I've heard that, with the price of books rising, the theory is that readers want more for their money. Any truth to this?
But look at what happened with music. When you're paying $16 for a disc, you want to see that you're getting your money's worth. If there are fewer than, say, 10 songs, who's gonna buy it? Now we have CDs with 18 tracks and maybe 2 good songs. (Listening stations in stores are helping matters.)
Nothing wrong with long novels; I'm in the middle of Stephenson's The Confusion and Mieville's Perdido Street Station, neither of which are short by any stretch of the imagination. But they have to have something to justify all that length. Same goes for long music.
So far, speculative fiction has avoided the problem of long-to-be-long -- mostly. Michael, your biggest strength has been to get going with a story, say what you're saying, and get out. Leaves the reader with a feeling of completion. I'm all tingly to see how you'll translate that -- or subvert it -- in a longish novel.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mabfan
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 07:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 10:04 am (UTC)And it's not just Neil Stephenson. Longer books seem to make up a significant proportion of the bestseller lists.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 11:47 am (UTC)But look at what happened with music. When you're paying $16 for a disc, you want to see that you're getting your money's worth. If there are fewer than, say, 10 songs, who's gonna buy it? Now we have CDs with 18 tracks and maybe 2 good songs. (Listening stations in stores are helping matters.)
Nothing wrong with long novels; I'm in the middle of Stephenson's The Confusion and Mieville's Perdido Street Station, neither of which are short by any stretch of the imagination. But they have to have something to justify all that length. Same goes for long music.
So far, speculative fiction has avoided the problem of long-to-be-long -- mostly. Michael, your biggest strength has been to get going with a story, say what you're saying, and get out. Leaves the reader with a feeling of completion. I'm all tingly to see how you'll translate that -- or subvert it -- in a longish novel.