How long? Dilemma or nonsense?
It certainly can reply like the oracle of Delphi: it depends. If you write for the joy of writing and for that of your fan club, this question not ha sense. If so writes for the market and if the writing and the profession then it makes sense and deserves a reflection. This reflection also starts from a question: a person which it has a work a family, loves cinema, follows current events, does not disdain television and also plays golf time can dedicate ai books? Unfortunately, there is no such statistic and we have to go by intuition: let's say optimistically 4 hours a week? We have some statistics for the United States compiled by the Bureau or Labor to which refer. It's not that Americans are crazy about reading.
There is something comforting. Despite the brutal competition of other media (old and new) the time that people dedicate to books did not decrease with theraid telluric of Internet in the entertainment and information market. It's already something, but how long will it last?
In this regard there are two factors to keep in considerazione: I'securities offer published and the competition of other media. It is known that he United States theoffering di literature "long form" is tenfold from 2003 to 2013, when 1,4 million titles were published, according to Bowker who distributes ISBNs in the US. A huge leap drawing a scenario in which the writers must fight to receive thecaution of readers always more erratic and also face la competition of others forms di reading e hobby (blogs, online literary magazines, films, videogames, etc.) that are coming today consumed all in same way: on a video lesson connected a Internet. If you want to switch from reading to watching a film or listening to music, a vocal order is enough and the content is served. The effects of the "touch to go" I am more devastating than those of the remote control when it came into household use.
Time at any cost
In this environment full of unknowns and challenges, there is one certain fact, unless the Google laboratories invent something that disintegrates it. In a minute a person read 200 words. To complete War and peace they want us 61 hours and 8 minutes. For Zeno's conscience are needed 16 hours and 47 minutes. Against the day di Thomas pynchon requires 53 hours and 31 minutes. Those who want to go a little faster can take it The little Prince and be out of it in 2 hours. The reading of books it is the activity that requires more free time per unit of consumption e not can be turned into multitasking or movement. It requires the person a important investment of your time. Other activities like watching a movie or reading a newspaper are less time consuming. Precisely for this reason, professional writers must ask themselves the question of how much time they require from their clients.
La question of the time it's more very important than commonly believed. “Americans are always in a hurry” commented Alexis de Tocqueville 150 years ago. Now the hurry is the modus vivendi of citizens of developed economies. No one wants to waste time anymore, even if it's an infinitesimal entity. A Google search found that people tend to avoid a site slower di 250 milliseconds of the competitor. One fifth of Internet users leaves un video lesson if it takes more than 5 seconds a to load. It is estimated that in the United States, between 1985 and 2005, the free time of a person with an educational qualification either decreased di 6 hours per week. For the women you go up to 11 hours. Maybe the time has become the resource di greater prominence of people.
What time represents in the new digital economies is interestingly discussed in a recent essay by a scholar at the London School of Ecomomics, Judy Wajcman, published with Chicago University Press under the title Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism (8 hours of reading, too many!).
If we take the number of passwords like unit of measure of reading time, the current production of books and ebooks can be divided into two categories: long form e short form.
short form
There is talk of short form for publications under le 20 thousand words who engage in one reading about 100 minutes. The short form, disappeared with the advent of mass-market publishing after experiencing an incredible season in the 800s and first half of the 900s, is finding a real rinascimento with ebook. Stories, short essays, pamphlets, poetry, current affairs investigations and long journalism have poured into ebooks to such an extent that Amazon has opened a specific shop for this stream of “short form” securities, the Kindle Single Store. These are contents that are exhausted in an hour, an hour and a half, the viewing time of a film, which could be a good unit of measurement for those who produce contents for new media.
The perfect size for a story to be published in ebook is 5 tra e 10 thousand words. Same size va good for a pamphletand an short essay can extend between 15 e 20 thousand words, while an investigative, current affairs or long journalism text can extend between 10 e 15 thousand words. Some magazine articles such as “The New Yorker” already reach this extent. A recent article by Ian Parker on Sir Jonathan Ive is over 16 words and takes an hour and a half to read.
long form
For titles long form, still almost there wholeness of the market, one wonders what could be theideal extension for to encounter le expectations first of the agents, then of the publishers and finally of the public? It is a question for which some have tried to find an answer. He tried Chuck Sambuchino, which maintains a blog that helps authors relate to literary agencies. There response it is not unique but it is tied al literary genre andage of the audience for which it is written.
Novels for adults. THEideal extension is between 80 and 90 thousand words (7 and a half hours of reading). We are talking about novels of the literary genre, female, thriller, mystery, horror, romance, mystery. In detail:
80-90 thousand words: Partner
90-100 thousand words: pretty sure
70-80 thousand words: too short, probably acceptable
100-110 thousand words: too long; probably acceptable
Under 70 words: too short
110 words or more: too long
For titles like Chick lit, titles under 70 words are also OK
Science fiction and fantasy genre. Titles of this genre are generally longer of the standard novels. For this reason the extension Partner salt between 100 and 115 thousand words (8-9 and a half hours of reading). The writers they know that the public expects titles of greater extension than the standard and therefore tend ad exaggerate. You have to be careful not to get carried away
Books for children and young adults. Although the texts intended for this target audience have tended to get longer in recent years, the ideal extension is between 20 and 55 thousand words for CHILDREN included between 11 and 15 years e between 20 and 35 thousand words for the guys under 11 years old. In the compartment young adults there is a lot flexibility. For first-time writers, an ideal range is between 55 and 70 thousand words. Some agents even recommend 80 words, but that ceiling appears rather oversized to Chuck Sambuchino.
Other genres. Picture books: 500-600 words; Memories: 50-80 thousand words.
Chuck Sambuchino concludes with these words that could be made ours: “I believe that not taking into consideration the reading time, by those who write for the market, is today the exception and not the rule. Just as I think that there is no one who wants to preclude the possibility of building a bestseller". Alexis De Tocqueville may have written it 150 years ago leaving America from Boston.
Time yes at any cost
Waiting for us to be ours
Yours and mine, which is not ours
And it goes…
(From Il Tempo by Charles Aznavour )
