I applaud the discipline and fortitude it takes to write a tome three times the size of traditional novels. Aside from being an ambitious undertaking, it's a genuinely impressive feat to see it completed, polished, and ready to hit the book market. Once it's out in the universe, selling an epic of such great length often hits a brick wall. This can be due to several key factors that make ultra-long books difficult for today’s readers to get on board with. Here’s why your 900+ page book may not be taking off, and what you might consider doing to help it along.

The Time Commitment

The average adult reads fewer than 12 books per year, with the most prolific sometimes knocking out one every three weeks, which pushes the number to 17. I don't know a reader who doesn't have a to-be-read list that's a mile long, so committing to a book of 900+ pages, especially if it's an unfamiliar author, is simply too much. It means that three books will have to be kicked off the to-be-read list to accommodate one Goliath. That's a pretty brazen ask of someone who doesn't know you.

This reluctance is compounded when a reader doesn't read nearly that many books per year. For low-volume readers, a 900+ page novel is very intimidating. I once had a manuscript that clocked in at 220,000 words. The publisher told me that unless my name was JK Rowling or Stephen King, I had to cut it down by a whopping 140,000 words. When I discovered how difficult it would be to legally change my name to JK Rowling or Stephen King, I was forced to pare it down—and the book really was better for it.

The Pacing Problem

Another challenge with 900+ page books is the pacing. Super-long books are, more often than not, bogged down by excessive detail that does little to move the plot forward. Yes, details matter, but these elements tend to only be truly important to one person: the author. Tolkien had thousands of pages of backstory and details he wrote for himself that the reader didn't need. I'm no Tolkien, but I had 140,000 words of backstory and details that the reader didn't need either. Instead of pushing readers forward with action and drivers, a slow book risks feeling like an endurance test. The plot is constantly interrupted, and that's frustrating to any reader.

The Cost of Production

A huge book is expensive to produce. For self-published authors, print-on-demand services become costly as the page count increases. A paperback or hardcover edition of such a book could easily exceed $50, which the majority of readers won’t be willing to pay for a self-published novel. In eBook format, the book’s size is still a pricing factor, it can be difficult to download, and it takes up digital space. Even a traditional publisher will not take it on, and they are only in the business to make money, which says quite a lot.

What You Can Do Instead

Break It Into Parts: Instead of forcing readers to tackle a single massive book, divide your work into smaller, more digestible parts. A series or multiple volumes make the content easier to consume and have the added benefit of building your audience. Even better, if that 900+ page novel is already completed, you can break it up and publish the series all at the same time. Sure, it's still 900+ pages in total, but the psychology behind this is what makes it work.

Trim the Fat: Review your manuscript and consider cutting unnecessary sections and details. Long books often suffer from filler content that doesn’t contribute to the plot. Streamlining your work can help maintain pacing and keep readers engaged from beginning to end.

With over four million new books being published per year, a 900+ page book will face challenges. At the end of the day, it's your work and you must do whatever you think is best. Just remember, you are the business and the reader is the customer, and a product's appeal increases when it better matches the habits of its audience. Sometimes, less really is more.