The New World of Publishing: Book Length

Note - This is a reprint of Dean Wesley Smith's article from 2011, which is used with his permission, as part of our ongoing series about Fantasy Books, Writing and Publishing.

Dean Wesley Smith - March 2nd, 2011.

I’ve got lots of questions over the last few months from writers asking my opinion of book lengths in the future of publishing. So, let me haul out my old crystal ball, polish it up, and pretend like I honestly can see into the future.

I honestly can’t, but I can give you opinions based on history and some facts. So let me try that and then we can discuss in the comments how right or wrong my swirling crystal ball is compared to yours.

Some History of Book Lengths

For the longest time, meaning almost one hundred years, there were generally two types of novels being published in Western Literature. The larger ones were always hardback, usually dense, and designed only for the elite. The harder-to-read the better the book.  The rest, the vast majority of novels, were published in the magazines, pulps, self-published, and hardback second-run presses like Grosset up until the Second World War. These books were designed for the masses and were called “entertainment.”

Then the military paperback novel reprints taken to the war by the GIs caught on when they came home and mass market paperback books grew in popularity because they were cheap, usually just a quarter.

Most stories called novels from 1900 until the early 1970s were in the range of 30,000 to 50,000 words.  Sure, there were some longer, but not a large number except in the literature genre. Even early fantasy novels in the pulps were in that range.

Then one major factor started to hit home in publishing. The returns system and costs of overhead forced publishers to start charging more for their books to cover the costs. So publishers slowly, from the mid-1960s onward, asked authors for longer and longer books to give the readers the feeling they were getting more story for their money as the book prices went up and up and up. The cost of paper was a minor increase in cost, very minor.

Paperback book prices went from  25 to 35 cents in the early 1960s to the $8.99 range today. If publishing had just adjusted prices for inflation, a paperback book priced at 35 cents in 1960 would sell for $2.60 today. That’s how far traditional publishers pushed priced to pay for their expensive overhead and the returns system.

This upward trend in both book prices and book size continued for about 30 years. In the last ten years publishers found a point in book size that hit diminishing returns. Larger books were more expensive to distribute and ship and fewer books could be placed in a pocket or on a store shelf.  That meant less market penetration and less sales, and the mass market $8.99 paperback sales dropped dramatically as customers just started to say no to more price increases.

So book lengths for most genres suddenly had hit a ceiling of 90,000 to 100,000 words. Fantasy and some thrillers were still minor exceptions, allowing authors to go even higher.

When this sudden diminishing returns problem was figured out, publishers tried another “enlarging” trick with the “Quality Paperback” and that pretty much failed, even though publishers committed to it years ago are still putting them out. Buyers are just not that stupid.

(A Quality Paperback is just like a regular paperback, only taller and more expensive. A “trade paperback” is a paperback bound book (perfect binding) that is the same size as a hardback, only not cased in.)

Trade paperbacks actually give readers more value and thus even though prices of trade paperbacks tend to be around $15.00, readers went for them as a cheaper deal than hardbacks that have reached prices of $27.00 – $29.00.

So, in short, it was the publishers who forced writers into longer and longer books to justify the publisher’s increase in pricing. 

This left the 30,000 to 50,000 word novels in most genres way, way out of the picture. In fact, in the 1980s I think it was Stephen King that called the length between 15,000 words and 60,000 words “no-man’s land.” For thirty years he was right.

(Yes, I know that young adult, some category romance, and series westerns stayed around the 50,000-60,000 word length, but those were the exceptions.)

And when you ask how publishers could force writers to write longer books, realize it both took time and was very easy. They just put out the word they wanted longer books and rejected anything out of the new length range they were looking for. No one noticed the slow increase in size over the thirty years except for old pulp writers and those of us who like the history of publishing and collect the old paperbacks.

Like anything in this business, once new writers think that’s the only way things are done, they defend the practice like it’s a golden rule.  And since traditional publishing was the only game in town for the last forty years, writers really had no choice but to write longer and longer, even though in many cases, it wasn’t a natural length for the story being told.

Reader Expectations

A quick point about reader expectations right here and I will come back to this later. Readers (by this upward pressure by publishers on book length to justify their pricing) have also been trained to sometimes like longer books. Of course, they have had little if any choice to read a shorter novel, but the reader expectations are clear at the moment. That will also change with time.

Electronic Publishing Length Prediction

Now we have come to the new golden age of fiction that is dawning. Traditional publishers, moving quickly to electronic publishing, are going to start relaxing their length requirements, maybe even welcoming shorter novels due to less costs in production values. They haven’t yet reached that point, for the most part, but my bet is that they will. (Crystal ball polished.)

The reason novels got longer over the last thirty years was publishing overhead costs and shipping costs. In a world of diminishing shelf and rack space for books, it only makes sense to stuff more books into the same amount of space to make more sales. Thus thinner books and slightly lower cover prices, supported mostly by electronic publishing sales, could slowly become a norm again.
A publisher can ship almost twice as many 60,000 word novels in the same carton for the same price as they can a 120,000 word novel. Not exactly, but close. All for the same shelf space.

Putting an electronic sales cash flow base under a publishing house can also help publishers find more flexible size requirements for all their books. Again, that will take time as well and has not really started yet in most cases. Right now most publishers are still shocked at the speed this is all moving.

Downward Pricing Pressure Will Lead to Shorter Books

Yup, here I go again on the pricing topic. Can’t help it because book length and pricing are connected very tightly.

Electronic publishing was, in part, a reader rebellion against the high prices of traditional published books.

I’m not talking about the silliness of pricing a novel at 99 cents. There are lots of books out there in front of used bookstores in bins for 99 cents. Discount Dollar Store types of discounting of books has always been around. For example, in our discount mall here, we have a discount new bookstore. I can go in there and find a book that didn’t sell well two years ago, brand new, being cleared from a publisher’s warehouse, for 99 cents or $1.99. (Author makes little or no money on sales from that store, so I don’t go in there very often.)

In electronic publishing an author makes almost no money off a 99 cent book price. (35 cents for the most part.) If they had sold the book to a traditional publisher, they would have made 8% of $7.99 or 64 cents per sale. So 99 cent novel pricing of electronic books, as I have said over and over in many ways, makes no sense at all. Period. You are better off stuffing the book into the traditional publishing produce factory. You would make twice the money per copy sold.

However, talking about story length, a short story priced at 99 cents makes great sense. And readers are coming to expect short stories to be 99 cents. And shorter lengths are wonderful to read on phones or Kindles or other devices when waiting in line or at a doctor’s office. So the short story is coming back strong these days, both as a 99 cent stand-alone offering or in collections.

Novel pricing seems to be all over the map and chances are will not settle anytime in the near future. Traditional publishers, for the most part, are holding pricing of the longer novels in the range from $6.99 to $14.99.

(An electronic book at $14.99 is just as stupid as one at 99 cents in my opinion, but alas, that’s just my opinion. But do the math. $14.99 x 35% is $5.25 profit. A book priced at $9.99 x 70% is $6.99 profit. Charge five bucks more and make $1.74 less. Yeah, that’s smart. NOT!)

Indie publishers are taking their books for the most part around the $5.00 number, usually under, and traditional publishers are coming down to that impulse buy point as well in some cases. All of my traditionally published books now have electronic prices in the range of $6.99 to $9.99.

So now we are moving from a world where length of a book determined the price (or the need to increase the price determined the length of the book) to a world where you might as well toss a dart at a price-board to set your book price. But the dartboard approach will slowly move back to length pricing.

So let me give a suggestion of how I think this length/price might level out for both traditional publishers and indie publishers in Electronic Publishing. (Crystal ball polished and ready to roll.)

Traditional Publishers:

—Premium Books (Meaning new bestsellers). Length will remain for the near future at 80,000 to 120,000 words. Pricing at first will stay high, above $14.00 to not hurt the premium of the hardback release. This will change as electronic book sales go past 50% of the market share in the next three or four years.

—Standard paperback or trade paperback books. A length pressure to reduce size will start taking hold to allow publishers to get more books into the same shrinking bookstore shelf space. Electronic pricing will hover around the $7.00 number. Length size will start dropping toward the 60,000 length again in most genre fiction. (This will take years as it took years to build.)

Indie and Small Publishers

—Short fiction. Anything under 15,000 words.  99 cents price.

—Short novels and short collections. Anything from 15,000 words to 30,000 words. $2.99 price (gets 70% pricing structure.)

—Novels and long collections. Anything from 30,000 words and up. $3.99 to $5.99, with the higher price going to the longer books.

(Note: For POD pricing, length is everything. The shorter, the cheaper the cover price. So length for novels or collections for indie POD publishers really pushes books to be shorter as well.)

Length Restrictions

So it comes down to some basic questions.

Do authors have length restrictions now on what they write?

Simple answer: Yes and No. If the author wants to go traditional publishing, the answer is yes. If the author is small or indie publishing, no restrictions at all.

What length should a novel be?

Answer: That depends. Depends on where the author hopes to sell it, and more importantly what the story itself demands.

Can novels be longer now?

Answer: Yes. Not in traditional publishing, but in indie publishing a novel can be as long as you want to make it. I can’t see any reason why an author can’t publish a 300,000 word epic and then publish a 45,000 word novel. No rules, no cost restrictions dictating length as it has done for the past 50 years.

Should authors price their books with a consideration toward length?

Answer: Yes, to a degree. If you have a 300,000 word epic selling for $5.99, you might want to price your 45,000 word novel at $2.99 or $3.99 just to make sure reader expectations are met to a degree. Again, readers have been trained that longer novels are more expensive, shorter novels less so. That’s fifty years of training. Don’t fight it in the short term. And also realize readers have been trained in the same fifty years to think a book priced too low is also not of value. So caution on that side as well. All readers love discounts, just make sure there’s a solid reason besides fear that drives the discount. Readers, for the most part, can see right through anything else.

Summary

Length requirements are still in place for traditional publishing, but not for indie publishing. Writers are now free to write to the natural length of a story.

I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of freedom that gives me. I trained myself as a media writer that when I was hired to write a novel 90,000 words long, I turned in a novel within a few hundred words of 90,000 words. That always caused either slight expansion of a story-line or leaving a story-line out that belonged in the book. It felt like writing with one hand while wrapped in Glad Wrap.
Now, since I don’t write media and am doing a lot of indie publishing, the freedom feels wonderful. And that freedom has been part of what has brought the joy back to writing for me again.

There are no restrictions, no right lengths for novels anymore. Just write what the story demands to be written and then decide what to do with it.

Have I said lately how much I love this new world of publishing?

————————————————

Copyright 2011 Dean Wesley Smith


Note - You can check out D.W. Smith's novels at www.deanwesleysmith.com/novels/ if you are curious about his fictional work. (This is not an advertisement. I asked permission for reprinting his article on Nerdovore, and as part of that I enticed him with the promise of a bonus link to promote his fictional works. And that my friends is how you convince someone to do something: You offer them something they want. Plus, just maybe, he enjoys getting the word out on this topic.)

Fantasy Novels vs Novellas vs Novelettes

Hello Fantasy Readers!

By Charles Moffat - February 2019.
I have a question for you fantasy readers (and especially fantasy writers):

Does everyone agree with the following definitions?
  • Flash Fiction: 53 - 1,500 words
  • Short Stories: 1,500 - 7,500
  • Novelettes: 7,500 - 17,500
  • Novellas: 17,500 - 40,000
  • Novels: 40,000 + words

Because there used to be a time 25 years ago when the definition was this instead:
  • Flash Fiction: 53 - 1,500 words
  • Short Stories: 1,500 - 15,000
  • Novelettes: 15,000 - 30,000
  • Novellas: 30,000 - 90,000
  • Novels: 90,000 + words

Note - There are older definitions too. "Pulp Fiction" was considered to be anything in the 30,000 to 60,000 range. More serious books were always longer. Pulp Fiction writers were hemmed into that word count range due to deadlines where they were expected to write a new book every month, so they needed to keep the books shorter just to meet deadlines.

Apparently the definition of what counts as what has slid dramatically during the last 25 years, and is continually changing.

Novellas that were 40 to 90k are now considered to be full length novels.

Novelettes have shrunk to roughly half the size.

And the max length of a short story has likewise shrunk by half.

Now I have to wonder, how did these definitions change so much over the last 25 years? And the answer seems to be self publishing. Amazon Kindle, Kobo and other forms of self publishing.

If a fantasy writer can write 40,000 words and call it a fantasy novel... that helps their sales and it requires less work than 90,000 words.

Now I cannot say I mind too much. My fantasy novel count based on the new definitions has basically doubled from 4 novels to 8 novels, thanks to my old novellas now being redefined as novels. I can now market what was 25 years ago a 50,000 word novella as a full length novel, thanks to dropping standards.
To me back then, 90,000 words was "barely a novel", and any novel that really wanted to meet the definition had to be at least 100,000 words in length. I wrote four novels based on that word count requirement and my personal goal of reaching 100,000 words.

So should I be happy about this change in definitions? I don't know.

I wrote essays 18 years ago in university that went over 20,000 words. Should I edit and publish those essays as academic books? I could call them Treatises instead of essays. [Insert sarcasm here.]

What I do know is that I have old short stories that now count as novellas. Maybe it is time to go back, edit them, and publish them.

Is any other fantasy writers out there in the same boat? Have you realized the dropping standards mean you could simply edit some old stories (maybe make them a bit longer) and they now count as novelettes or novellas?
I am curious to hear from other fantasy writers (or writers in general) on this subject.
charlesmoffat {atsymbol} charlesmoffat dot com

If you want to check out my writing please visit fiction.charlesmoffat.com.

The Sorry State of Writer’s Craft in Canada

Note - This post was originally published in 2014 in a different source, but now that the source has been deleted I have decided to re-publish it here.


By Charles Moffat – November 2014.

Disclaimer – I should note that regardless of how bad I believe it is in Canada, it is likely worse in the USA.

I recall being at York University between 1999 and 2003 when my best friend was studying writing there – or more specifically she was studying English Literature until she could transfer into a different program that was specifically for aspiring writers seeking to hone their craft. I recall she had to make the attempt several times before she finally got into the writers craft program, which had very limited seats and many applicants. (Which makes me wonder, why the heck are they teaching English Literature if almost all the people in that program are actually trying to get into the writing program instead? Why don’t they just make the English Literature program smaller, and EXPAND the writing program? This makes more sense.)

I recall also writing numerous essays during my stay in university and thanking my lucky stars I had been whipped into shape during high school by Mrs Pletsch, not once but twice as I taken the Grade 11 English Writing course with her when I was in grade 10, and then the OAC English Writer’s Craft in grade 12. Obviously I had enjoyed having my writing skills challenged and “whipped into shape”. I say that in the nicest way possible as Mrs Pletsch was an older lady, nearing retirement, and she was very stern in her approach to writing. She accepted nothing less than perfection.

For my part I reached for the stars during her class. I wrote nothing less than a full length novel for the one assignment, which she was kind enough to edit for me.

During the grade 11 class she taught us the proper way to write essays and revisited that again in the OAC class. When I reached university and began writing essays regularly the essay drills we had completed in high school proved to be invaluable – as university professors want to be presented with perfectly written essays that make good logical sense. (For my sense of logic I will give thanks to the various science, math and philosophy classes I took in high school.)

Thus it was that when it came to essay writing assignments I did quite well in university.

Later in life I returned to fiction writing (try searching Charles Moffat on either Kindle or Kobo to find a selection of my works), but I also wrote numerous biographies, non-fiction pieces, and currently operating over 100 blogs on my various interests.

So now that I am done tooting my own horn – which was really a way of establishing my own credentials as a writer – let me get into the matter at hand.

Most students in Canadian universities don’t know how to write. A phenomenon which is getting worse according to educators, and is also present in American universities. Some educators point the finger at the internet, saying that people don’t read books as much as they used to. Some blame texting on cell phones as the reason why so many students have such poor writing skills, but that would only explain the poor spelling.

However we are not just talking spelling, grammar and sentence structure here, educators are also complaining that students seem to lack imagination, originality, that they are just ripping off other literary sources. Not fan fiction per se, but ripping off the plot, characters, etc.

For example, let us talk about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Now I should admit first that Miss Collins is older than I am, and in theory might actually have a better education in the English language and writer’s craft than I do. Why then is her book series (which I have read and is somewhat poorly written) ripped off from the Japanese novels and/or films “Battle Royale” and “Battle Royale II: Requiem“? The Battle Royale novel was first published in 1999 and the film came out in 2000. If you are keeping track of the chronology, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Hunger Games books came out in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and the films came out in 2012, 2013, the third film – part one – will be released in theatres later this month, with part two to be released in November 2015.

I have two theories on how this happened. One, Battle Royale (both the books and the films) have a huge cult following and Suzanne Collins either read the books or watched the films, and thought “Hey, I should rip that off and change the setting to North America.” Or… Two, movie producers who had seen Battle Royale approached Suzanne Collins to write a series of books ripped off from Battle Royale. Since SC is a writer for TV shows option two is certainly plausible.

Regardless of how it came to be it is clear The Hunger Games is ripped off from Battle Royale. The plot of male and female contestants, equal numbers of teenage boys and girls, fighting to the death and then seeking to overthrow the corrupt and diabolical government, set against a dystopian future is almost identical.

Next, I shall point to a series of novels which even the author admits are completely ripped off. I am speaking of course of Eragon – which the YA author admits is a fantasy version of Star Wars Episode IV. Eragon and the other books from Christopher Paolini are all ripped off from Star Wars. He doesn’t even deny it. They even made a film of the first book back in 2006, but it was so horrible that critics and anyone who has ever seen the first Star Wars film instantly hated it.

Lastly, I want to touch on Harry Potter – and my own series of books Lilith Bloodstone. Both of which have some clear inspiration coming from Ursula Le Guin’s “A Wizard of Earthsea". The plot of “A Wizard of Earthsea” is about a young man who joins a school of wizardry, where his skill earns him both friends and enemies, later leaves the school – and, spoiler alert, there is a bit of a fractured soul in the plot. Le Guin’s book, published in 1968, is considered to be one of the most influential books in the history of fantasy writing – ranking up there with The Lord of the Rings and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Thus it is no surprise that when Harry Potter eventually appeared on the fantasy genre scene that fractured souls ended up being part of the story arc. (Harry Potter also rips off the 1986 film Troll, The Lord of the Rings and other sources too.)

And really, there is no shame admitting where your inspiration comes from.

For me I read “A Wizard of Earthsea” around 1994-95 and I began writing the Lilith Bloodstone series in 1999. In the very first adventure Lilith faces an undead spirit – the fractured remains of an ancient wizard’s soul, so fractured he doesn’t even remember his own name. Each adventure that Lilith has however stands alone and only a few of them have an overall story arc. My goal in writing them was to make her character one that could wander from place to place, having adventures, and each adventure would stand alone. Similar to the various Conan the Barbarian stories, The Hardy Boys, Lassie, etc. Thus I would be able to write as many stories as a felt like writing about the character until I bored of writing such stories, and if the event I was struck by the writing muse again I could always return and write more Lilith Bloodstone stories. It gave me much more creative freedom to have a character which I can use again and again, who I know intimately and I can focus on how she responds mentally to each set of circumstances. I only hint during the stories about the circumstances which led up to her father’s death, a story I know which will play out in time. I have put a lot of creativity into the development of her character, the secondary characters, her family history/origins, and so forth…

I can only imagine what teenagers are writing now: Stories ripped off from The Hunger Games, Harry Potter or other contemporary sources – which are themselves ripped off from other sources. It reminds me of how people in the 1980s sometimes made audio tapes that were copies of copies of copies of copies, and the more copies that were made the more the quality of the sound was degraded to the point it only vaguely sounded like the original. It is essentially the idea that if people keep copying things that the quality of the copying going inevitably will get worse if people are copying copies of copies.

You may have heard that there are actually a limited number of stories out there, and this is partially true. There are certain stories that people have a tendency to repeat again and again. Seven stories to be precise, which are the most frequently common. The exceptions to these popular stories are often stories based on true stories, which makes them more unique.

The Seven Plots are:

Overcoming the Monster / Villain – This is the classic Conan story, but also describes Hercules, Robin Hood, Spartacus, the plot of the film Jaws, and even various plots for Godzilla.

Rags to Riches – Cinderella, “Brewster’s Millions”, etc. (Note: There is also the reverse, Riches to Rags.)

The Long Quest – “Jason and the Argonauts”, “The Lord of the Rings”, etc. Heck, even various Star Trek plots use this one.

Voyage and Return – The Odyssey, the 2014 film “Interstellar” which I saw last Friday (it was awesome), the TV series “Lost in Space”, and the more modern TV series “Farscape”.

Comedy / Ridiculous Circumstances – William Shakespeare’s “The Twelfth Night”, the John Candy film “Delirious”, etc.

Tragedy – William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Pyramus and Thisbe, etc.

Rebirth / Redemption – A Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Macbeth fall into this category.

Some of the best plots often combine multiple different plots from above. For example the 2011 film “In Time” is basically a combination of Rags to Riches, a Robin Hood style quest to overthrow the monetary system (the monetary system is the monster) – and the hero and heroine are stuck in a Romeo and Juliet relationship which appears to be doomed from the beginning.

Now if you can come up with an eighth plot, one which has no villain, is not a comedy or tragedy, the hero doesn’t redeem themselves, there is no rags to riches or riches to rags, no voyage or return – well good luck trying to make such a story.

So if we are honest it is pretty uncommon for people to come up with an original plot.

Now back to Canada, and to a lesser extent Canadian universities.

Asides from Margaret Atwood, can you name a famous Canadian fiction writer who is a household name? (I don’t count, since I am writing this, plus I am not a household name.) Can you name one who is still alive today?

Unless you are extremely well versed on famous Canadian authors then you probably won’t be able to name more than one or two names from the list I compiled at the bottom. (Feel free to scroll down to the list after trying to think of a name or two, preferably ones who are still alive.

Okay, now that you’ve scrolled down and seen how short that list is (seriously, they are only authors worth mentioning, a testament to the shortage of Canadian authors of merit). And you will notice the small number who are still alive, excluding Margaret Atwood. That tells us that Canada isn’t really churning out high successful authors. So what are we doing wrong? Is is Canada’s education system, which for many authors is comprised of whatever they managed to learn in high school and maybe a few classes in university about the craft of writing (keeping in mind that Canadian universities are now flooded with companies that write essays for hire, and even do course work)? Or maybe it is on an institutional level, wherein publishing companies in Canada are rather weak, unprofitable… Can you name a Canadian publishing company? I cannot. Possibly because all of the truly profitable publishing companies are in the USA or UK.

What about awards for Canadian authors? The Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, or the Trust Fiction Award. Rubbish awards in my opinion. If you want to make sure your book doesn’t sell much, win a Canadian fiction award. Winning or even competing in one of these rubbish contests is a sure sign a writer needs to go back to the proverbial drawing board, rethink their career and what they are writing about. If you provided a pile of books by past winners of those prizes to a group of people (teenagers, adults, it doesn’t matter) their response to being forced to read such books would be “Omigod, these books are sooooooo boring…”

Therein lies the problem with Canadian writers, regardless of whether the root of the problem is our education system, our horrid publishing industry or even our rubbish awards. The problem is that the vast majority of things Canadian writers seem to be churning out is BORING. (And I can prove they are boring using the Dumbbell Test described further below.)

Imagine you are a young writer who wants to become an author. Chances are likely you have dreams (delusions) of grandeur, becoming famous and a best-selling author. (And snubbing Margaret Atwood at a gala, if you plan on being a snobbish author.) If you think for an instant that your book idea is interesting and should be written, ask a friend to hold up a 5 to 10 lb dumbbell while you describe the plot of a story to them. Tell them that they should lower and (gently, don’t drop it) set down the dumbbell the moment they get bored of the plot. If your friend gets bored during the first minute of holding up the dumbbell and sets it down, you should come up with a better idea for your book. If after the minute they are still holding up the dumbbell and haven’t become bored, then absolutely, go ahead and write the proposed book.

For more guaranteed results, repeat this test several times with several other friends or colleagues. Then ask your friends at what point in the plot do they become bored. Their insights will give you a good idea as to what you are doing wrong.

Note – Only ask friends who read books from the genre you are writing in. Friends who only read fantasy fiction might get bored very easily if you try to tell them the plot of a murder mystery plot.

I could keep writing, but I think I have made my point clear. Most Canadian writers (and American writers, and sometimes even famous writers) are copying old plots too much, often lack writing skill, and it is small wonder so few Canadian writers become household names.



The List of Household Names of Canadian Authors

Margaret Atwood, still alive!

Lucy Maud Montgomery (oh yeah her!), died 1942.

Mordecai Richler, died 2001.

Margaret Laurence, died 1987.

Farley Mowat, died 2014.

Leonard Cohen, still alive!

Pierre Burton, died 2004.

Douglas Coupland, still alive!

William Gibson, still alive + I didn’t even know he was Canadian.

Anyone else not listed here is not famous enough to warrant being mentioned because they are not a household name – so don’t bother sending me emails saying “What about so-and-so!” I have never even heard of so-and-so. How can s0-and-so be a household name if I have never heard of them. Please look up the meaning of household name for pete’s sake. Pete, now there’s a guy who has a household name. Very famous. Saint Peter. I think he was in a very famous book and is considered to be one of the authors…

12 Week Course for Fantasy Writers

Are you a fantasy writer who is trying to improve the quality of your writing, from conception to completion?

Are you a fantasy writer who needs editorial feedback on your work?

Are you a fantasy writer who has difficulty finding colleagues who will give you useful and actionable feedback that will improve your work?

Are you a fantasy writer who works better when you have a 2 week deadline to get a draft done?

Perhaps what you need is to take part in a 12 week course on fantasy writing that will help you to hone your skills as a writer and world-builder, provide editorial feedback, and deadlines so that you force yourself to write and accomplish your tasks.



The Spring Course

Starts: March 1st 2019.
Assignments Due: March 15th, March 29th, April 12th, April 26th, May 10th, May 24th.
Course Fee: $210 USD via PayPal.
Space is Limited: Only 10 spaces available.



The Autumn Course

Starts September 6th 2019
September 20th, October 4th, October 18th, November 1st, November 15th, November 29th.
Course Fee: $210 USD via PayPal.
Space is Limited: Only 10 spaces available.






The Assignments

Assignment #1. World Building in a Sandbox

You will be challenged to create a new world by writing an origin story for your world and then focus on a specific small region of that world. How did your fantasy world come to be? What is unusual and different about your small region? What does the geography of the region look like? Where are the major points of interest? What are the languages spoken? What is the culture? What monsters or threats inhabit various regions? (Making a map of the region for this assignment is encouraged, but not mandatory.)

Note - You can later use this world for Assignments #2 to #6, but it is not mandatory.

Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format*.

* See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_manuscript_format

Assignment #2. Finishing the Unfinished Piece

Using an older piece you started, but never finished, you will write / rewrite it and finish 6 pages of a new version of the piece. If you don't have a suitable piece you can rewrite / finish, you can also use an old idea for a short story that you have been wanting to work on eventually, but you never got around to writing it. Now is your chance to finally finish it. You have had the story in your mind for a long time, so it should be done cooking by now. How could you improve the plot? How can you improve the characters? Time to get it done. The story could be adapted to be in the same world you created in Assignment #1, but it doesn't have to be.

Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.

Assignment #3. The Villain's Mindset

You need to tell a story from the 3rd Person perspective, but targets only a specific person's actions and thoughts - specifically in this case, the villain. Is the villain human or are they a monster or beast? What motivates them to do what they do? What is their backstory? The villain could be in the same world you created in Assignment #1, but doesn't have to be.

Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.

Assignment #4. The Hero(es) Succeed or Fail

Write a story about a hero or a set of heroes. Are they common people thrust into a dangerous situation? Are they pros at what they do? Try to focus on creating multidimensional characters who have flaws. Do the hero or heroes change at all during the dangerous situation? What instigates them to change and succeed? Or do they refuse to change and then fail?

Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.

Assignment #5. The Climax of the Fight Scene

Write the fight scene between the villain and hero(es). Who has the upper hand? Who is the underdog? Who gets injured or defeated? Who dies? Are they using magic, weapons or fisticuffs? Is it a battle of wills or endurance or wits? Is it a clear victory or a battle of attrition? Does the villain get away? Do any of the heroes change during the climax in order to ensure a victory?

Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.

Assignment #6. The Ending of the Epilogue

How do you think your story should end? What happens to the Hero(es)? What happens to the Villain(s)? What happens to the common people? Does everyone live happily ever after, or is it a bittersweet victory with lasting repercussions?

Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.

Note - If you made all of your aspects of this story within the same world you created in Assignment #1, you should have 30 to 36 pages worth of story and background on your world. You may have even written more than that to expand the story to your personal needs.



The All-Important Feedback

The feedback you receive will be polite (unlike the internet trolls you might otherwise encounter) and focus on things like setting, plot, narrative, what makes sense, what doesn't work, and ways to improve the structure, feel and enjoyment of the piece.

The feedback you receive will talk about what doesn't work, this is true, but will include steps to improve it so that it does work. Specific examples will be highlighted on the text which are problematic and suggestions will be provided as to how you can improve that specific part of the text.

Specific examples will also be pointed out of parts that do work well, so that the writer can see how they did it well in one section and then can learn to do it better in the areas they did poorly in.

The instructor/editor will never say something like "If I were writing this book..." because that is a cop out. This isn't their book. It is yours. You are writing it. An instructor/editor has to remain at an editorial distance and should not be telling you how to rewrite it in a manner that pleases their ego. You are not taking this course to give them an ego boost. You are taking this course to get better at writing. (Sadly quite a few seasoned editors still fall into this egotistical mindset.)

The instructor/editor will sometimes provide examples of other fantasy writers and how they overcome obstacles. This doesn't mean you have to copy what others did. These are merely meant as educational examples.

The instructor/editor will never provide a long laundry of 24+ things that are wrong with your work. Nobody wants to read that, and frankly the instructor/editor doesn't want to write it either. Instead feedback will typically be broken down into 3 or 4 larger subjects that need to be addressed, with specific examples cited. Often these subjects will be topics like Setting, Plot, Narrative, etc.

So for example if you write a story where the plot is confusing, the instructor/editor will point out parts of the story which are confusing and provide examples for how the plot could be made more concrete so that it is more easily understood by readers.



About the Instructor/Editor

Charles Moffat is a Canadian fantasy writer who has written 4 novels, 2 books of poetry, 3 novellas, 3 anthologies, numerous short stories, and a slew of fables. He is currently working on a book of fables that is due out in 2020. He lives in Toronto with his wife and son, where he teaches archery from Spring to Autumn. Archery, a sport for perfectionists, is an obsession for him, and many of his stories contain archery in some manner. As an instructor he employs storytelling and humour as a teaching technique, and in November 2018 published an article on the topic in Archery Focus Magazine titled "Teaching Archery Through Narratives".





Publishing a fantasy book? Make sure you get a professional fantasy book editor.

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