How do the really, really short books get published?

Hand a kid a the fourth Harry Potter book. He'll break your toe with the binding.

Hand him some thin book, he might actually read it.


Some stories are short for a reason. Some are long.

Short stories appeal to many people, including me, since there isn't as much commitment of time to reading it to get the story out.

I can't really say, long stories appeal to people (if you're different, speak up).

Series for that matter are like episodes to a television show. It's nice to sit down, finish a single book in that one night and continue another the next night.


I liked Deltora's Quest when I was a kid. Though, I don't remember anything about the story.



In the end, it's all about how many words you need to finish the story. If the story is good, someone will read it no matter what the size.

Beast Quest is short because it's for really quite young children. These are kids who are just starting out as independent readers - 6, 7 years old.

WillSauger said:

Hand a kid a the fourth Harry Potter book. He'll break your toe with the binding.

Hand him some thin book, he might actually read it.

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Not sure how to put this delicately, but that's pretty insulting to young readers. (Unless you're being sarcastic and it's too early in the morning for me to get that.)

The tiny books in question are chapter books. The fourth Harry Potter book is YA. They're completely different reading levels for completely different kids. Some chapter books are actually aimed at a slightly older crowd that's struggling in reading, but most are for the kids that just graduated from picture books.

Advanced kids might read Harry Potter independently at a very young age, and there are plenty that do. All depends on the kid's level and interest.

Lidiya said:

Yeah, I agree with that.

What I was also asking, though, is how do you get a publisher to publish it?Sure, it might be stunning with its 80 pages, but almost all publishers look for longer books. How do you convince them? That's what I'm wondering.

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With something like Beast Quest, you don't really go to a publisher with the idea - that's a series conceived and commissioned in-house and written to order, probably for a flat fee. It may even have been written by a team of editors. ("Adam Blade" is an obvious pseudonym, of course.)

For the age group, you want a nice long series of short attractive formulaic books - you want the kids to get through them without succumbing to fatigue or puzzlement, as a means of building up their reading muscles.

Katrina S. Forest said:

Not sure how to put this delicately, but that's pretty insulting to young readers. (Unless you're being sarcastic and it's too early in the morning for me to get that.)

The tiny books in question are chapter books. The fourth Harry Potter book is YA. They're completely different reading levels for completely different kids. Some chapter books are actually aimed at a slightly older crowd that's struggling in reading, but most are for the kids that just graduated from picture books.

Advanced kids might read Harry Potter independently at a very young age, and there are plenty that do. All depends on the kid's level and interest.

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That was actually a real life example. Maybe I should include the story:

I was in grade school when the Harry Potter books came out. Back then, they were sold to children and most of the school read them. Until the fourth book, which the size turned people away.

Our class teacher brought two books to my friend. One was the fourth Harry Potter book and the other was some thin book. My friend was handed the Happy Potter novel, dropped it and it fell right on the teacher's toe (open sandals, ow). So, he chose to read the thin book.


When I was a kid, Harry Potter was a children's book. Later on, it turned darker, much darker and it evolved (or maybe just came into it's genre more) as the books continued.

WillSauger said:

That was actually a real life example. Maybe I should include the story:

I was in grade school when the Harry Potter books came out. Back then, they were sold to children and most of the school read them. Until the fourth book, which the size turned people away.

Our class teacher brought two books to my friend. One was the fourth Harry Potter book and the other was some thin book. My friend was handed the Happy Potter novel, dropped it and it fell right on the teacher's toe (open sandals, ow). So, he chose to read the thin book.


When I was a kid, Harry Potter was a children's book. Later on, it turned darker, much darker and it evolved (or maybe just came into it's genre more) as the books continued.

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Lol, I stand corrected. This is why I shouldn't post when I first wake up.

Sorry, I thought you meant something to the effect of, "kids hate big books and if you try to make them read one, they'll get violent with you."

I do agree the Harry Potter books are still kids' books. Some are MG, the later ones are YA, but it's still children's lit, imo, even when there's a lot of adult interest.

To the OP: Your best bet to publish a chapter book with a big publisher is the same as the path for a YA novel. Query agents that represent the genre. If you're thinking of a series, make sure the first book stands on its own. It's not necessarily harder, just depends on what the agent is looking for at the time.

Katrina S. Forest said:

Sorry, I thought you meant something to the effect of, "kids hate big books and if you try to make them read it, they'll get violent with you."

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Well, some kids do hate large books. But no way I meant that I wanted to force them upon them.

Harry Potter was still a secondary option, rather than to read Goosebumps and those series in class. As kids, we HAD to read a couple books, but anything larger than 100 pages was an option.

It's like holding out a carrot and a candy bar. Which do you think they'd choose?


And it's too late in my morning to be cracking jokes. My eyes are killing me from revision.

Lidiya said:

Yeah, I agree with that.

What I was also asking, though, is how do you get a publisher to publish it?Sure, it might be stunning with its 80 pages, but almost all publishers look for longer books. How do you convince them? That's what I'm wondering.

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No. You don't have to convince them.

There are different categories of children's books, including short chapter books, which are for new readers who have moved on from picture books but would be intimidated by longer books.

If you're interested in writing children's books, perhaps you should pop into the Writing for Kids room. There are lots of threads about chapter books over there.

In any event, there are different rules for children's books than for adult books, and one of the differences is length.

Not all 'small' books are for kids. My first book was digitally published through Ellora's Cave and was under 30K. Digital is a good option for shorter stories because the length guidelines are more liberal.

And piping in on big kids' books... my kid had the entire HP series read by age 11 and it only took that long because I woudn't let him read past book 3 until he hit 5th grade. He's 12 now, and has read most of Twain, loved the Hunger Games books, and has devoured just about any book I put on his Kindle. My middle son, who is mentally disabled and has problems reading, read one of the bigger HP books, but just because the movie hadn't been made yet and he wanted to know what happened. Some kids like reading, some don't. If they are into the story enough, they will go for the bigger book.

Lidiya said:

I guess it depends on the genre as well, but it's still harder to get a small novella published over a preferred 70k novel, right?

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Not in e-publishing.

Ebooks seem to be getting shorter all the time, perhaps because of the spreading wisdom that the secret to cashing in on e-publishing is to publish lots of titles, each of which will earn a little money, but none of which may be a 'blockbuster' of the conventional kind.

I've seen an 18K story advertised as a novel (although you didn't find out how short it was until you bought it). Now I don't buy if I can't see both the length and an excerpt.

In answer to the question about how short books get published...the authors do their homework to discover the appropriate publishers who will handle the book length and audience the author is targeting.

Lidiya said:

I know that it's much easier to publish a book at 60k - 80k than a massive 200k one or a tiny 20k.

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It depends on the age range and genre.

However, when I go to the library or book store, there are always these tiny kids' books. For example, Beast Quest. They're so damn popular! They're all about 80 pages, 20k.

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Kids books tend to be shorter. When I was a teen, many moons ago, a teen novel (we didn't even call it YA back then) was typically about 20-25k. And the market was pretty dominated by long running series - Goosebumps, Saddle Club, Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High etc.

I guess it depends on the genre as well, but it's still harder to get a small novella published over a preferred 70k novel, right?

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It depends. I mean, 70k is pretty short for a novel - although it would probably be fine in YA or certain genres.

Most of the short books are a loooonngggg series of books, though. Like Goosebumps. It's probably easier to write them short so the authors can keep pounding them out one after the other.

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Most of those series aren't written by a single person, but are ghostwritten by a team of jobbing writers.

VoireyLinger said:

Not all 'small' books are for kids. My first book was digitally published through Ellora's Cave and was under 30K. Digital is a good option for shorter stories because the length guidelines are more liberal.

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Well, except that when the book is for an adult, they're typically called "novellas".

There is a market. It's just smaller than it is for novels.

NeuroFizz said:

In answer to the question about how short books get published...the authors do their homework to discover the appropriate publishers who will handle the book length and audience the author is targeting.

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I was going to say this, but since he already did, I'll just repeat it.

Mutive said:

Well, except that when the book is for an adult, they're typically called "novellas".

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A novella is still a book. I wasn't classifying lengths, just pointing out there is a market for shorter works for adults, something I hadn't seen mentioned at that point.

VoireyLinger said:

A novella is still a book. I wasn't classifying lengths, just pointing out there is a market for shorter works for adults, something I hadn't seen mentioned at that point.

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That is true, although they're often published with other novellas, in magazines, or in short story collections. They are sometimes published alone (more often with e-pulishing than they used to be).

In certain genres (science fiction comes to mind), it's very rare to see physical books published that are a single novella. (While it's fairly common to see them in short story collections, magazines, and occasionally bundled with a second novella in a book.)

Making comparisons between book lengths for different age groups in childrens literature is as meaningless as making comparisons between different genres in adult fiction. It's like saying "If so many epic fantasy books are 700 pages long, why do I see all these category romances at 150 pages long?"

It's almost meaningless to refer to "kids books" as if they are all homogeneous. The differences between books aimed at 5 year olds and books aimed at 8 year olds and books aimed at 12 year olds are as important as the differences between books of different genres. They'll have basic similarities, narrative conventions, but many differences - and one of those differences will be length. This is one reason an agent or editor will groan at the sight of a query letter that says "My book is suitable for children of all ages." No, it's really not. There ain't no such animal.