I have wondered why so many SF novels are so damned long these days.
In this Reddit thread, author John Scalzi expounds on this topic.
@bloftin2
“Novel lengths in science fiction and fantasy are essentially dictated by methods of publication *and* distribution.
For example, during the “golden age” of science fiction, the main publishing action of SF/F was in the short fiction arena, with novels (many of which were “fix-ups” of previously published shorter work) largely printed as cheap paperbacks which were fitted into racks at drug stores, groceries and other such places. Because distributors (and publishers!) wanted to fit a larger number of books into each rack, novel lengths were commensurately shorter — 40,000 to 60,000 words on average.
[…]
So the answer to the question “why are books the length they are?” is often and indeed usually “because that’s the publishers and distributors want, and how the authors will get paid.”
It’s interesting that the same “grocery store rack going away” challenge influenced SFF to get longer, but not romance*, (at least originally, afaik — now Amazon definitely influences the lengths of self-pub Romance — which I suspect is also making trad Romance publishers long-curious: see Icebreaker).
Romance seems to have kept the “pulp pace” of publishing that golden age sci-fi shared, whereas SFF now publishes less often but longer works (excluding outliers like Brandon Sanderson and Seanan Macguire, who I’d argue are not working at a healthy pace). I could see SFF’s short fiction market might fill space for readers between novels, while romance readers simply inhale novels and sometimes novellas. I don’t know how romance used to do in the short market, but my perception today is that erotica shorts are much more popular than Romance shorts; there are a fair number of novellas published in Romance these days, especially in the self-pub world where anthologies are popular among authors and readers and indie authors commonly use prequel novellas as lead magnets for their email lists. Personally, I don’t feel like a short story or even a novella is usually long enough to convey a Romantic arc in an emotionally satisfying way, while SFF can do some really interesting stuff at that length.
(Via b.loftin2)
*I enjoyed “Dangerous Books for Girls” by Maya Rodale for a history and analysis of romance publishing changes.
@bloftin2 (sorry that came through as a reply to you, I thought you'd get a mention, not my whole ramble 😅 Sometimes Webmentions don't work as I expect...)