Hello, dreamers. The waiting continues.
I’m in uncharted territory now. My first round of queries felt like it had a definitive end: I’d heard back from everyone I could reasonably expect to. Those who hadn’t responded could safely be logged as “CNR”. But now, at least two agents who haven’t responded yet are almost certain to do so. And thanks to Writers of the Future, I’ve given them a thing or two to think about.
While I was pleased to receive encouraging feedback on my first-round queries, this feels far more gratifying. Agents are taking their time with me, giving me a fair shake. If nothing else, I know I’ve made some significant strides. I’m getting somewhere. My work can no longer be dismissed out of hand.
That said, I’m still moving forward. At present I’m pushing myself back into prime writing form. I’m looking ahead to Aquarius 1. I do have some ideas on things I’d like to change and improve with Seven Days on Samarkand, but most of those deal with parts of the manuscript that won’t be seen unless I get a full request. And even if I did make these changes, I’d have to keep a close eye on my word count. Because for a debut author, word count is a constant concern.
The Long and the Short of It
Usually, the first (or at most second) question a writer is asked when they say they wrote a novel, is “How many pages is it?”
It’s understandable; after all, readers generally think of book lengths in terms of pages. But for the record, authors hate that question, because the best answer they can offer is, “It depends”.
The thing is, page count varies based on format. A novel won’t have the same page count in hardcover as it would in paperback. eBooks make it even harder, as font size can be altered, and page counts vary wildly between phone and tablet. So writers learn early on to think not in terms of page numbers, but rather in word count.
Because page numbers vary, the total number of words is a much better yardstick to measure the length of a story. It’s even more important in short fiction, where authors are typically paid by the word. So to a writer, word count matters. Even if you’re not being paid by the word, knowing your word count helps you to better understand your place in the literary market.
Standard Word Counts
As with most things in the modern literary market, there are no hard-and-fast rules around word count. Get a roomful of editors and agents together, and there will likely be little firm agreement, even on what word count actually constitutes a novel.
However, there’s at least enough overlap to form a rough understanding of typical word counts. In short fiction, the current market looks roughly like this:
Flash Fiction: 100-1,000 words
Short Story: 1,000-7,500 words
Novelette: 7,500-15,000 words
Novella: 15,000-40,000 words
So…that means anything over 40,000 words is a novel, right?
Well…no.
Realistically, a marketable adult novel of any genre should be at least 55,000 words long in today’s market. Works that run between 40,000 and 55,000 words fall into an uncomfortable uncanny valley. Beyond that point you get into novel range, and from there things get even more complicated:
Young Adult: 55,000-70,000
Romance: 60,000-80,000
Mystery: 65,000-90,000
Literary: 80,000-100,000
Historical: 90,000-110,000
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 90,000-120,000
Again it’s worth noting that these are not firm guidelines. Individual agents may have a lot more wiggle room, as will individual purchasing editors at publishing houses. But since it’s safe to say you can never know exactly how someone will feel, the above rough guidelines are at least a starting point.
How Long A Novel Can Be
“It depends” is a tired refrain in publishing, but it’s far more widely applicable than any writer would like. In science fiction there have been some towering masterpieces that fall safely into the novella range (Flowers for Algernon, Enemy Mine), but few novellas have been published outside of literary magazines over the past thirty years. And there have been plenty of notable books that are much, much longer.
Dune, the seminal novel by Frank Herbert, ran around 187,000 words. Leviathan Wakes, a more recent novel, clocks in at roughly 145,000. And outside of sci-fi there have been even longer works. Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders comes in at around 462,000, and the unabridged version of Stephen King’s The Stand measures an astonishing 472,000.
Now, if you’re a querying writer reading this, smiling as you eye your 200,000-word epic fantasy, not so fast. It’s important to note that Neither King nor Clancy started out with those weighty tomes. And unless your name is Stephen King or Tom Clancy, there’s little hope of you snagging an agent with your Tolkien-inspired saga.
So what, for you, is the limit?
How Long A Debut Novel Can Be
Here’s where those rough guidelines above come into play. Those represent the current literary market standards for length in fiction. But, as with many things in publishing, there are what I call “soft limits”.
For instance, a mystery novel might be expected to run north of 65,000 words at minimum. But if you’re writing cozy mysteries, where there’s less need to build suspense or delve into a character’s tortured past, you might be able to go as low as 55,000. Likewise, with romance novels generally shorter is better; romance readers tend to binge-read, so there’s value in producing shorter novels rapidly, allowing readers to quickly move from one book to the next.
As for genre fiction, it may be hard to sell a debut fantasy novel of less than 80,000 words, as agents will wonder how you plan to inject the rich worldbuilding modern genre fic readers crave into such a short novel. But in genre fic, it’s the upward limits that tend to be more important.
Over the past twenty years, average word counts in literature have gone through a transition by which they’ve both shortened and diversified (the term “novelette” was far less common prior to the widespread adoption of eBooks). While most available guidelines will give an upward limit of 120,000 for science fiction and fantasy, for a debut author anything over 105,000 is a hard sell. And anywhere north of 115,000 is virtually unmarketable.
Sorry, Epic Fantasy Guy.
How to Tell If Your Novel Is Too Long (or Too Short)
First, look again at the guidelines above. That’s the easiest starting point. Beyond that, you have to look at the novel’s plot.
One of the easiest yardsticks is the query letter. As I’ve said before, the typical query letter should run between 300-400 words, no more, no less. Take out, say, 100 words for your metadata and bio, and you’re left with 200-300 words across three paragraphs to succinctly describe your plot. If you hit all the major points (framing, main characters, inciting incident, climax, tease of ending) and you’re well under 200 words, your novel is probably too short. Conversely, if you can’t describe all the major points of your book in 300 words or less, it’s probably too long.
There are two pieces of advice I always offer other writers that apply here:
1. A story should be as long or as short as it needs to be
2. Never write to the market
If you’ve written a complete story and it’s too short, be wary of trying too hard to flesh things out. You run the risk of needlessly complicating the plot, or adding too many pointless “side quests” that will distract the reader. If your story is too long, understand that you may not be able to cut out enough to make it marketable without killing the plot. It may be better to try to split your story into multiple books (as I did last year with Seven Days on Samarkand).
And whatever you do, don’t make major changes that compromise your story in the vain hopes of getting it published. I know it hurts to hear, but there’s always the possibility that you’ve put in all the time and effort just to write something that really doesn’t have a clear place in the current literary market. If that’s the case, you might want to consider self-publishing (though bear in mind indie readers have their own set of guidelines regarding marketable length).
For debut writers, particularly in genre fic, word count is the bane of your existence. In an ideal world, you could send out your 200,000-word epic fantasy and have it judged purely on its merits as a story. But we don’t have the luxury of living in an ideal world; we have to live in this one. And in this one, publishing a book costs a lot of money. Publishing a longer book costs more. And publishing a book too short for readers to justify the price is a recipe for failure.
Mind those words, and try, try again. – MK
Michael T. Kuester 
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