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How does Goodreads define "novel-length"?
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Diane
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Apr 18, 2024 02:56PM
The Goodreads Librarians Manual states that a "novel-length" completed work of fanfiction can be considered a valid book for inclusion in the GR database, but fails to clarify whether that means 50K or 70K words (my web search turned up answers ranging all the way from 40K minimum to 80K minimum!), 150 or 175 pages, or what! Please add more specificity to the manual (in both measurement-scales ideally, or at least give your calculation ratio: 250-300 words-per-page??), and let me know. (Considering how short the series-installments that many NON-fanfic authors are releasing as e-"novels" are, the cutoff really shouldn't be very high!)
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Diane wrote: "The Goodreads Librarians Manual states that a "novel-length" completed work of fanfiction can be considered a valid book for inclusion in the GR database, but fails to clarify whether that means 50..."Please refer to -> https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
40k is the standard I (and others) always used when adding fanfic to GR. Since most FF provides word count and not pages it was always easy to discern whether it qualified as a novel to be eligible.
As Rivka stated in the post I linked, the best criteria to determine is word count since #pages is so variable based on subjective words/per page formatting preferences.
ETA: But yes I agree, it should be codified in the manual. Too many "standard practices" are buried within 15 years of group comments and not documented policy.
TYVM, and 40K is a relief, since I saw one much higher number somewhere here (70 or 80K, referencing Wattpad, IIRC) that seemed much too strict. I have given PDF-pages for length a few times (my browser's standard settings), for fics on authors' individual sites that neglected to include a word-count, or had some ambiguity with the number stated, though even that has too much ambiguity to use if the site formatting is not full-width for the text. I should check: there's surely a way to see the wordcount in my generated downloaded files.
