Novel length: too wordy for online reading?

[Mane]

Been happily typing away at my novel and I'd say I'm about 2/3 done with it if, not more, and decided to check up on the word count. I am just shy of 200 k.
Have I gone overboard? Is it too long? Is it still suitable for Tapas?
I have this impression people come here for light reading and not grand epics. I haven't even started with the 'final battle' stage of the book.
Anyone else have to adjust the length of their novel for the site?

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I think it is still suitable as long as you split it up into episodes with reasonable word count. Many novels here are long-form, even having 100+ episodes.

The limit here is 15,000 characters or around 3,000 words. It is recommended to have an episode of 1,000–2,000 words from what I heard, that does not stop some writers to go beyond 2,000. As you said you have written 200,000 words; you can make it around100 episodes.

Making a sequel is also a viable option. However, readers might not transfer for each installment.

[Mane]

I do have a sequel in mind, but that would mean a different book with a different title. I figured I'd have to split the chapter into several episodes, but I was worried the episodes themselves would end up being boring because they're wordy.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

It depends on how long the episodes themselves I think, do not exceed 2,500 words is pretty okay to my standard, although by Tapas' mandate we should all offer bite-sized episodes because majority of readers read mobile.

Probably how you split up your episodes matter too for the story flow and pacing sake, try to split it that at least it seems like something interesting happening each chapter/the story is going each chapter/not being fillers. Do not be afraid to adjust by adding, deleting, or rearranging scenes or paragraph if necessary. Try to end it in the scene that entice readers to read more (but not necessarily cliffhanger), like the character meeting an enemy or something.

Writing skill is also what makes a chapter not boring, but of course I cannot comment on that because I have none.

[An_Alias]

Are you worried that the plot is too long or that the writing style is too wordy? Using a long-winded writing style is usually more of an issue than having a long plotline. I've never had to adjust the actual length of a piece for posting, but I have cut drafts in half for editing to trim the fat.

[rajillustration]

Mine is that length, it's fine. Some people want a longer book, and it's online fiction so like...there's no worry about how much paper costs, you can have as many chapters as you'd like. But what I do is I make each episode rather short, to make up for it.

[Mane]

That's actually a perfect way to describe what I fear might be the case: long-winded. I think I'm writing with a traditional book format in mind. What I'd consider necessary for setting a certain mood etc might constitutes as fat that could have used some trimming for mobile readers .

[Mane]

That's reassuring! I thought I was shooting myself in the foot by aiming for such a long word count. I keep picturing mobile readers with those "bite-sized" episodes that are easy to digest and how hard it would be to split my chapters like that

[An_Alias]

The style (purple prose heavy?) might also be expected of the genre (high-fantasy stuff is usually description heavy). How long or short your chapters should be is also going to depend a bit on who your target audience is.

You can always section your chapters into multiple parts (different episodes)! Usually, you'll wanna do this along the seams of the scenes. Each chapter should have one or two scenes that contribute to the plot. The internal pauses within the scenes would be where to break it into episodes. I do this when there is a lot going on and making it a completely new chapter feels forced.

[Mane]

One or two scenes that contribute to the plot is actually solid advice. This might necessitate some rewriting, but it's better than to have episodes that feel a bit too much like padding.

[amberberry]

A lot of people have already said it but yeah, long series isn't a problem. Realistically, a long series is more ideal since that way you can accumulate more views and most likely gain more visibility to your story since it's around longer and consistently.

Episode length is what matters more. I usually keep my episodes around 7-8k characters and divide chapters into multiple parts if necessary. Tapas recommends short episodes but at least personally, if the episode is too short, then it's not as interesting since there's no time for anything to happen.
Find a natural place to cut the chapter into episodes (if needed), and cliffhanger it if possible.

[rajillustration]

I'll be honest at first it was a little tricky for me because my book was originally a book format, so my chapters were hella long--but after glancing at what other authors were doing on Tapas it helped me realize that like...people have some really short episodes on here, and it's fine. So I split my chapters into like 9 or 10 parts sometimes, as long as it feels like a satisfying thought each episode, not necessarily that a major plot element needs to happen each update.

[Oto_Kouda]

I feel you on this. I'd written around 20k words before I started adding chapters to Tapas.

For me, I ended up splitting and adding to chapters since I was too attached to my old cliffhangers. I also used this as a chance to tidy up some of my older chapters while fixing up scenes since I pretty much had a TARDIS known as "the rest of the story" planned out!

[Mane]

7-8k is what I'd have thought was ideal in my case as well, but then I saw a recommendation stating that episodes should be ideally around 3k.

[HippieGhost]

you really benefit more from having a large number of short episodes than a smaller number of longer ones. In your case I'd break it up by scene, trying to keep it between 1k and 3k words depending on how far they go.

[milejdyvan]

200k IS long for amateur publishing. But if you're just posting it online, no probs. I defo suggest posting short chapters though. From all my readers' comments, I know that they appreciate most very short chapters that they can read without it feeling dragged out (around 500-1500 max words, though mine are 800-1200). It makes them stay longer too. I'm not going to say all, but quite a few of my readers binge read the entire thing in one to two sitting (and I used to have hundreds of chapters). Chapter length is key (!) to keeping your audience interested. Don't worry too much about leaving each chapter with a cliffhanger. Just cut off the chapter, add a somewhat meaningful ending to it (so that it doesn't just cut off mid sentence) and you should be fine.

[Mane]

Yeah, I'm going to test out the 3k episodes and see how that they look.

[Mane]

It got that long because I didn't plan properly. I just went with the creative flow and ended up with this behemoth of a story, and now I'm worried it won't even garner an audience because people will feel put off by the long format.

[milejdyvan]

Mine is 130k. It's not as long but it's just above the right length for fantasy. And when I had it all posted (rn, a lot of my chapters were deleted because of editing purposes), I had 120 chapters, all 800-1200 in length. And there would be very many readers who would just binge the whole thing in one or two days. If you make your chapters just as short, I think you have a much bigger chance at keeping readers interested. If you make 2k+ long chapters, chances are, most readers will choose something else to read. I would say 1500+ word chapters fit other sites like wattpad or RoyalRoad, but for tapas, where you can have an infinite amount of chapters, and most importantly, there are comics on this site too, it is important for novelists to stick their chapters to the shorter side. It's how I had comic readers come to my story, appreciating that they don't have to read a mammoth of words just to pass a single chapter. For comic readers, which is the majority of tapas, it is important to make chapters short, even if you end up cutting up chapters in half–it is worth it.

[thedude3445]

Web serials and novels alike, if you have a single book that's going to be 300k words long, it might be worth figuring out how to cut it down to size, maybe even by half. If it's a full series you might be fine, but books really don't get to sizes that big unless it's epic fantasy by already established authors (and usually those books should have been cut, but the publishers were too scared of the author to do it). No idea if your book NEEDS cuts or not but once you finish you can make that call.

For reference, the longest Lord of the Rings book was Fellowship at 187,000 words, and that's a book that spends like 100 pages on some hobbits setting up for dinner lol.