 I'm literally the fastest typer in Australia like you don't believe me check this out Now you're probably thinking Cam you didn't even type anything just then you were just mashing the keyboard oh really if that's the case Then explain this Checkmate. It's another writing vlog baby writing vlog Number three biggest and most important thing that you'll notice probably right away is that no I'm not wearing a hat today. I finally because Your boy got a fresh cut In all seriousness, thanks so much guys for all the love you gave me on last week's writing vlog obviously that I Didn't intend for that particular vlog to be two topics back to back that was such Kind of down as such bombers But it is what it is and you guys were really really nice in the comments on that one Overwhelmingly in fact, so it was kind of crazy, but thank you. I really appreciate it. This one's gonna be a bit more fun I'm hoping I'm hoping for a funner topic that actually has to do with writing specifically so Let's see how it goes vlog number three must be a pro at this by now Look, I know okay. I know the robe the slippers The mustache in the last writing vlog. I was talking about the downsides of feeling like I'm getting older Well, here's the upsides comfort baby the older I get the more comfortable I get and The more I feel like I look good being comfortable, you know again I know mustache, but it is what it is years and years ago when I was half as cute But twice as stupid I did two separate videos on the lengths of books and the font sizes and the like Dimensions I made those videos in particular as advice for writers It was pretty much directly me saying this is what you should do or this is how it should go today I'm rebooting those two videos and I'm slapping them together like a big old pair of juicy Delicious thighs. I don't do like explicitly writing advice videos anymore as you probably know because I don't consider myself And I don't want to be considered an educator or someone who is trying to be one, but I do do it Do do nice But I do do videos where I talk about writing stuff that has helped me and writing stuff that I think applies For someone in the same situation as me or someone who maybe wants to go down the road of being an author or something like that Just general helpful stuff that has helped me. That's the point here I remember when I made that video talking about the book lengths I did it because I couldn't find the answer to a specific question that I had no matter How hard I looked online. I couldn't find the answer to this question The question was how many pages should my fantasy book be because I had no idea. I didn't know how long I should make it I didn't know how many pages and the reason I was having trouble finding an answer to that question is because I Was an idiot and I was asking the wrong question What I should have been asking is how many words should my fantasy story have what should the word count be? So what determines a book's size isn't really the pages in the In the very literal sense. Yes, the pages determine how thick the book is But the amount of pages is determined by the font you choose the word count the font style the font size the line Spacing the headers the footers images and graphics and the list goes on and on now The dimensions of the book also play a really big part in like how thick it's going to be But we'll get to that. This is what about 80,000 words and 400 pages looks like 80,000 words 400 pages this is what about 250,000 words and 660 pages looks like obviously much thicker. It's a girthy boy. So there it is That's the question. What should my word count be and the answer is it's complicated It depends on a ton of different factors in particular the genre the demographic Whether you're going down the self-publishing or traditional publishing route is going to be a big deal breaker there Now the numbers will change depending on who you're talking to but generally speaking Anything with 1000 words or below would be considered flash fiction or micro fiction 1002 about 15,000 words is the standard for like a short story 15,000 to 40,000 is a novella because usually that's the point where you can start turning it into a Actual physical book on its own. It'll be pretty thin at around 15,000 words But it won't look like a complete pamphlet like it would if you were publishing a just one story on its own with under 15,000 words so 15,000 to 40,000 that's a novella anything higher than that would be considered a novel That is my preferred way of looking at it. That is my preferred standards It just sounds and seems and looks right to me But again, it can be different depending on who you're talking to so say that you're aiming for a Traditional publishing contract. You're probably gonna want to have at least 70,000 words That's what I found from looking at the submission guidelines for like all of the major publishers is they almost always say 70,000 words That's the minimum and that goes for pretty much any genre. Obviously. It's that's not counting like middle grade or children's fiction That's a whole different basket of eggs. But if you're writing short stories, let's be really gonna have a hard time getting it Published anyway, it sucks But that's just how it is unless you've got contacts in the traditional publishing industry I just like a debut author with a collection of short stories or something like that. It's just It's like a dime and a billion novels just sell better and they're harder to pirate and I imagine there's a ton of other reasons as well So 70,000 words is usually the minimum even for horror But again, good luck getting traditionally published as a horror writer unless you're related to Stephen King Which sucks because personally, I much prefer like much shorter horror fiction I think having the I think having to read a horror story in multiple sittings can kind of kill the mood That's why most of the horror that I read is indie because indie authors are the ones that are doing all of the horror short story Collections and anthologies, etc. thrillers and like scary mystery They're obviously very different because they bank a whole lot more on Drawing out the suspense and the tension so they get away with having much longer stories romance and Contemporary again between 70,000 and 90,000 words is like the average That's the sweet spot not too long to exhaust the reader But just long enough to like kind of get the reader really emotionally attached to the characters assuming that the writing is Good and then obviously fantasy is the outlier It'll usually be much longer because you need all of those extra pages to World-build and pad it out with all of the beautiful scenery and creatures etc and law and gods and you know blah blah I think if you told Brando sando that he had to keep his book below a thousand words He'd probably have a stroke Unfortunately, if you've never been published before traditionally published you're gonna have a hard time convincing any like literary agent or publisher To commit more than 100,000 words worth of reading to something that you've created if it's your debut, but again It is what it is. It's not easy being a published author traditionally published author is an easy It's not it's not a cakewalk. We all know this. I'm not traditionally published and I'm still on here making Videos about writing again. I'm not an educator, but that's a whole different thing I'm completely fine with being so published for most of the stuff I do anyway for a ton of different reasons, but that's that's a whole lot of video so I'll leave some links in the description that'll lead you to Really informative pages that give you bigger breakdowns and more detailed information on you know word counts for specific genres and demographics Definitely recommend it if again, if you're looking to go down the traditional publishing route But let's move on. Let's talk about book sizing and fonts and that kind of stuff before we do Let's take a quick interlude So where I live Brisbane just went into an extended lockdown because Because COVID still a thing unfortunately, we were we were nearly out. We were nearly in the clear but Unfortunately, the cases are rising again. Not quite as bad as New South Wales, but still not great So we're next we're in an extended lockdown last thing I'm gonna do is go to Woolworth's because It's just insane there plus TP is running low and I know for a fact they don't have any It's time to order some food online Through the Woolies website there Here's the thing as anyone watching my twitch live streams will be able to tell you I haven't been eating that healthy I was on a pretty good health binge where I was going to the gym all the time and you know Eating a lot of lean foods and stuff and also and I was starting to see some good progress and I was starting more importantly I was starting to feel a lot healthier But I haven't been to the gym in a while obviously again because of COVID Definitely all the blame is on COVID for that one, but I've been living on a diet of pretty much nothing but menu log and Candy like well not candy like chocolate when I say candy. I don't really think of chocolate but chocolate Been eating a lot of chocolate a lot of menu log like KFC So even though I can't quite go back to the gym yet. I figure I may as well do the very do the least and start eating healthy again that means That means no more KFC We're really just about to go live for the 10 hour live stream 10 hours of writing sprints writing themed chats conversations chilling and games as well. So it's gonna be pretty fun Yeah, I've got a room full of people waiting for me. So I should probably kick it off Hello, good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon wherever you are. How are you doing? Are you ready? Cheers to another successful 10 hour stream guys and cheers to you guys It's helping me become an affiliate because holy hell. Thank you. I appreciate it. You're wonderful and I love you If you are self-publishing and you're thinking of going with like a stylized or wacky font stop it Don't stop it right now. Stop. The purpose of the font is to be so basic and uninteresting that the reader doesn't even notice Notice it like they don't even think oh, well look at that font anything else is a distraction and a really really bad one So no papyrus and so help me God no comic sans. I here's a bit of an insider tip My favorite is and always has been garamond. I love it It looks nice, but it's still plain enough that you don't really notice it and you just focus on the story Keep the font basic if you try to get creative with it It's just gonna look goofy as hell and no one's gonna take you seriously also and more importantly You're gonna end up alienating anyone who decides to pick up your book that happens to have a reading difficulty or disability Almost everything I say you can take it or leave it again. I'm not an educator. I'm not a teacher But with this one specific thing Take it as for sizing it can depend on the font but as a general rule of thumb I usually go with font size 11 or 12 I don't go any smaller than 10 and I don't go any larger than 14 Unless it is a large print version again for people with reading difficulties or unless it's like a middle grade or children's book Because obviously they need larger print. They're still learning to read fluently playing with the font size and the line spacing I usually go with 1.15 by the way We'll add or decrease the amount of pages which is something to note Font is like one of the easiest parts of writing a book man. Just just keep it simple as for book sizing That's a bit more complicated. So I published my book Welcome Descent in 4.25 by 7 inches Which is actually extremely rare The reason I did this is because I wanted it to look like and kind of be a homage to Really traditional or golden age trade paperback horror from like the 80s All of the little paperback horror books back then were about their size They were quite small and also I like how it just fits in your hand when you're reading It's very snug the problem with setting a custom size for the printing of your book Is that it's not going to be distributed to global sellers like book depository or Barnes and Noble Which is fine by me because pretty much all of my purchases always came through Amazon anyway So whatever, but that's something for you to note if that's important to you and to a lot of people It will be of course the industry standard is 6 by 9 inches And that's because it's the easiest for the publishers to print and package It also looks and works the best when it comes to hardcovers and obviously hardcovers are The popular thing now a lot of readers exclusively buy hardcovers This is a 6 by 9 and this is the 4.25 by 7 inches. I was telling you about That's a difference. The other industry standard, especially for paperback fantasy is 5 by 8 Which is this one here, which I think works pretty damn well, especially if the book is thick I'll leave some links in the description if you're after more info on book fonts and sizing and Industry standard stuff that's going to help you when you're formatting your finished product Those are the big ones 5 by 8 and 6 by 9 You're obviously going to see tons of different book sizes, especially if you walk into a bookstore But in most cases, especially if you're self publishing and you want your books distributed Through all of the retailers Those are the sizes you're going to be looking at. So that's that. I didn't make this video to tell you what to do with your book I just wanted to share the information that I kind of struggled to find myself when I was starting out information that I think really really helps especially self-published authors with Figuring out what they want their book to look like or how the sizes etc are going to affect distribution, etc I really hope you guys enjoyed another writing vlog Kind of slash discussion style video. If you are a fellow writer, I do plenty of videos on writing I have done plenty of videos over the years So I'd love it if you stuck around for the next one And you should come join us over on twitch as well because I stream now like Three to four times a week getting some writing done just talking about writing hanging out with writers. It's a whole thing It's like a big club for writers. It's super fun. I'll leave a link in the description Otherwise, I hope I'll see you in the comments. See you in the next one. Catch you