New (to me) on Amazon - "Nimue Alban: Mit Dampf und Donner"

HamsterDesTodes wrote:German is not as compact as English, so translations tend to be ~30% longer, and as we all know Weber isnt the best guy to write short books
Which means every book in the Safehold series would be a 1500+ pages monster. First of all, its very uncomfortable to read. I wouldnt want to have such a boulder on my bookcase, let alone try to squeeze it into my pocket ("Taschenbuch" =paperback literaly means pocket book, because you can/could transport it in your pocket to read wherever you want).
And lastly, people are more inclined to buy two books for 8€ or 10€ instead of one for 14€ or 16€.
Illogical but a fact of life (and marketing).

So yes, the publisher does make more money per page printed, but no its not 100% more.

Of course they could shrink the type down to pica ... lots fewer than 1500+ pages!

Hard to imagine now, but paperbacks were once just what a publisher named them, "Pocket Books", able to be carried in a pocket. I read recently that the US Military distributed millions of such books in WW2 to servicemen but I cannot find that link at the moment. Of course that was when a full novel was maxed out at about 250 pages (60k words). I remember when Heinlein set new standards for length and then blew the walls out with "Time Enough for Love" at 589 pages (1973). Just thinking about that being done on a typewriter makes my eyes roll but then again there were earlier books done in ink by feather quill ... we sometimes take too much for granted!

Charybdis wrote:

HamsterDesTodes wrote:German is not as compact as English, so translations tend to be ~30% longer, and as we all know Weber isnt the best guy to write short books
Which means every book in the Safehold series would be a 1500+ pages monster. First of all, its very uncomfortable to read. I wouldnt want to have such a boulder on my bookcase, let alone try to squeeze it into my pocket ("Taschenbuch" =paperback literaly means pocket book, because you can/could transport it in your pocket to read wherever you want).
And lastly, people are more inclined to buy two books for 8€ or 10€ instead of one for 14€ or 16€.
Illogical but a fact of life (and marketing).

So yes, the publisher does make more money per page printed, but no its not 100% more.

Of course they could shrink the type down to pica ... lots fewer than 1500+ pages!

Hard to imagine now, but paperbacks were once just what a publisher named them, "Pocket Books", able to be carried in a pocket. I read recently that the US Military distributed millions of such books in WW2 to servicemen but I cannot find that link at the moment. Of course that was when a full novel was maxed out at about 250 pages (60k words). I remember when Heinlein set new standards for length and then blew the walls out with "Time Enough for Love" at 589 pages (1973). Just thinking about that being done on a typewriter makes my eyes roll but then again there were earlier books done in ink by feather quill ... we sometimes take too much for granted!

I think that Stranger in a Strange land is longer. Originally it was 220,000-ish words, but was cut back to 160,000 because of that 60K expectation. Possibly also because it took more paper to print, but they could only charge the same amount of money . You can find the uncut version now.

Keith_w wrote:I think that Stranger in a Strange land is longer. Originally it was 220,000-ish words, but was cut back to 160,000 because of that 60K expectation. Possibly also because it took more paper to print, but they could only charge the same amount of money . You can find the uncut version now.

I believe you are incorrect. The "Uncut" version (1991) shows on-line at 528 pages while the truncated one shows at 448 pages (1961) which leaves "Time Enough" still the champ at 589 pages.

I will say in our 'modern' times, comparing page counts is archaic to word counts and bytes (storage space)! Of course e.e. cummings fans will take umbrage that page space should be discounted.

Charybdis wrote:

HamsterDesTodes wrote:German is not as compact as English, so translations tend to be ~30% longer, and as we all know Weber isnt the best guy to write short books
Which means every book in the Safehold series would be a 1500+ pages monster. First of all, its very uncomfortable to read. I wouldnt want to have such a boulder on my bookcase, let alone try to squeeze it into my pocket ("Taschenbuch" =paperback literaly means pocket book, because you can/could transport it in your pocket to read wherever you want).
And lastly, people are more inclined to buy two books for 8€ or 10€ instead of one for 14€ or 16€.
Illogical but a fact of life (and marketing).

So yes, the publisher does make more money per page printed, but no its not 100% more.

Of course they could shrink the type down to pica ... lots fewer than 1500+ pages!

Hard to imagine now, but paperbacks were once just what a publisher named them, "Pocket Books", able to be carried in a pocket. I read recently that the US Military distributed millions of such books in WW2 to servicemen but I cannot find that link at the moment. Of course that was when a full novel was maxed out at about 250 pages (60k words). I remember when Heinlein set new standards for length and then blew the walls out with "Time Enough for Love" at 589 pages (1973). Just thinking about that being done on a typewriter makes my eyes roll but then again there were earlier books done in ink by feather quill ... we sometimes take too much for granted!

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http://io9.com/5056339/the-longest-scie ... f-all-time