The Slim Novel: Trad Pub is Learning from Indie Authors
Readers never wanted filler in their books
Traditional publishers never want to admit what we all know: their business model is outdated and dying. They only get by on giving fat deals to big names and relying on the prestige of their imprints. Part of that prestige, weirdly, has always included the physical heft of their books.
Whether fiction or nonfiction, part of the “editing” process of any trad pub house involves making sure a book is thick enough. It needs to “feel good in the hand.” And if that means stuffing a tight, outstanding novel full of unnecessary subplots and meandering philosophizing by the main character… then so be it.
At least until recently.
Indie authors long ago realized that readers don’t actually care how thick your book is. They care if it’s good. And now trad pub is finally catching on.
Two years ago (2023), Esquire declared 'the year of the slim novel.' It wasn’t true though, at least as far as traditional publishers were concerned. But now, in 2025, seven of Esquire’s 21 best books list are less than 300 pages. That’s huge.
Traditional publishing has long favored 80,000-100,000 word novels and even bloating informational nonfiction to an unnecessary 60k-70k word count, necessitating higher retail prices and taxing readers’ patience.
It’s hard to be mad at the TikTok girlies for skimming their way through 10 books a month when you know up to 40% of them are filler.
Penguin Random House would rather commit seppuku than admit it, but independent authors are driving a fundamental shift toward shorter novels, which is a win for readers, and a win for ALL authors.
What Defines the "Slim Novel" Revolution
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, widely considered one of the greatest American novels (for some reason I’ll never understand), contains just 47,000 words. Yet for decades, the publishing industry treated similarly concise works as anomalies.
Instead of taking a lesson from the success of short, bingeable works, trad pub gatekeepers designated them as punishment for honors junior English classes and established the unwritten rule that adult fiction had to be between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Anything shorter was relegated to the "novella" category—a category that only established authors could ever dream of getting published in.
This arbitrary standard forced basically all authors to pad their manuscripts with unnecessary subplots, ridiculous descriptions, and meandering tangents simply to meet word count expectations.
I love you, Ken Follett, but did we need FOUR ENTIRE PAGES of describing how Jack got into the church in Pillars of the Earth??
No. We didn’t. And publishers are finally waking up to that.
Word Count by Genre Quick Reference
The Indie Style of Publishing
In a time where production costs are rising, trad publishers are looking to indies for cost-saving measures.
Digital First: Though paperbacks still have the best sales rates, ebooks have the highest margins, and shorter books perform well in digital marketplaces.
Frequent release strategy: Many indies use shorter works to build reader loyalty and trad pub is encouraging their authors to release short one-offs between novels. (See Gillian Flynn’s novella The Grownup and her short story in the Rogues compilation. Also, Gilly, don’t feel pressure due to Gone Girl’s popularity. Drop another novel on us, honey; we support you and we’ll be waiting ❤️.)
Rapid publication cycles: Indie writers, especially those who write to market, sometimes adopt a spaghetti at the wall mentality: throw everything you got, see what hits, then lean into that. Shorter works allow trad pub to follow that model, at least some of the time. Testing market response quickly is vital for staying relevant and this allows them to take a risk on newer authors more often.
Indies also understand that their books are competing with Netflix, something trad pub is only just seeming to realize. Readers are busy and distracted by other media (hence why audiobooks are rising in popularity). But for physical book fans, they appreciate a book they know they can finish in a month and don’t have to force themselves to get through.
Also, we have among us a group of sickos who read books on their phone. Sometimes they read them on their computers. Why do you hate your eyes, anon? Whether the phone is “easier” for you or not, screen fatigue is real and it encourages shorter reading sessions, which is another bonus point for shorter books.
Also, go buy a proper e-reader, you absolute lunatic! The Kindle Colorsoft and the Boox Go 7 are the elite choices. The Kobo Lira Color is my preferred device but I know many people only read on Amazon.
💡 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Traditional Publishing "Safe Zone"
Debut novelists: 70,000-90,000 words
Established authors: More flexibility
Genre fiction: Most rigid word count requirements
Self-Publishing Sweet Spots
E-book optimal: 50,000-75,000 words
Print-on-demand efficient: Under 80,000 words
Series strategy: 40,000-60,000 per book
The "Slim Novel" Revolution
Under 70,000 words = Growing acceptance
50,000-65,000 words = New literary sweet spot
Quality over quantity = Reader preference trend
Market Impact and Future Implications
The market has spoken clearly: in an attention-scarce world, precision trumps bulk. Shorter novels will continue to gain market share. The only question is how quickly the entire industry can adapt to this new reality.
They have the tools they need. Shorter books means lower price points (or at least it should). That means focusing on volume sales vs higher priced per unit sales. It means new and established authors being able to take risks with new work, “throwing spaghetti at the wall” to see what books sell, and in which format. Fiction has ALWAYS been a price-sensitive market, as affirmed by Beau L’Amour. So why are book sellers still pricing out a good chunk of customers with their chonker, door-stopper novels?
The Last Frontier: How Louis L'Amour's Son Is Fighting Publishing's 'Men Don't Read' Myth
When my video about the absence of contemporary men's fiction went viral last month, I struck a nerve that resonated far beyond my usual audience. The comment section flooded with responses from men who felt invisible in today's publishing landscape—readers hungry for stories that spoke to their experiences (from their perspective) without apology. Among the avalanche of messages that landed in my inbox was one that stood out: an email from Beau L'Amour, son of legendary author Louis L'Amour and custodian of one of the most successful literary legacies in American history.
Having more short books also means reading as a whole becomes more satisfying for the consumer. Reader behavior data reveals books under 300 pages show completion rates 40% higher than their longer counterparts. It’s not even because of TikTok brain rot. We get a psychological reward by finishing something meaningful. In focus groups, readers consistently report higher satisfaction with shorter novels, describing feelings of accomplishment rather than exhaustion.
(If someone reported feeling exhausted by my book, I’m not sure I would recover from that!)
The "completion bias" also means readers are more willing to take chances on unknown authors when the time investment feels manageable. A debut novelist with a 65,000-word book faces far less reader resistance than one asking for 400 pages of commitment.
The lower barrier to entry might also be what we need to convince some of the “I don’t need books, I have video games” guys that you can have both.
So let’s keep up the pressure on the big publishing houses. If they are going to continue to operate their own rigid, exclusive club, the least they can do is put out books that the audience most prefers.
I have been telling my wife for years that published nonfiction works are full of filler not because the authors are dumb but because the publishing companies demand it! Was nice to see this sentiment shared by others even if it is not central to this article.
And here I thought I was just writing Menthol novels, and I was writing slims