I also saw the WIRED piece about AI/books, and my first thought was not that AI was going to disrupt books, but that social media already *has* in fracturing our attention. Obviously BookTok has helped publishing, to a degree, but by far the greater threat to books is that we're swamped with other internet content but can't seem to find time for reading books (something I hear from a lot of my own newsletter readers). The pull of doomscrolling and the pull-to-refresh action on Threads/IG/X is too great — I've had to work hard to cull those habits and I'm still plenty guilty of them.
Re: short books — funny timing, I just wrote a piece on embracing the doorstopper (not published yet). I enjoy the occasional short book, but in putting on my cranky old man hat, I have to think our shrinking attention spans have something to do with this too. There are soooo many readers who bristle at the very idea of a 500+ page book, let alone actually reading it. But I love the immersion that kind of story offers! Though not always, I certainly tend to remember those books a lot better, if for nothing else than the amount of time spent with them.
You’re 100 percent right about social media. In the war for attention, it’s got the upper hand.
Re short v long. I do love a short book, but I’m not usually put off by long books. I just finished Kristin Lavransdatter at 1,100-plus pages! I couldn’t imagine that book being shorter. It’s an entire world into which you plunge.
That said, what I love about short books is the focus of the message. That’s especially important for me in nonfiction, where often the narrower the emphasis the better the book.
I've often wondered if there could stand to be more experimentation with physical books as a format. Part of what helped manga take off in the 00's was when publishers switched to a format closer to their Japanese editions--right-to-left, back-to-front, smaller sizes, lower prices. Could other books do something similar? Ever held a Japanese paperback novel? Compact, flexible, with nice slipcovers and even sometimes a bookmark ribbon. If I could publish that way through Kindle, I would.
I agree on format experimentation. There’s still room to play and improve there. I’m a little tired of the oversized 6.25x9.25-inch hardback. I prefer smaller trim.
Penguin experimented with a format popular in the Netherlands, tiny books on high-quality paper, printed so you hold the book 90 degrees from it’s usual orientation.
I think it didn’t take off (maybe due to the name?) but it’s an interesting format; I own one, but I haven’t read it.
Picador Modern Classics puts out some beautiful small volumes; I want to collect them all but I already have a prodigious collection of shelf trophies (as my better half calls them).
Macmillan Collector’s library is lovely too, small hardbacks with gilt edges and ribbon covers, a little smaller than the old Modern Library books.
I’m fixing to open a used bookstore as soon as I can, hopefully within a year.
The drop in physical book sales disheartens me and gives me hope at the same time. Hopefully budget-conscious readers will turn to used books as a way to scratch the book-acquiring itch.
I intend to make my store a soulful but well-organized place where people feel happy and welcome. The response I’ve gotten so far from people in my community has been awesome.
I love a good used bookstore. My very first job was at one—the Almost Perfect Bookstore in Roseville, California. Alas, it went out of business a few years ago. But it was a hugely successful store for at least 20 years. The owner had a real sense of how to merchandise and keep her customers coming back.
Long live the paper back book! I love book series because they satisfy my impatience while also bringing me back into a familiar world whose characters and narrative are further developed. I know many young readers and that gives me great hope for the future of books
I'm all for short books, but also long ones. I've written both. I think a book, and especially a novel, should just be as long as the story needs it to be. Maybe I was just younger and impatient, but it seemed like years ago particularly that too many books were longer than they needed to be. Non-fiction felt padded, and novels felt, well, bloated. Or maybe I'm just seeking out tighter stories these days, both in my writing and reading. So many questions! Thanks for making me think.
There are definitely books that feel tediously long to me. I wonder if the editor felt the same thing and didn’t speak up, or if they found the writing more engaging than I did.
It seems to me the greater challenge is concision, but that could simply be my personal bent.
Thanks for sharing that post! I also enjoyed Confessions of a Heretic, and for similar reasons: It was the perfect waiting-room book, easily carried from one place to another. I recall the exact hospital lobby in which I sat when reading “Effing the Ineffable” from that collection.
You write: "...there’s a long, long history of books as aural media," which reminds me of the lost Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre peering through a window watching young adults in a room, one of which is reading aloud to the others. There’s also a musical instrument in this setting, if I remember right.
Thanks for the Barnes and Noble tip.
Er… what exactly does restack mean in the substack context?
I just recently had a sleek little novella published (Dreck), and I love shorter books like that, but I'm torn on the big fat fantasy nivel I've had in progress for years. It's split into three parts, and I wrote those essentially as three separate books, but I don't want to pull the trigger on publishing the first one until the third one is completed. I don't want and continuity issues, and I want to go over the work as a whole when the story is really done. All that said, should I maybe market this as a trilogy of novellas or one novel of a respectable 400 pages or so?
Continuity issues are tricky, for sure. Good luck figuring that out. But all else bing equal, I think you might be better served with issuing the books as three volumes.
I also like short books. . . and long books. Most of the time I am reading two books, one short one long or perhaps one easy one hard. They provide a nice juxtaposition based upon available time and energy level. But I worry if we've reached a time when a growing number of people have no attention for any books. Can shorter books rekindle love of reading? I hope so.
Congratulations on being designated a Substack Featured Publication Joel! I always enjoy your observations and analysis and look forward to more.
p.s. I am off Notes (for personal serenity), thus no more restacking from me, but I am sure that your articles will find their way to a wider audience!
I do indeed. It seemed like everyone was chasing digital "squirrels" all over the place. The best thing for publishers to do back then, now, and probably always is also one of the least sexy, most mundane things to do: focus on producing great content.
Among the many advantages of shorter fiction is that it's easier to read a short story or novella multiple times. I find that it's only on subsequent reads that I can glean what's most valuable from a great work of fiction. In fact, that's really my definition of which works are great to me: those that give me greater pleasure and provoke deeper thoughts as I grow older.
Congrats on the feature!
I also saw the WIRED piece about AI/books, and my first thought was not that AI was going to disrupt books, but that social media already *has* in fracturing our attention. Obviously BookTok has helped publishing, to a degree, but by far the greater threat to books is that we're swamped with other internet content but can't seem to find time for reading books (something I hear from a lot of my own newsletter readers). The pull of doomscrolling and the pull-to-refresh action on Threads/IG/X is too great — I've had to work hard to cull those habits and I'm still plenty guilty of them.
Re: short books — funny timing, I just wrote a piece on embracing the doorstopper (not published yet). I enjoy the occasional short book, but in putting on my cranky old man hat, I have to think our shrinking attention spans have something to do with this too. There are soooo many readers who bristle at the very idea of a 500+ page book, let alone actually reading it. But I love the immersion that kind of story offers! Though not always, I certainly tend to remember those books a lot better, if for nothing else than the amount of time spent with them.
Thanks for a great newsletter, as always!
Jeremy, thanks!
You’re 100 percent right about social media. In the war for attention, it’s got the upper hand.
Re short v long. I do love a short book, but I’m not usually put off by long books. I just finished Kristin Lavransdatter at 1,100-plus pages! I couldn’t imagine that book being shorter. It’s an entire world into which you plunge.
That said, what I love about short books is the focus of the message. That’s especially important for me in nonfiction, where often the narrower the emphasis the better the book.
I've often wondered if there could stand to be more experimentation with physical books as a format. Part of what helped manga take off in the 00's was when publishers switched to a format closer to their Japanese editions--right-to-left, back-to-front, smaller sizes, lower prices. Could other books do something similar? Ever held a Japanese paperback novel? Compact, flexible, with nice slipcovers and even sometimes a bookmark ribbon. If I could publish that way through Kindle, I would.
I agree on format experimentation. There’s still room to play and improve there. I’m a little tired of the oversized 6.25x9.25-inch hardback. I prefer smaller trim.
Penguin experimented with a format popular in the Netherlands, tiny books on high-quality paper, printed so you hold the book 90 degrees from it’s usual orientation.
I think it didn’t take off (maybe due to the name?) but it’s an interesting format; I own one, but I haven’t read it.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-biblioracle-1111-story.html
Picador Modern Classics puts out some beautiful small volumes; I want to collect them all but I already have a prodigious collection of shelf trophies (as my better half calls them).
Macmillan Collector’s library is lovely too, small hardbacks with gilt edges and ribbon covers, a little smaller than the old Modern Library books.
Well, isn’t that wild? And I learned a new word: Dwarsligger. Kudos to Penguin for the experiment.
I love tiny hardbacks. I have an old copy of Jane Eyre in that format. And the "dwarsligger" completely slipped by me.
I just discovered your publication and I love it!
I’m fixing to open a used bookstore as soon as I can, hopefully within a year.
The drop in physical book sales disheartens me and gives me hope at the same time. Hopefully budget-conscious readers will turn to used books as a way to scratch the book-acquiring itch.
I intend to make my store a soulful but well-organized place where people feel happy and welcome. The response I’ve gotten so far from people in my community has been awesome.
I love a good used bookstore. My very first job was at one—the Almost Perfect Bookstore in Roseville, California. Alas, it went out of business a few years ago. But it was a hugely successful store for at least 20 years. The owner had a real sense of how to merchandise and keep her customers coming back.
Long live the paper back book! I love book series because they satisfy my impatience while also bringing me back into a familiar world whose characters and narrative are further developed. I know many young readers and that gives me great hope for the future of books
I'm all for short books, but also long ones. I've written both. I think a book, and especially a novel, should just be as long as the story needs it to be. Maybe I was just younger and impatient, but it seemed like years ago particularly that too many books were longer than they needed to be. Non-fiction felt padded, and novels felt, well, bloated. Or maybe I'm just seeking out tighter stories these days, both in my writing and reading. So many questions! Thanks for making me think.
Thanks for thinking along with me!
There are definitely books that feel tediously long to me. I wonder if the editor felt the same thing and didn’t speak up, or if they found the writing more engaging than I did.
It seems to me the greater challenge is concision, but that could simply be my personal bent.
A while back I wrote about books for everyday carry, which is all about the short book. Totally with on that.
https://open.substack.com/pub/closereads/p/books-for-everyday-carry?r=d6lea&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Thanks for sharing that post! I also enjoyed Confessions of a Heretic, and for similar reasons: It was the perfect waiting-room book, easily carried from one place to another. I recall the exact hospital lobby in which I sat when reading “Effing the Ineffable” from that collection.
You write: "...there’s a long, long history of books as aural media," which reminds me of the lost Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre peering through a window watching young adults in a room, one of which is reading aloud to the others. There’s also a musical instrument in this setting, if I remember right.
Thanks for the Barnes and Noble tip.
Er… what exactly does restack mean in the substack context?
A delightful scene.
Restacking is just sharing the post within the Substack network. Hitting the 🔄 button takes care of that.
I just recently had a sleek little novella published (Dreck), and I love shorter books like that, but I'm torn on the big fat fantasy nivel I've had in progress for years. It's split into three parts, and I wrote those essentially as three separate books, but I don't want to pull the trigger on publishing the first one until the third one is completed. I don't want and continuity issues, and I want to go over the work as a whole when the story is really done. All that said, should I maybe market this as a trilogy of novellas or one novel of a respectable 400 pages or so?
Continuity issues are tricky, for sure. Good luck figuring that out. But all else bing equal, I think you might be better served with issuing the books as three volumes.
I also like short books. . . and long books. Most of the time I am reading two books, one short one long or perhaps one easy one hard. They provide a nice juxtaposition based upon available time and energy level. But I worry if we've reached a time when a growing number of people have no attention for any books. Can shorter books rekindle love of reading? I hope so.
I hope so too.
Mazel, Joel!
Thanks, Frederick!
Congratulations on being designated a Substack Featured Publication Joel! I always enjoy your observations and analysis and look forward to more.
p.s. I am off Notes (for personal serenity), thus no more restacking from me, but I am sure that your articles will find their way to a wider audience!
Thanks, Ruth! Grateful for your ongoing interest and encouragement.
Re Notes, I get it. Serenity is not to be underrated, and social media of whatever kind can steal it in a moment.
Brilliant observations, Joel!
Thanks, Chad. I bet you remember some of that digital disruption fear-mongering. What a nutty time.
I do indeed. It seemed like everyone was chasing digital "squirrels" all over the place. The best thing for publishers to do back then, now, and probably always is also one of the least sexy, most mundane things to do: focus on producing great content.
Yes, indeed.
Among the many advantages of shorter fiction is that it's easier to read a short story or novella multiple times. I find that it's only on subsequent reads that I can glean what's most valuable from a great work of fiction. In fact, that's really my definition of which works are great to me: those that give me greater pleasure and provoke deeper thoughts as I grow older.
Yes! Rereading is underrated.
Well-deserved accolades, Joel. Your Substack is consistently thoughtful and engaging!
David, thank you!
Congrats!
Thanks!
Congrats on the feature! Well -deserved.
Thank you!