(no subject)

[msmemory_archive]

Book finished.
3. The Fall of Neskaya. Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah Ross.

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Coraline is a fine book, but it is brief. It won some SF awards under the "novella" category, due to word count.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I picked up a copy of Coraline at Arisia, and have added it to the queue.

Do you know how to estimate the word count of a book? I'm curious whether Trading In Danger, which I am now reading, counts as a novel or a novella.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I vaguely recall once reading established formulas for this, but can't recall where (or the exact formulas). If I was curious enough to do this for a particular book, I'd count the words in ten typical-seeming lines, average them, count the number of lines on a page, and then count the pages (ignoring blank pages, and using half-page increments where appropriate). Actually, you should be able to do that last step faster by simply taking the total number of pages and then subtracting out an estimated number based on the formatting style and the number of chapters. That should get you close enough for most purposes.