RARA-AVIS: The long and the short of it...

From: Kevin Burton Smith ( kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 20 Nov 2001


> If Robert Parker could write a very good
>book in under 200 pages in his early books why does he need over 300 in his
>later ones?

Hmmm... Parker isn't generally considered a long writer, though his publishers like to make it look like he is. Large print (12, even 14 pt.), super-wide margins, tons of white space. Some even have graphic logos in their headers. With all those typographical tricks, I'd bet even his 200 pagers are actually far less than that, really.

And I wonder how his actual word count compares to those old, beloved Gold Medals, which regularly rang in at under 200 pages, but consisted of small-size text (9, 10 pt.?), tight-spacing and very little white space at all?

-- 

Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.thrillingdetective.com
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