How long is the book you are currently reading? If it’s a recently published novel, there’s a good chance it’s at least 400 pages long. It might even be considerably longer.
A recent survey found that the average page length of a novel has increased from 320 to 400 pages between 1999 and 2014. My own sampling of recent bestseller lists puts the average page length closer to 450.
That’s quite a jump. And the reasons aren’t immediately clear. Some put it down to the rise of ebooks. In electronic form an 800 page epic costs no more to deliver to the reader than a shorter novel. The author isn’t constrained by a publisher’s production budget. The story can be as long as they want it to be.
Another mooted explanation is the rise of TV box sets. According to this argument, our reading habits have now changed in much the same way as our viewing habits. We are binge readers as well as binge watchers and can’t get enough of something we like. The page length of a novel has increased to meet this demand.
I’m not so sure about either of these arguments. Something else seems to be going on. And maybe it’s as simple as this. Everyone is tempted by a bargain, the best bang for a reading buck. If you’re about to outlay £8.99 for a paperback, it makes sense — all other things being equal — to choose the book with the most number of words or pages. That’s never going to be the whole reason, but it has to be a factor.
Longer doesn’t necessarily always mean better, though. The point was made by this year’s Booker Prize panel as they worked their way through the Booker longlist. The panel’s chairman, Kwame Anthony Appiah, said, “We occasionally felt that inside the book we read was a better one – sometimes a thinner one – wildly signalling to be let out.”
Despite the growing page length of a novel, my own reading preferences are trending in the opposite direction. Maybe it’s something to do with greater demands on my reading time and growing competition from other media. Whatever the reason, I’m more interested now in short novels and novellas than ever before.
As a writer I’m trending towards shorter books too. My current project started out as a novella. During the second draft it grew a little and now is about 50,000 words long. I’m at the stage of rethinking the story before embarking on a major rewrite. I don’t know know yet whether it will grow a little or shrink. But it’s never going to be a door stopper and I’m fine with that.
So, what length is best page length for a novel? There’s no right or wrong answer to that question. It’s always going to depend on the story. The author’s job is to deliver the best story they can. That might mean something short and elegantly simple like the 112 pages of Animal Farm. Or a world of compelling detail like the 1225 pages of War and Peace.
In the end, an author has to treat the reader like Goldilocks. The story has to feel just right, not too short and not to long.