Study Finds Books Are Getting Longer and Readers Love It

Posted on December 12, 2015

A new study says that books are getting longer -- and it's all due to the rise of ebooks. According to a survey by Vervesearch the average number of pages has increased by 25% over the past 15 years. The Guardian reports that there are several factors that have contributed to the trend.

First is the acceptance of ebooks by the reading public. When traveling, most travelers had to consider the size and weight of books they took on vacation. With ebooks, you can load up hundreds of books on your Kindle or Nook and not get a backache.

James Finlayson from Vervesearch told The Guardian that readers don't even notice how long a book is when they buy the digital version. He says that the pattern of growth has been relatively consistent. On average, books are now 80 pages longer than they were in 1999.

Some in the book industry believe that the trend towards longer books has more to do with the fact that readers want an immersive experience. They want to dive into a fictional world and stay there a while. Literary agent Clare Alexander told The Guardian that "people who love to read appear to prefer a long and immersive narrative, the very opposite of a sound bite or snippets of information that we all spend our lives downloading from Google." Ms. Alexander also points out that literary fiction is getting longer all the time. American authors such as Jonathan Franzen, Donna Tartt and Marlon James all write very long books and readers love them. It's like binge watching tv -- only with reading.

Critics and judges of major literary prizes also love a good doorstopper novel. The UK's Man Book Prize has been handing out awards to longer and longer books.In the past five years the winners have averaged 520 pages. Marlon James, this year's winner (who was born in Jamaica but lives in the U.S.) won with his 700 page novel A Brief History of Seven Killings.