[Scottish publisher] Aultbea is launching a 1,500-word five-chapter novel called This and Last Season’s Excursions by Christopher Beale, six, at Borders bookshop in Oxford Street, London, today. “It’s a very exciting story and there’s going to be a huge amount of publicity worldwide on this,” said the firm’s owner, Charles Faulkner. “Because of the way it’s written, it raises consciousness in the child reader. The world record is a bonus.”
As Return of the Reluctant points out, 1,500 words is not a novel. In fact, it’s even at the lower limit for a short story. I mean, it’s great for a six-year-old — unless, as I suspect, a good 30% of those words are “booger” (or whatever the equivalent is in his native Switzerland) — and he should be encouraged to continue writing. But you really shouldn’t be allowed to call just anything a novel simply because you slap a cover on it.