I broke down the cost of roleplaying game PDFs two weeks ago. Now, let me do the same for the price of grimdark books!
The Abstract
Short stories (8750-10k words) are much more profitable than full-length books (95k-115k) by a factor of 367% when it come to price-per-page.
The Data Collection
Data from the first and top-rated grimdark books from The Black Library and Amazon gives the average pages for short and full stories. Using the rule-of-thumb that there are 250 words per page, we can extrapolate word count. The “Range” below comes from a +/- ~10% of the average:
| Group | Count ( Range ) | Words ( Range ) |
| Short Stories | 37.5 ( 35-40 ) | 9375 ( 8750-10k ) |
| Full Books | 420 ( 380-460 ) | 105k ( 95k-115k ) |
Short stories where virtually sold for $4. Full books (not anthological or omnibus collections) were approximately $12.
Therefore, a short story is priced at about $.11 per page ($.106) while full books run $.03 per page ($.029), a difference of ~367%.
Without a doubt, without considering how short stories have a lower barrier of entry for the buyer and make a faster/less-risky production for the producer, writing grimdark short stories (and pricing accordingly) is the better business decision.
The Collection Method
Not as fancy as the RPG pricing post, I did most of this collection on the back of an envelope (no, really).
Already referenced above, I gathered from four groups: the first 10 short stories offered by The Black Library, 7 full stories on Amazon, 11 stories recommended from a first-read list (a source I follow and reference for grimdark content), and 2 books I myself favorite.
All stories were rated above 80%, some particular attention given to >90% titles.
Here is my abbreviated data:
| Group | Pages | Average |
| Short Stories | 61, 38, 27, 28, 52, 35, 33, 37, 35, 29 | 37.5 |
| Amazon Full Stories | 416, 256, 208, 768, 640, 416, 415 | 446 |
| Suggested Stories | 420, 452, 420, 420, 516, 420, 297, 315, 564, 369, 395 | 417 |
| Favorite Stories | 492, 424, 431, 324 | 418 |
The above full averages come to 427, but when compared with a median, ~420 is a confident middle position, giving the +/- ~10% range of 380 to 460 pages.
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Quick and easy. Simply put, there is much more bang-for-buck by writing short stories vs. full-length novels (in the grimdark tone, at least!).
I hope this helps you with your writing – it has already helped me determine the price of grimdark books and where I ought best spend my energies 😁 Cheers!
Jimmy Chattin 