I saw in an agent's column that 80K was a standard length for a first novel. Since my WIP will be my first, I want to go as close to jumping through hoops as I can. I estimate mine to be about 117K.
How concerned should I be? Anybody here know? I'm going through it again, definitely cutting out fluff, but also expanding, so I probably won't change the length much by doing this.
Here's what I found online:
quote:... Henceforth, books by midlist authors will not receive wide distribution [by a particular publisher?] if they cost too much -- that is, if they weigh in at more than about 110,000 words. ... So there you go, a cap of about 110K seems to be the 'industry hard cover standard' if you're interested in numbers.
and
quote: he submission criterion has changed in many ways since the time I submitted my first novel. ... When I submitted my novel, length was an issue. In the intervening years, for a while, it was vastly less of an issue -- and now it's an issue again, with a vengeance.
... [Del Rey are] now actively looking for small books -- as in short -- from new authors. (Keeping in mind that my last book was over 400,000 words, short for me would be the 140K that is currently the high end of acceptable new-author word count for the largest of the SF/F publishing houses).
There are many reasons (given) for this change, one of the largest having to do with production costs, and the P&L statement. Profit and Loss statements are done for each book at each publisher; I would guess that some of the details differ from house to house, but regardless, there are some base expenses that will be added to the cost side of the ledger. Cover art. Type-setting. Copy-editing. Printing costs. House overhead ... In order to keep costs -down- (and cover prices), one of the things that has to go down is page count.
Realize of course, that if you are submitting to a paperback release first house it doesn't seem to matter as much.
posted
Im with Rahl on this, book length isnt too much of a worry providing that it has a cracking story. Plain and simple, publishers if they like the story would be able to say what needed cutting (if anything) and provide help where nessessary, just dont worry about it.
Posts: 27 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Things vary according to genre, too. 117K is pretty long for a mystery novel, but probably toward the short end of epic fantasy.
Posts: 1517 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
A first novel that is a true mystery (ie not cross genre) should be 70-90k. This isn't a bad length for cross-genre, either.
Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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Here is the terrible truth: There are many more novels written than are ever published. The depressing number I heard recently is something like 99.9% of novels are never published. That is, that's how many submissions the editors pass over.
Things about it. They have one hundred query packages sitting on their desk. These aren't for short stories, these are for novels, which take time to read. Not to mention that they have other duties. The editor will start narrowing them down by any means possible that doesn't include actually reading the submission. They will look at improper formatting, staples instead of paper clips, a cover letter with grammar errors or misspellings, and yet, a word count that is not in their ideal market target. They probably won't shoot it down for being within 5-10 percent (maybe, I don't know) but why take chances? If there is any way to trim, anything that could go. It's actually pretty easy to remove ten percent of your length from a story. If you reread with an eye for things that don't need to be there you can find all kinds of things.
posted
Agree with above. Furthermore, it is oft an extremely useful technique, to look at a "finished" manuscript and force yourself to say much more with much less. That is a problem where a background in poetry can especially help.
Posts: 697 | Registered: Mar 2003
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