Is 9k words too much?

[AnkaNix]

Is having 9K words for the first chapter too much? Specifically, it is 9190 words.

I think it is immersive enough. But I was wondering if it is overkill or not...

 

[Rookieqw]

Yes. Many readers will skip it, even if it is very well written. Better to split it into 2K or 3K chapters.

 

[Dec]

No, write more.

While for a webnovel this is outside norm (average 1000-3000 words), it's not even third of a size of a normal book chapter. However, even on this site, there are webnovels having more than yours in one chapter.
And most importantly - if you feel that the chapter length is good, and you managed to say everything you wanted to say in it, then the length is okay.

 

[Jaymi]

Is having 9K words for the first chapter too much? Specifically, it is 9190 words.

I think it is immersive enough. But I was wondering if it is overkill or not...

can you not spit it in 3 or 4 parts without making it less interesting? if the answer is no; people probably wont read the entire chapter anyways

 

[AnkaNix]

can you not spit it in 3 or 4 parts without making it less interesting? if the answer is no; people probably wont read the entire chapter anyways

I could break it 6K & 3K. The side characters meet the main character and the main character tells their back story to the reader.

Is two chapters okay like this?

 

[Th3Breadnought]

There are readers with arbitrary "chapter must be between x and y number of words", so it will impact your reach, but I reject arbitrary rules like "chapters should have x number of words" or anything else where the key argument has nothing to do with the content and boils down to "it's simply not done/this is how it's always been done". I'll read a 10,000 word chapter if it's good. I'm not sitting thinking "this is too much good content at once, less please". But you have to decide how much of your vision and preferences you're willing to sand for broader reach.

 

[Xcalibur_Xc]

Majority will skip it. Keep it within 2k-3k. But if you are popular and have a reader base, go ahead. There are a few authors who write 10k words/chapter and update once a week. So, it depends.

 

[PancakesWitch]

depends on your audience, royal road readers will not mind long chapters as long as they dont have grammar issues
I've seen novels with chapters that are like 22k words and are among the most popular

 

[AnkaNix]

Majority will skip it. Keep it within 2k-3k. But if you are popular and have a reader base, go ahead. There are a few authors who write 10k words/chapter and update once a week. So, it depends.

I don't understand what "skip" means. It means they will skip the story altogether and not read at all?

depends on your audience, royal road readers will not mind long chapters as long as they dont have grammar issues
I've seen novels with chapters that are like 22k words and are among the most popular

I will post it there too.

 

[IWILLDEFYTHEHEAVENS]

The first chapter of a fiction is very important.
Readers should be able to get an overview of what the book is about from it, if you drag it out or write too much at once, that might kill the mood you are trying to portray.
9k words doesn't give a break for someone who just started reading your book, they might lose interest halfway.

I once read a book, it was really good and I could picture almost everything the author was narrating, but the word count became too much to finish in a few minutes and I ended up dropping it.

it's not like you can't gain readers because of the length, but I would only advice such if you already have a considerable fandom.

 

[OokamiOkuri]

It would reduce your visibility. Splitting it to multiple chapters are preferable because more chapters equals more views.

Just don't publish everything at the same time. Give a delay for each releases. A story can only appear in latest updates for a maximum of two times each day.

 

[AnkaNix]

The first chapter of a fiction is very important.
Readers should be able to get an overview of what the book is about from it, if you drag it out or write too much at once, that might kill the mood you are trying to portray.
9k words doesn't give a break for someone who just started reading your book, they might lose interest halfway.

I once read a book, it was really good and I could picture almost everything the author was narrating, but the word count became too much to finish in a few minutes and I ended up dropping it.

it's not like you can't gain readers because of the length, but I would only advice such if you already have a considerable fandom.

I see. Thanks.

It would reduce your visibility. Splitting it to multiple chapters are preferable because more chapters equals more views.

Alright. Thanks.

Just don't publish everything at the same time. Give a delay for each releases. A story can only appear in latest updates for a maximum of two times each day.

I didn’t know that.

 

[K.A.A.Ptaszek]

I honestly think that if you are not someone famous etc and you want to get more views etc 9k for a first chapter is too much.

 

[Navillus]

I personally love longer chapters~ as long as it isn’t 15k or more it should be fine though it admittedly would be safer to split it into 2 or 3 chapters-nyah.

 

[Arkus86]

Depends what you are going for. General consensus for ideal chapter lenght of a webnovel on SH is between 1-3k words to maximize readership. Other platforms might have different audiences with different preferences. Published books will have different expectations, and print is probably another category altogether. But it's not like you will not find readers with 9k words on your first chapter, and breaking it up too much might harm what you were trying to write.

 

[AGentleFishThatKilledWhales]

Well, it depends, I wrote 10k once as my first chapter and it increase my visibility. I think its depend if you can hold readers' goldfish attention for 10,000 words and never made them feel bored. if you can, go ahead. if not, maybe split.

Remember, readers on the site had an attention span of a goldfish, include myself. maybe people in this comments as well.

Oh, does that sound offensive, come get me.

 

[FRWriter]

Is having 9K words for the first chapter too much? Specifically, it is 9190 words.

I think it is immersive enough. But I was wondering if it is overkill or not...

No... just no.

Too long.

SH readers mostly have short attention spans, not kidding.

A 9k chapter is WAY too long.

Reduce it to 3k, and that's still plenty.

 

[JordanIda]

No.

 

[Envylope]

Yeah, it's too much for webnovels. I see comparison to real books a lot, but the difference between webnovels and books is that books can have a bookmark on a page. Webnovels you have to return to scrolling positions, so I really don't recommend any chapter being longer than 4-5k words at most.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

This thread feels weird.