How long is too long?

Well, historicals do run longer than the usual for most other genres, and like with everything there are exceptions to the rule. But, generally approximately 125k is the maximum. Anything higher might scare an agent. If it's great, they might be able to accept a longer work, but it will be a harder to find an agent with such a long MS.

Not that I have first-hand experience--this is what I've learned through these boards and am sharing with you.

I posted on a similar thread that mine went from 189,000 to 153,000 and was accepted by a small independent publisher without an agent for hard cover at the latter length.

In the US or Uk

Seems there is more scope in the US for historicals of 100,000 plus.

In the UK a new novelist is supposed to come in at 100,000 words.

I'm in trouble with mine, currently it's about 190,000, though I am going through and editing, hoping to shrink that number a bit. The more I go through it, the more things I am finding that can be omitted that won't hurt the story at all. But it's been very tedious, to say the least.

My debut historical clocked in at 125K. I recently questioned my editor about this issue, and she said 150K is about the max, but of course authors with an established audience will get leeway beyond that count. No one has questioned or even mentioned the word count on my second manuscript, which I just turned in at 128K.

The thing is, 180K is probably getting your query put into the "no" pile. My agent (like a lot of agents) has an assistant who first culls through the immense query pile armed with certain parameters, and a word count that high is most likely working against you. You might have better luck getting an agent interested if you can get the word count down to somewhere in between 125 -150K.

I'd try to keep it under 150k if you can.

My first novel came in at around 145k and currently has a few partials out.

Manu said:

What great help! Thank you. Don't like putting my characters on a diet, but I can stand it if they can.

Click to expand...

Heh, I hear you. My draft came in at 261k. I had to cut A LOT, but after the revisions were said and done I trimmed away 115k and came away with a leaner and, in my opinion, much better story.

Oddly, I received requests for fulls when it was 189,000 words, had a prominent agent try to sell it for three years in the 1990s, and in 2003 a respected smaller publishing house in SF without my having an agent required a unanimous decision to accept it -- I missed by one lone vote.

And how short is too short?

I'm not sure if this is a blessing or a curse (probably a combination of both), but I don't know if I could write a novel that long! The one I'm querying is at a nice, round 100k, but the next that I'm planning to query (after I finish with more revisions) I can't seem to get beyond 65k. I know that this is not an unheard-of length for a mainstream novel, but for a historical? I'm a little nervous, as I always hear the 'historicals are longer' bit.

Fret not!

If you've had it read by good readers and the story is whole and complete then it's fine.

It's sad to say that the size of a historical is defined by word count, but it seems to be the way things are, especially in today's market. I'm thinking if one can stay at about 150k with a great plot and compelling history, it can succeed. BTW-- I love Lorena M.
Cinzia

My ms totalled 139,000 and got me an agent, who never said a word about cutting anything.