Hello, dreamers. Query prep continues apace. I’ve fleshed out my list of targets for the upcoming round of queries. Many agents remain closed, but as it stands I have at least ten agents I can query. One step down. Now, I move on to my materials.

Over the coming week, I’ll be reviewing my query materials, starting with my query letter. I’m still reticent to make any serious changes after feedback from the last round, but it pays to do your due diligence between query rounds. And I’m always learning more. I’ve already updated my bio, and don’t anticipate any changes to my synopsis.

I’ve also been working on my sample pages. This time around the lengths are all over the place; one agent is asking for only the first chapter, two want the first fifty pages. This is where my critique group has really helped; one member has already reviewed my MS, and provided valuable feedback that helped me tighten up the early chapters and save on word count. That last part is crucial; the fewer words I use to get my point across in the early chapters, the more of the story will end up in the sample pages.

My critique group also talked me down from a ledge this week. Twice, actually; they persuaded me to both keep the current title of the story (Seven Days on Samarkand it remains) and resist the urge to spend the next several months rejoining the two halves of the story (effectively undoing months of work from last year). I’m making some substantive changes to several chapters, but the book remains in two parts. For now.

It’s worth remembering that part of the reason I split the novel in two last year was concern over the word count. I mention that a lot, but casual readers may wonder why I make such a big deal about the word count of my book. Well, the answer has to do mostly with the simple fact that I am (or will be) a debut author. And that means when it comes to length, I’m on a tight budget.

The Long and the Short of It

It’s a running joke in the writing community that every author’s least favorite question about their book is, “How many pages is it?” Authors hate that question so much because the answer, frankly, is, “It depends”.

It depends because books aren’t published in only one format. A book will have more pages as a paperback than a hardback, as paperbacks are smaller. Electronic format will also change the page count. One of the first things a writer learns when they set out to write a novel is that, for this very reason, the industry doesn’t care how many pages your book is. Rather, they measure the length of a book by word count.

Now, established authors can play fast and loose with word count, at least to a point. The Dune series by Frank Herbert was known to run long in each installment. Both Stephen King and the late Tom Clancy are known for being especially verbose. Executive Orders by Tom Clancy, which dealt with the presidency of former CIA officer Jack Ryan, tipped the scales at over four hundred and sixty thousand words. His editor really shouldn’t have let Tom push him around like that.

For a debut author, however, word count is very important. Authors like King and Clancy have a reputation that precedes them; publishers are less hesitant to sell such lengthy works because they know readers will still pick them up. But when you’re looking to publish your first book, nobody knows who you are. And if they see your lengthy tome sitting like the Gutenberg Bible on the shelf, they’re less likely to believe it’s worth taking the time to read. So, as a first-time author, it’s important to understand word counts.

As with most things in the publishing industry, when it comes to word counts there are no hard-and-fast limits, but there are what I call “soft caps”. Of course word count varies based on age demographics, so to try to keep this at least a little simpler we’re going to focus on my demo: adult fiction. And one quick reminder; as with most everything in the modern publishing industry, these guidelines really don’t apply to self-pub.

In today’s literary world, the simplest range is around 70-100,000 words. Beyond the romance genre, works that fall into the Uncanny Valley between 40k (novella length) and 70k are hard to market. Likewise, in most genres books above 100k are a difficult sell. Both boundaries are determined by the nature of the publishing business; the bland fact is, it costs a lot of money to print a book. If it’s too short, a publisher may feel it’s not worth the expense of printing. On the other end, longer books are obviously more expensive to print, and the publisher may fear there’s little chance of making a profit.

Beyond those rough boundaries, it breaks down by genre. Romance, as I mentioned, tends to run fairly short. Mystery novels usually run around 70-80k, same with contemporary commercial fiction (the kind of book you’d likely pick up to read on a beach vacation). Literary fiction often runs a little longer, topping out at around 100k.

Genre fiction, comprising science fiction, fantasy, and horror, lies at the top of the scale. Agents and publishers accept that these stories will require extensive worldbuilding, and readers of those genres will expect and accept longer books. However, once again the rules aren’t quite the same for a debut author. For instance, while sci-fi novels like those in the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey frequently clock in north of 140k words, a debut author might be able to get away with a novel around 115k. Any higher might still be acceptable, so long as the novel is very well-written and edited and the story flows at that length. However, right around 100k is the sweet spot.

Now, if you’re an aspiring writer, you may be reading this and thinking, “Hey! I worked hard on my 200,000-word epic fantasy novel! There’s no way I can make it any shorter! Am I supposed to just not spend an entire chapter describing how elves walk on water?” And for what it’s worth, I get it. I always say a story should only be as long or as short as it needs to be. I’ve written plenty of works that ended up at an unmarketable length. In an ideal world, I’d be able to find someone to publish anything so long as it’s a really good story. But as modern writers, we must accept that we don’t live in an ideal world.

We live in a world where we need to persuade publishers (and agents, before that), to invest in us. More than likely, the publisher that buys your first book will not make a profit off of it. They’ll be lucky to break even. But they’ll pay you regardless, because they believe in your work, and their hope is that even if your debut novel didn’t make much money, your next one will.

Maybe your book can’t be edited down any more than it has been. If that’s the case, and you’re still north of 115k, you can still query it. No one will stop you. But remember King and Clancy. Maybe your book, long as it is, really is a fantastic story. And once you’ve got an agent and a book or two on the shelf, a publisher might think it’s worth taking a swing and publishing your 200k Elven masterpiece.

But it’s entirely possible that you won’t find an agent with that book. I went through this with my first novel. I really thought, though it tipped the scales at 140k plus, it had the potential to find me an agent. In the end, I abandoned my query efforts pretty quick. I believed I could make it as a writer. I believed I could find an agent for my book. Just not that book. – MK