Sheila’s Comments (group member since Oct 26, 2012)

Sheila’s comments from the Divide by Zero group.

"What's your book about?" seems to be the first question. Then "What is it? Mystery? Romance?" I wish there was an "other" box. Divide by Zero started out as a mystery, but it changed into a "small-town drama" when I did the third draft. But is "small-town drama" even a genre?

When you look for books, how important is the genre to you? And in an e-world where more and more "crossover" novels are appearing, do you like / dislike the trend towards less genre-specific fiction?

A.F. wrote: "I use the Fiction Factor page for my word counts: http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles...

But word counts do tend to vary quite a bit depending on magazines, publishers and apparently..."

That's a great link. Thank you!

I guess most writers are readers too. I read (and review, and enjoy) a lot of self-published books, but I tend to be reluctant to start a new series until there are at least three or four books in print. I got stung when the kids were little and I started reading a trilogy with them where book three was never published.

Does anyone have a good list of appropriate word lengths for different types of book? Here are the numbers I've heard...

90,000 long novel
70-80,000 average novel
50,000 YA novel
40,000 children's novel or chapter book
20,000 novella
10,000 novellette
5,000 short story
1,000 short short story
100 drabble
50 dribble
25 drip

If you're a writer, where are you on that long and winding road to publication? If you're a reader, where do you select your books to read? Does the author have to have reached the magical end of the road before you'll read their books, or are you willing to give self-published authors a chance? What decides whether you'll take a risk and read something by someone unknown?