I’ll Take 1/2 That Book, Please
High on the wish list for many of our clients are books that can be read in 2-3 hours, tops. With Twitter conversations and other online articles talking about this very thing, it seems our clients aren’t alone. This is definitely a trend authors and publishers, both traditional and online, should pay attention to.
With the average Canadian working nearly 40 hours per week and our neighbours to the south even longer, there isn’t a lot of time left over for things like reading — especially a traditional 300-page business book that could take hours and hours to finish. So if authors and publishers want to get non-fiction works into the hands of consumers, it could be strategic to significantly prune those longer books.
Quicker to write and get out to market, this easily digestible style of book could compete with magazines and online publications, allowing consumers a quick and timely read, but still with substance. However, these shorter-format books need to feel sizeable enough, both in terms of experience and takeaway, to justify the price.
The challenge will be to find that sweet spot: the point where price, value, and length all come together to create a book that flies off the shelves and opens an entirely new niche market.
What’s your take? Is short and sweet a better model for non-fiction?
Tags: book publishing, business books, changes in publishing, non-fiction
May 14th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Definitely something to ponder – what would be the typical page/word count for a book that could be read in 2 to 3 hours?
May 17th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Word count might range from 25,000 to 35,000 words, maybe as high as 40,000. Page count would typically fall in the range of 120 to 200 pages depending on the dimensions and layout of the book.
June 7th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I am going to go against the grain here and say that “too fast” may mean “too little!” There is a lot to say about taking the time to read a “full” book. The more we dumb things down in order to accommodate our fast paced lives, the less we’ll actually learn! We need to absorb information and contemplate it. We are looking for quick answers in a time where information bombards us! Sure, a lot of books have “fluff” to fill in the blanks, but others teach through story. I am going to buck the trend here and say that I enjoy a full book, a cup of coffee and the time to enjoy both!
July 6th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Joe – you are not going against the grain, more like swimming with the fiction tide. Kobo Books started life as “Shortcovers” because Chapters.Indigo thought they would lose p-book sales to short e-book content. Much to their surprise, most of their early e-book sales weren’t short chapters, but longer books. It seems that we (that’s the reading public) want to delve deeply into our books and live in a story. However, this is generally in the fiction side. On the non-fiction, we’re seeing busy business entrepreneurs wanting short “two hour plane read” books. With the increase in niche production, everyone gets what they want. Sounds good.