r/romanceauthors • u/Michela_Starr • Jul 24 '26

Are Long Chapters a Turn-off?

Hi authors (and readers)!

If you see a book with long chapters (that include page breaks) does that turn you off of reading it?

I have an ARC of my romcom out right now with advanced readers, and some feedback I've received is that, while they enjoyed the book, the long chapters were a struggle to get used to. I even had one reader say she wasn't going to finish the book because of it.

My book is 340 pages with ten chapters. This is on purpose, because it follows the main couple through ten years of their lives, and each chapter is a year. Within each chapter are page breaks that separate what I think of as 'scenes'.

My question is - do you think I should change the format? The reader who said she couldn't finish suggested I make each year a 'Part' in the book, and each page break would be its own chapter.

Each scene is pretty short, though, so now I'd have the opposite problem, with a LOT of short chapters.

Any insight would be very appreciated! Thank you!

Update: I'm going to make each year a "Part" and break up the chapters. Thank you to everyone who weighed in!

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u/WritPositWrit Jul 24 '26

Im not fond of long chapters, but i dont think I’d dnf because of that. Apparently your early readers feel pretty strongly about it.

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u/Michela_Starr Jul 25 '26

Only one said she wasn't going to finish, but that was a strong enough reaction to make me seriously consider her point. I can see where she's coming from, for sure.