: Re: Self publishing: Do I still need to follow the arbitrary word count limits? I am thinking of going down the self publishing path. Now looking at most agents and publishers websites, it seems

@XinRu607

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You're quite correct in your assumption that digital publishing removes a lot of the necessity of typical length categories. Here's some things to bear in mind when coming to a decision.

There's no restriction except "what works well for the story." Traditional publishing is bound by all sorts of restrictions and best-practices - printing costs, shelf space, product appearance, etc. etc. You're free of those. All you have left is making sure that your story is as good as possible - including that its length is appropriate, that it works well.

However, length categories have also evolved for certain reasons. Writing practices, story structures, and reader expectations have all developed in concert with those length categories. What this means is that an odd length may (may) indicate that your novel is an "odd duck" of some sort. That's a sign that you should devote special attention to this topic - basically, making sure that if it is an odd duck, then that's for good reason, and the unusual element works well.

So consider the possibility that your book is too short (as you fear) or too long (a long novella, not a short novel). Feedback will help - be sure to ask specfically about structure and pacing. As long as those are OK, though, you're doing fine.

Once you've determined your length, be sure to market appropriately. Readers want a sense of what they're buying, and I don't know if you offer pagecount on ebooks. So do try and give a reasonable impression of how long the book is when you're marketing and publicizing it - readers might be jarred by a story much longer or much shorter than they're expecting.

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