Hey Folks,
Well, we had a good visit with our youngest son and our oldest grandson. Also very much enjoyed watching the baseball games yesterday, especially Cleveland at New York. Even though Cleveland chose to put off sending New York home until today or until they make them travel back to Cleveland first. (grin)
Today it’s back to writing. For anyone who cares about nominal personal nonsense, today is also my last day as a cigar smoker.
I have three left, including the 1/3 that’s currently clenched between my teeth. I figured it’s only fair to my wife that I do the Nicotine Withdrawal Shuffle while she’s at work tomorrow through Friday.
I realize I should be curled into a fetal position in a shadowy doorway in a seedy neighborhood in major metropolitan area, but where I am will have to do. The whole thing wasn’t properly staged.
And now, as promised and just as if it matters to anyone but me, here’s…
My Updated Fiction Length and Price List for 2017/2018
First, a few explanatory notes —
1. In everything below, I’m talking about indie publishers, like you and me. All signs indicate the traditional publishing model (the agency model) is dead or dying across the board.
I’m also talking here about ebooks. If you want to deal with print, see my excerpt from Dean’s post at http://hestanbrough.com/the-journal-friday-106/. And remember that DWS’ pricing guidelines are for trade paperbacks, not mass-market paperbacks.
2. As DWS mentioned a few days ago, in short fiction, Length, not Genre, matters in pricing.
In long fiction, however, Genre, not Length, rules in matters of pricing. This is a major change for me and one I had a little difficulty getting my head around.
To mitigate that “lost at sea” feeling, it helped me to remember that most well-selling genres have general length guidelines (e.g., Westerns are most often around 40,000-50,000 words).
It also helps to remember that dedicated readers of a particular genre have come to expect certain price points (e.g., most Romance readers are used to paying around $3.99 regardless of the length of the novel).
3. DWS also mentioned, in response to a comment, that the terms “novelette” (long short story) and “novella” (between a novelette and a short novel) have no meaning for readers. I agree. However, to add two more price levels that pertain to Length in short fiction, I use the designations for myself as a publisher.
All of that comes into play in what follows:
For short fiction, Length, not Genre, matters:
To 2999 (Short-short Story)………………………………1.49
3000 to 6999 (Short Story)………………………………..1.99
7000 to 14999 (Novelette or Long Short Story)…2.99
15000 to 24999 (Novella)………………………………….3.49
For long fiction, Genre, not Length, matters:
Romance……………………..3.99
Western……………………….3.99 – 4.99
SF/F……………………………..3.99 – 4.99
Mystery, Suspense……….4.99 – 5.99
Thriller (big book)…………5.99 – 6.99
The pricing variations above (for me) afford room to take into account pricing for Length. For example, Cozy Mysteries generally are short novels or novels. Mysteries and those that crossover into Suspense generally are novels or long novels.
So the second tier below illustrates my own divisions for length. I suspect this is a kind of security blanket for me:
25000 to 44999 (Short Novel)
45000 to 69999 (Novel)
over 70,000 (Long Novel)
Will these change? Possibly. And of course you should feel free to use this (or not) as only a guideline.
Hope this helps.
***
Rolled out late, mostly intentionally, mostly as a time-management technique because I have only three cigars left. (grin)
I browsed the Internet, added the “Of Interest” stuff, then wrote most of this Journal entry.
Spent a couple of hours while it was still cool outside pre-cleaning a car I just got. Now it’s almost 10 and I’m headed to the novel for awhile.
Well, I keep ekeing out these little writing days. The novel is moving along fine, a spurt here, a spurt there. I’m not worried about it. This one just isn’t writing in 3,000 – 5000 word chunks.
Back tomorrow.
Of Interest
See “Author Pen Names: 5 Reasons they’re a Bad Idea in the Digital Age” at http://annerallen.com/2017/10/author-pen-names-digital-age/. Great article.
Strictly for fun, see “10+ Times Writers Took Book Dedications To Another Level” at https://www.boredpanda.com/creative-book-dedications/. There are actually 57 dedications.
Fiction Words: 1180
Nonfiction Words: 670 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 1850
Writing of Pulp Novel 5 (a Stern Richards novel)
Day 1…… 1080 words. Total words to date…… 1080
Day 2…… 2167 words. Total words to date…… 3247
Day 3…… 1370 words. Total words to date…… 4617
Day 4…… 1840 words. Total words to date…… 6457
Day 5…… 1193 words. Total words to date…… 7650
Day 6…… 1407 words. Total words to date…… 9057
Day 7…… 1180 words. Total words to date…… 10237
Total fiction words for the month……… 12462
Total fiction words for the year………… 446608
Total nonfiction words for the month… 6020
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 158703
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 605311
The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………………… 680 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novels to Date………………………… 9
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 27
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182