>In June, Mr. Patterson will release BookShots, a new line of short and propulsive novels that cost less than $5 and can be read in a single sitting. Mr. Patterson will write some of the books himself, write some with others, and hand pick the rest. He aims to release two to four books a month through Little, Brown, his publisher. All of the titles will be shorter than 150 pages, the length of a novella.
>Mr. Patterson said the books would be aimed at readers who might not want to invest their time in a 300- or 400-page novel. And he hopes they might even appeal to people who do not normally read at all. If it works, it could open up a big new market: According to a Pew Research Center survey released last fall, 27 percent of American adults said they had not read a book in the past year.
>“You can race through these — they’re like reading movies,” he said during a recent interview in New York. “It gives people some alternative ways to read.”
Why aren't you helping save the publishing industry, /lit/?
>>8138014
>save publishing
And ruin literature all the while
My dad might like this
So he's inventing short stories and novellas? Literally the only new thing about this is the standardised pricing.
>>8138014
>they’re like reading movies
>>8138014 (OP)
>"""""""""""""""""BookShots""""""""""""""""" - a line of short and propulsive novels
store brand books?
"Hey, did you go to BookShots today as you said you were? Did you get anything?"
"Yeah, I had to buy a present for my Mom's birthday and you know they have that cool gift shop, so I got her a cool red fountainpen. And I thought, while I'm already there, why not buy a book too, like, for myself. But I really wanted something you can read in a single sitting, you know, so I was planning on getting 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I was $0.20 short after getting the cool pen for my Mom, so I just bought 'Romance Novel' by BookShots instead. It even had the BookShots Buyers Choice sticker on it, so I guess it can't be that bad."
>>8138014
I think encouraging novellas is good, but not for the reason Patterson talks about. Novellas are usually good for tightening otherwise bloating stories. I don't know how many 300-400 pages novels I've read that lost their steam after the 100th page. Do authors feel they've accomplished something better if they write for huge word counts?
>>8138160
>I don't know how many 300-400 pages novels I've read that lost their steam after the 100th page.
I don't fucking know either then. Why don't you name some?
And how does "you" losing steam with a book after page 100 mean anything for what we should strive towards as a civilization?
>>8138160
>It is a laborious madness and an impoverishing one, the madness of composing vast books - setting out in five hundred pages an idea that can be perfectly related orally in five minutes. The better way to go about it is to pretend that those books already exist, and offer a summary, a commentary on them." - Borges
I agree, but Borges definitely took it to a bit of an extreme. Novellas are my favorite form of literature, I wish it was a more popular medium of storytelling.
I never read 150 pages in one sitting though sometimes I get to page 5 of /lit/.
>>8138206
You haven't read a thriller lately. Their font is extra large, there's so much dialogue, and there are so many chapter breaks it's more like 50 pages of a regular novel.
>>8138186
>Novellas are my favorite form of literature, I wish it was a more popular medium of storytelling.
there are any number of novels that should have been left as novellas. get some of those and just skim past the filler.
>>8138014
So just kindle short reads but even shittier?
>>8138160
I do agree that anything 600 pages or over is self-indulgent and only worth it from a very tiny handful of authors, but 300-500 pages is acceptable from nearly anyone who isn't complete shit.
This is actually brilliant on part of the publisher, fuck
