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Source materials
29 November 2024 02:21 pmAs a writer, it's always tricky to get the word count into the right bracket if you work with a publisher which has a set format for many of their books. A certain amount of words goes into a book of this size, while more goes into the next. Obviously, this impacts print ad sale price, as does the number of colour (or not colour) images in a book.
Knowing this, I had an issue with being waaaay over where I needed to be for my next book. While it's educational and non-fiction, it certainly isn't an academic work printed by a university press, because that's a whole other creature. This book is aimed at people who want to start somewhere to learn more and not be put off by all the academic-speak and horrendous references in text books.
Don't get me wrong. I, myself, love that kind of thing, but that's not who comes to see me and hear my talks when I do them in public. That's not the average medieval fangirl who likes the era but doesn't know much about it. My whole website is made as a springboard to further research. Visit, dip a toe in, then fly from there. Same for my current book and the new one coming out soon.
With that in mind, a asked a SERIOUS QUESTION to social media users, because I needed to reduce a LOT of word count, but I really didn't want to leave out my sources. Over 8 000 words of sources, which is a lot of words I could cut in one single go. I have a few options there if I need to reduce word count on my new book, but I don't want to cut content, and the easiest way to not cut content is to cut the 8 000 words in the sources, so I made a poll to look at feedback.
The choices were:
Knowing this, I had an issue with being waaaay over where I needed to be for my next book. While it's educational and non-fiction, it certainly isn't an academic work printed by a university press, because that's a whole other creature. This book is aimed at people who want to start somewhere to learn more and not be put off by all the academic-speak and horrendous references in text books.
Don't get me wrong. I, myself, love that kind of thing, but that's not who comes to see me and hear my talks when I do them in public. That's not the average medieval fangirl who likes the era but doesn't know much about it. My whole website is made as a springboard to further research. Visit, dip a toe in, then fly from there. Same for my current book and the new one coming out soon.
With that in mind, a asked a SERIOUS QUESTION to social media users, because I needed to reduce a LOT of word count, but I really didn't want to leave out my sources. Over 8 000 words of sources, which is a lot of words I could cut in one single go. I have a few options there if I need to reduce word count on my new book, but I don't want to cut content, and the easiest way to not cut content is to cut the 8 000 words in the sources, so I made a poll to look at feedback.
The choices were:
1. I don't care about sources.
2. Include source numbers in book with sources and cut chapters.
3. Include sources numbers in book but have the sources online (webpage and downloadable pdf) and keep content.
This is not an academic work printed by a University press or it wouldn't be an issue. I love sources myself. I want sources. I'm thinking outside the box here. I'm already 20 000 words over. My feeling is if I HAVE to reduce word count, option 3.
The feedback was very interesting. Very few people said don't bother with sources. A lot said to keep the sources in the book and cut content, but I don't want to do that because it's not a big a book as I'd like and I need to trim other content anyway... Option 3, having the sources link a QR code in the book which links to them online was mostly well-received. Some people pointed out that a website won't be there forever, but it's my domain, so it'll be up for the next 30 years or so, and it's not an academic work anyway. People can download the pdf file or read online. Ideally, if I ever get to be wildly famous, a second edition with everything expanded back and the sources printed in the book along with all the images, would be ideal.
The people who made the biggest fuss about how they would not ever buy a book without the sources printed inside were, quite frankly, not the people who bought my first book and probably wouldn't buy this next one either, even though it's not funny and I do take a more serious approach to it.
The images are cut from 98 down to 10, and one of those is my author photo. I'm in the process of providing a second QR code to an online full-colour gallery of the images I talk about in the book which, again, not ideal, but will save readers from having to google the images themselves.
Frustrated, but better than nothing.
