• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Length

Bluesboy

Dreamer
I have this from an author published by Tor UK and he tells me that publishers these days don't want a book that's longer than 150,000 words because even though you have a vast market writing in English, the foreign publishers for languages that have a far smaller number of speakers have less willingness to invest money into translating and printing a tome of a book, because the cost is too great and therefore it's not worth it. Take Norway for example...if they decide to translate a 700 page book, how many of those 4.5 million people living in Norway are going to buy it? Fantasy market isn't mainstream and thus, despite a loyal and devout following, the sales in languages other than English amount to little. Long books simply don't fly with foreign language markets and publishers in English speaking countries are aware of this.

The author I have this from had had a problem at first with Tor UK (they were reluctant to take him on), because his book was originally 250K words long. They edited him down to 212K. He's got a great agent, though (I hear), but how many of us will be so lucky as that?
 

Fyle

Inkling
I have this from an author published by Tor UK and he tells me that publishers these days don't want a book that's longer than 150,000 words because even though you have a vast market writing in English, the foreign publishers for languages that have a far smaller number of speakers have less willingness to invest money into translating and printing a tome of a book, because the cost is too great and therefore it's not worth it. Take Norway for example...if they decide to translate a 700 page book, how many of those 4.5 million people living in Norway are going to buy it? Fantasy market isn't mainstream and thus, despite a loyal and devout following, the sales in languages other than English amount to little. Long books simply don't fly with foreign language markets and publishers in English speaking countries are aware of this.

The author I have this from had had a problem at first with Tor UK (they were reluctant to take him on), because his book was originally 250K words long. They edited him down to 212K. He's got a great agent, though (I hear), but how many of us will be so lucky as that?

This is good advice, when I started this thread I was on a whooping undoable 317k words, I am now down to 275k, pretty big cut, but still too big. With advice I am getting everyday, I am cutting more and more.

My gold is 250k words! For better or worse I will leave it at that. But, that you Bluesboy, that is a good response.
 

Bluesboy

Dreamer
But, that you Bluesboy, that is a good response.

You're most welcome :)...How I wish to have written at least third of what you did...oh well... My original goal was to write a book of about 150K words. Now I cannot imagine myself writing something that's even that long. I'm now aiming for 110K or 115K, expecting to be edited down to 100K or so which is about 350 pages in a printed book. Writing an epic will come later (I hope), once I've learned my shit properly :D

Glad I could be of help :)
 

Fyle

Inkling
Just figured I would update this thread.

When I started it, I had 317,551 words...

Now, down to 261,551... and happy with the cuts.

This is a 55,855 word cut since I started this thread!

So, at what point is the novel considered, long, but not too long scare off publishers ?
 
It's a shame when the simple pleasures in life need a place figured in, instead of being available. This at least has me thinking of the length of my book since my chapters are turning out to be....well, let's just say the first chapter is around 12,000 while the second is 28,000 (third is along that length as well). I was originally afraid I wasn't saying enough, but now I seem to be say TOO much. Reading this thread and your process/other's advice has helped what direction I should take.
 

Bluesboy

Dreamer
So, at what point is the novel considered, long, but not too long scare off publishers ?

You have to find out by getting an agent who would offer your manuscript to publishers all over the place. They will give him feedback on the manuscript and he/she will tell you.

Good luck, mate :)
 
Great work on the editing, Fyle!

Unfortunately, all of my experience in the US market of agents suggests that it's probably still too long to get a lot of attention - I see 120k suggested as the upper preferred limit for fantasy a lot, though I see big fantasy agents requesting manuscripts around the 150k mark as well. But all of that is considerably shorter than what you have.

You'll want to have an amazing query letter, one that doesn't waste any words at all, and make sure the first few chapters are tight, exciting and as fantastic as you can make them, because those are your chance to convince agents that you know what you're doing with the rest of the book. If the query or first pages are flabby, they're going to assume the book doesn't need to be 260k long.
 

Bluesboy

Dreamer
@Fyle

I know this may sound like a moronic idea, because it may not be that applicable to your book, but have you considered splitting it in half? You may have considered it already, I don't know. In a book that's 260K words long you ought to have big events happening more often and maybe cliffhangers at the end of some chapters. Couldn't it help to split the book into 130K-word books?

It's unlikely that agents and publishers will be thrilled about such a mighty tome landing on their desks. Splitting the book in two might be the best way to preserve most of your hard work.
 
Top