In the writing world, length is not as important as quality. The agent that turned down THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE is probably kicking him/herself right now. Lots of people turned that one down, actually, and it's been a big success.
I just sold my first "literary" fantasy novel (though, I prefer to call it "anti-epic"). Mine was considered very, very long at 85,000 words. A breezy, light book that reads like drinking water has no problem being 85,000 words. Dense, mythological poet writers aren't usually enjoyable for 100,000+ words. Without seeing your manuscript, however, it's impossible to truly judge.
To sell any book, a great way to begin is with a literary agent. A great way to find your literary agent is to find authors on the bookshelves who share your audience. Find out who they use as their agent, and find out who their editor was. Usually these nice folks are in the acknowledgment page, or an author's website. Carefully target those agents and editors, with professional-quality proposals.
Since my book isn't out until 2007/2008, you can't find out my literary fantasy agent from my acknowledgment page, yet. My literary agent is Bob Shuman, at the Peter Rubie Literary Agency. Their website is
www.prlit.com.
As someone with a literary agent, (for the last three months) I simply could not imagine life without one. Without an agent, it took me years to get a book looked at by a decision-maker. Now, I'm getting books looked at by the right people in a matter of days and weeks. My contract negotiations were handled by someone with 19+ years experience with these contracts and many contacts in the industry to consult. The continued business stuff for my books are also in capable hands, so I can focus on writing more books.
A few dozen rejections is a small price to pay for that kind of support. I actually recieved nearly 100 rejections from publishers and agents before I sold my book -- not counting my exceedingly numerous rejections at literary magazines and whatnot. If you can't take the heat, you have the wrong goal.
Without seeing your work, I cannot gauge whether your length is appropriate. However, whenever I think I'm finished with something, I try my darndest to edit the work in half. I'd advise you to aim for about a third, just judging from the size of what you are describing compared to my own literary fantasy work.
Good luck researching and submitting to agents and editors. Don't sweat rejections. You get numb to them after about 150. And, every single ime you submit, it just might be the magic one that leads to publication. You never know until you try.
-badducky
Then I remembered Dictionary.com.
