In today’s world, we are flooded with tons of information on a daily basis. Information is at our finger tips as we can literally access a library of books on our phones.
Short stories have therefore become popularised nowadays simply because the average reader just doesn’t have the attention span to flip through hundreds of pages.
The mystery is then, where do short books fit into all this?
This is why this post will discuss whether or not people actually read short books because as you may well know, long books are still selling hundreds of thousands of copies every year.
That leaves the question; do people read short books?
The short answer is yes. People do read short books and they’ve become more and more accepted in the reading community because independent self publishing is now possible.
Below are some the reasons as to why short books are very much relevant just everyday normal length books.
Appreciation for short stories
Back in the day writing and publishing a book was almost the equivalent of writing and producing a movie.
There were so many things that had to done just to get a book out to the public.
As time went by, technology improved and so did the way we did things.
The Internet for example, has made it possible for anyone to write a post and for the post to be seen by everyone in the world.
With new improvements like this came short stories that authors could easily write and post or sell on websites. As the market for this grew, the next thing that followed is innovation which meant short books.
Appreciation for short stories is one of the reasons why short books have been generally welcomed with open arms on the reading market.
Niche topic appeal
The appeal that comes with short books is that readers can typically get very niche content.
What I mean by this is that, since short books have to be generally short; authors are now able to write about very specific topics which can make it easy for people to read and learn very specific things that serve their needs.
For example, somebody interested in fish farming in Norway could y find an author that writes about that topic and provides relevant information.
In such a case, the reader interested in that topic would very much appreciate such specificity as it falls in line with their very interest.
The point is, people no longer have to read broad books to understand specific topics.
Easier to digest
Generally, most short books are easier to digest because the authors take time to only include relevant information in the book.
This makes them packed with a punch because there’s no nonsense to put the reader off.
This is one of these reasons why short books are very relevant in today’s world.
New authors
The Internet has not only allowed us to access a lot of information, but it has allowed us to become authorities for information ourselves.
Authors nowadays don’t have to rely on a publishing house to release their work to the world. All they need is a laptop and their work written in digital form to publish their books.
This general easy way of doing things has shined a light upon those authors who, back in the day could not get an opportunity to get their work read, submitted and published.
New authors from different parts of the world have brought a certain appeal to the reading marketplace which has made it more accepting of short books by self-published authors.
Too much information available
There’s too much information available and the world now appreciates and rewards those people that can gather lots of information, cut it, trim off the fat and repackage it to present ideas in a straight-to-the-point fashion.
As a result of this people have become more accepting of short books because they know long books are usually just short books stacked with unnecessary fat.
Why short books and short stories are popular
Among authors, short books have become quite the popular things. Below are some of the reasons as to why authors nowadays are more inclined to write and publish short books.
Easier to publish
Short books require less work from the author than the average 300 paged book.
This is one of the reasons why authors have embraced short books. They don’t need to develop broad ideas so they can fill up 300 pages to make a book complete. They just need simple ideas that can be expressed with a few anecdotes to complete and publish a short book.
Easy to create a targeted audience
Short books are usually very compacted and very specific so they cater to an audience that is well defined and unique.
This allows authors to develop a targeted audience that is line with their writing abilities.
Therefore, the appeal of having the right customer who can purchase a specific product is one of the major reasons why many authors have embraced short books.
Good way to test the market
Short books are a great way to test the market and this is one of the reasons why authors have embraced them.
If an author has an idea but isn’t sure how the idea will be received by the public, they can introduce the idea as a short book and get the general response.
If they response is great, they know they’ve struck gold and can continue writing out their idea, complete it and publish it.
If they get bad response they can easily pack away that idea and start on a new one.
Quick way to get feedback
This point is heavily correlated with the previous point.
Short books can be used as a tool to test the market by an author but these books can also serve as a way to get specific feedback from people.
It’s not all about ideas; there are various things that readers look for when they read. Short books can be a less painful way to test things and get reliable feedback from the actual consumers of your product.
