the right. It’s beyond shallow and base, but some of these folks are desperate and needy beyond belief.

The one thing that Amazon really MUST put a stop to is the ability to post a review on an item that has not yet been released. Not too long ago, I popped on to look at an upcoming release for one of my favorite authors and found that two weeks before the release the book already had over 100 five star reviews. It was just a bunch of happy fans talking about how excited they were. Three months later, when there were only 200 total five star reviews and several hundred more that were significantly lower, the overall rating was still up in the four range. Those chatty pre-release people had definitely skewed the numbers. Let those fans talk on the message boards and fan sites, not in the review section of a bookseller site. The review capability should only be turned on when the book is actually released for sale and not before.

Lastly, Amazon, I need a DISLIKE button. You have an unqualified like button (sort of a waste in my opinion), but you should be fair and provide a DISLIKE. It couldn’t be any more useless.

Okay, I’m done bitching for the moment, and I will now return you to the regularly scheduled blog.

When I began my drafting business, one of the architects who trained me gave me a piece of advice. “A failure to value your creative work will lead others to believe that YOU have no personal value.” I thought that was a little extreme, but of course he was right. If you don’t value yourself, no one else will.

When you walk into your local bookstore and you make a beeline for the rack with your favorite author on it, you have already decided you want his book based on the quality of his other books. You have an expectation that you’re going to get a great read and you are willing to pay the asking price for that good read.

Perceived value – this author is worth the $18.99 for his new book.

Now what happens when you see one particular book by that same author in the bargain section and the book that sold for $18.99 is now marked down to 99¢? Not just down to that price, but with multiple other price stickers showing that it has been reduced several times. Once you are over your initial excitement, don’t you really think it must be a dog of a book that they couldn’t sell. Tell the truth. You do don’t you? I do. You’re pretty sure that this is the one that’s not as good as the others. If it was that good, there wouldn’t be an overstock. They’re stuck with it and it’s been reduced ten times and there’s still a stack of them. They can’t seem to give this one away. I may buy it, but I know that it’s not going to be as good as his other books.

Perceived value – this book is not going to be great because it’s only 99¢.

I’m going back to something I mentioned earlier about my friends with eReaders. They take the free stuff, but, “when they want a decent book, they buy one.” I did an informal survey of my friends and family and you of course won’t be surprised to know that almost every one had a perception that the free or 99¢ book would not be very good. Most figured they would be dealing with mediocre stories, writing, and a complete lack of editing. In fact, almost all of the people I talked to felt that the 99¢ book was just another version of free. Is that true? Hell no it’s not true. There are great books out there at that price, but that’s not what the perception is.

Perceived value – 99¢ is just another version of free and is of low quality.

I conducted another informal test. I raised the price of my stand-alone books. My books average 80,000 words, so they are definitely in the novel range. I had originally priced them at $3.99. With a fairly decent period of time and an established track record, I raised the price to $4.99. There was no change in my sales – there was no drop in sales at all. What there was though was an increase in reviews.

Would I sell more at $2.99? Maybe. But once again, what do you consider the value of the book to be. I’m still under $5.00 and that’s where I’ll stay. Maybe I would sell more if they were less, but then I’d have to sell more to make the same amount of money. I’ve heard of other authors who raised their prices and actually sold more.

Perceived value – The higher the price, the better the quality of the book.

I’ll be discussing pricing in a future blog. For the moment, let’s just say that I am a firm believer in the idea that an author must value their own work while being realistic in pricing.

I ain’t no cheap trick, baby!

First the author tries the great give away, but after that, what’s the next great promotional thing? Well apparently, a huge number of people think it’s the 99¢ novel.

Most of us have heard of Amanda Hocking. She couldn’t get noticed by a traditional publisher, so she went her own way and put her books out on Amazon. She started at 99¢ in a time when there weren’t very many books at that price. Within a short period of time, she was selling more books than you can even imagine. Now she’s worth a fortune.

As with any success story once the strategy is known, everyone jumps on the bandwagon to give that a shot. There are now thousands upon thousands of 99¢books out there. Everyone is waiting to make his fortune.

34¢ at a time. That’s the royalty on 99¢ book.

But, just like the overdone freebie thing, this is no longer a great strategy. One hates to say that the ship has sailed, but if you look out at the ocean, the 99¢ promotion is that dark speck about to disappear over the horizon. Not that people will stop doing it – but as a strategy it may no longer be a great plan.

Go look at the books in that price range. Now, try to figure out how your book will stand out any better there than it would at the price you originally thought it should sell for. If you aren’t selling at one price, reducing the price may help, but not if the whole world is there ahead of you.

Reducing your $4.99 book to 99¢ seems a little desperate. If you sell 10 books at $4.99 you have a royalty of $34.93. (70% royalty on books $2.99 and above) If you reduce your book to 99¢, you now have to sell 100 books to get the same amount.

The 99¢ shoppers aren’t really a whole lot better than the freebie hordes when it comes to writing reviews. They also aren’t great about being repeat customers. Think about this one – you aren’t selling chocolate malts here. I’ll go back time and again to Sonic for a malt, but your title is a single consumption item. Bad news, Betty! They aren’t going to buy it twice.

The current conversation among folks who track and pay attention to such things is that Amazon has weighted their algorithm for the sales ranking with a spot for price. Sell 10 books at $4.99 and you’ll be higher on the list than 100 sales of 99¢. I don’t know if it’s true. I think you could break into the pentagon easier than getting the algorithm for what Amazon does to figure out who gets seen on what lists.

Regardless of what Amazon does, I’ll stand firm. Go ahead and win the 99¢ sales race. But, in the long run, it is merely a race to the bottom, and I’m not sure why everyone is in such a big damn hurry to get there.

Creating a novel is a little like invading Europe in World War II. Scratch that – it’s a LOT like invading Europe. It’s great to have a plan, but in the end, you have to adjust to the conditions you’re facing and get the job done.

Planning the invasion. We’re going to land forces at the following places, and the final objective is to sweep across Europe and capture Berlin. For a writer – this is the concept stage. My concept for the book I’m working on: A USMC special operations team posing as embassy guards, working with their sister unit of Royal Marines, are hunting terrorists. Drop a female Marine in to take care of the armory and weapons. Add a problematic Major who hates women and doesn’t realize that this small group doesn’t work for him. Send them all to an embassy function where (unbeknownst to our heroes) a group of terrorists plan to kidnap an arms manufacturer who has created a new tactical weapon

Start the assault by firing a barrage of artillery at the target from a great distance. Think World War II battleships at sea firing their big guns at a target on land. Their job is to take out as many enemy defenses and do as much damage as possible to soften up a target for a beach landing. This is the initial workup, which is a where I search for a specific target so I can make this happen. What does this team do? Who would they work for? Is this a plausible way to make this happen? Is there a love story? What weapons do USMC special ops carry? What did the arms manufacturer make that someone wants?

D-Day – Parachuting behind the lines, taking Pointe du Hoc, and the beach landing. That’s the first three chapters. You’ve got to get those nailed down. There’s a lot of author blood spilled in making sure that these work. They are somehow the easiest and the hardest to write. You begin with the leap of faith in chapter one and secure the roads, communications, and try to control the front. Then you scale the cliff and take the high ground. And chapter three is the last act of bravery. Much like the end of day one of a beach landing, you have to have your people into position, and have landed enough equipment and supplies to support them. If your reader isn’t hooked by the end of chapter three, then you failed miserably!

Trying to get out of the hedgerows. That’s the next three chapters. You’ve showed up, but you have to get your forces through the first set of problems you face. No one realized just how much trouble those hedgerows were going to be, just as the author didn’t realize how much trouble it was going to be to figure out the details of her own big picture. What started out as a simple concept, “… a group of terrorists with a bomb…” became a major sticking point for me. Just who were these nefarious individuals? What is their goal? And how are they going to carry out their plan? My Marines may not know, but I have to have some idea or I just sound like a one of those losers (liars) that show up in every bar, “When I was a sniper in the ‘Stan.” I randomly (okay – stupidly) picked an ethnic group who would be available in my location and moved on, since their ideals and motives weren’t required in these chapters. Suddenly, I was bogged down in the hedgerows trying to learn about something as basic as bombs and what explosives would this group use. How do you blow up something? How much plastique is enough? Does it leave a residual smell? How big of an explosion is too big? Leaving a crater the size of a football field would not bode well for my poor Marines who were present during the blast. It took a little while to figure out how certain things worked before I could break free and race across France.

Operation Market Garden becomes A Bridge Too Far. This is where the brilliant idea of a quick finish to the war, meets the reality of a stubborn enemy and the failure of a plan to properly come together. At about a third of the way into the book, I figured out that I had some real problems. I hadn’t done enough research on my terrorists and while my concept and early battle plans had met with good results, I may have grossly underestimated my capabilities to accomplish the task in the time allotted. For my novel to be completed on time everything had to go right – and it didn’t. I withdrew to reconsider my options, and while the story (much like the war) progressed on one front, I was definitely struggling on the other.

The Big Slog. As the armies push their way across the continent it becomes a logistical nightmare to keep everything moving. This is the middle of the book and it’s work! This is the part where I often ask the big question – What the hell was I thinking? The excitement of the opening days has worn off, your nose has been bloodied a time or two, and now you have to get it together and get the job done.

The Battle of the Bulge. The Allies are caught by surprise, surrounded, cutoff, and under siege. But they refuse to surrender even though they have taken massive casualties. The allied commander’s response to the German demand for surrender was simply, “Nuts!” General George Patton turns his forces to Bastogne to rescue that unit. Well, there I was at the three quarter point of this project. I was on track and racing forward, the words were flying and the plot was working – and then I had the “aw s***” moment. That’s the point where I realized that I had made a tactical error in the plot. I’d gotten ahead of myself and there was simply no way to write myself out of it in the future chapters. I couldn’t go forward, and my self-imposed deadline of sixty days was running out.

About this time, I was praying for Patton to climb upon the 55-gallon drum in the muddy intersection of my brain and take command. I desperately needed someone in riding jodhpurs, carrying pearl handled Colts, and in possession of an ugly damn dog to untangle the traffic jam in my plot. I waited about three days, cursing my plot, my characters, and my foolishness. It was disappointing to realize that I wasn’t going to meet the original deadline, and I spent a day moping around and feeling sorry for myself. I considered putting the book away and moving on with other projects, but I really didn’t want to do that. I like to finish what I start, and just like the men in World War II, I had to accept that I was in it for the duration. My wimpy side told me to throw in the towel, but I managed to channel Brigadier General Anthony McAuliff for about thirty seconds and beat my wimpy side down while screaming, “Nuts!” Fortunately, the neighbors are used to me yelling at myself and didn’t call the police. Then I accepted that Patton wasn’t coming to save me, and I’d have to untangle my own damn mess. So, I gave myself a good slap in the face, picked up my rifle, and went back into the war. I fixed my issues by taking a week out and reworking the timeline and adjusting two of the characters. The rewriting was easy and painful all at once.

Crossing the Rhine. Finally, everything starts to go right and the enemy resistance collapses. All the hard work culminates in a rush to Berlin. This is the happy part of the writing. You know how it ends and the last three chapters fly from your fingertips. All you need to do is come up with the right last line.

V.E. Day. The war is over. The troops aren’t going home quite yet, but the bloody part is done and the clean-up and healing can begin. I, much like the poor soldiers, have collapsed in a grungy heap. All I want is a shower, a decent night’s sleep, and a real meal. There will be months of rewrites and edits before I can declare this book complete.

But the war of getting a first draft down on paper has been won.