One of my readers had some kind advice on marketing. I did go to Shadow Valley Press and looked at the information they had. Shadow Valley Press actually had an entire tutorial and pointed to a matchmaking system for getting agents and through them publishers. I am not actually married to the idea of be an independent writer. I think most such writers do it more from the lack of options. So I was actually excited that there was an an organized forum where I could contact the agents, show them my work and get some support to work with a publisher.
That is, until I read through their guide. It seems that one of the taboos of writing… or at least submitting to an agent… is to have a manuscript that is too long. I think the number they gave was over 100k (it’s power level is over 9000!). Apparently the publishers don’t want to print anything that long. No profit in it or something like that. That was depressing. All my work is between 110-120k. I aimed it to that length because that is the minimum length I like to read. Any shorter and I tear through it on my bathroom break. So, I guess I stay independent.
In other news, book #4 hit 120k words. You could say it was done except for proof reading… except that it would be ending in a cliffhanger. Pretty good as cliffhangers go, but still a cliffhanger. I know I don’t publish as often as I should, so it would be rather cruel to publish a cliffhanger that likely wouldn’t be resolved for another two years. So I will try to get to a non-cliffhangery place in the story to wrap up the current events a bit better. Its not like the last two Dresden books where you need another 200k words to finish it. So unless anyone objects to a book about 130-140k words I’ll wrap it up there, rather than cut it off.
And yes, I estimated I would be done a few months ago and yet here I am. I apologize.
My Worlds 
Well that explains why so many books on amazon are so short and have sequels pumped out every month. I’d rather read one book that takes longer than a day, then read 20 short stories that only take an hour to read each. I’m Glad book 4 is almost done. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t wish you were faster, but I’d rather you keep up the quality. As long as you keep writing, I’ll keep buying the books.
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Could it be that that’s for the First book? The reason I ask is that if you look at the bestselling published books: many of them are over 800 pages long.
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@Bradyman, Amazon e-mails don’t have print costs, so that is likely a separate issue. I heard that Amazon changed the way they issue money for e-mails under their program to encourage shorter books. I am not sure how. I am in that program and I was notified of that change I must have saved it somewhere without reading it. Still, there are forums complaining about this so there is likely substance to it.
@Archangel, I think you are correct in this assumption. It is clear that the bestsellers don’t follow this rule. It is likely that proven authors can do as they wish within some bounds. Taking a gamble on someone’s first book is probably what the guide was saying. Unfortunately, I see their point. It is expensive to print a ton of books, advertise for it and then have it fail. I used to work at a bookstore and the paperbacks that didn’t sell we would tear the cover off and return to the publisher for some sort of credit (I assume). It’s just frustrating because I am willing to bet a good number of independent authors don’t start off small. They’ve had an idea percolating in their heads for years and voila… more than 100k words. For better or worse.
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I read a lot of Gamelit – which have very high page counts – and they seem to be doing ok in sales. I get the 100K limit for books that might want a paper copy at some point. Alternatively, there are people in traditional publishing who feel that 100K is a very consumable size and that by tightening the story into that, you will more likely get readers completing book (and hungry for next). Personally, I feel that some of the old ‘known’ models aren’t really true anymore when you consider changing in reading behavior, but I’m not an expert. I couldn’t see anything in KDP that limited / encouraged length. I saw guidelines for those going into paperbacks, but other than minimal length…nothing on shortening. If Amazon is encouraging shorter (and you can see it from them), than I would argue they are right. They do lots of data mining and are all about making money.
Great news on the book’s progress so far.
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Nice to know we will get book 4 soon
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