Snowball's chance for a 82k MG Fantasy?

Would you or anyone you know consider an 82k word MG manuscript?


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Gidget1225

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The contemporary story of an almost thirteen-year-old boy is punctuated by his adventures in an alternate realm where he is the only one who can ensure the continuation of his world.

It's been a challenge to trim the ms to 82k over the years and, although I wrote with the intention of the story having cross-over appeal (YA and A), I'm afraid that it will never get considered because agents will get word-count shock upon reading the length of the ms in the query.

Could any agent frequenting AW say that he/she or someone whom they know would ever consider a manuscript of this length for MG from an unpublished writer?
 

Toothpaste

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I'm not an agent but I am a MG author who signed with an agent with a 87K MG.

That being said I would highly recommend you read over your book again with the view to trimming. It doesn't have to be re-structuring or cutting whole scenes. More of a paragraph here, a sentence there. You'd be surprised how much you can whittle down a book that way. Keep in mind too the longer the book, the more agents are going to be keeping a hawk like eye on your choice of words and whether you actually NEED that many. It was something my editor (once I sold the book) explained to me: because my book was longer than average I was going to be judged MORE for it and therefore we had to be even more judicial what we kept and what we cut.

As for crossover to YA. That's really not going to be a thing, not really. Oddly MG has more crossover appeal to Adult. YA is a very different beast to MG and is a very different kind of audience. So make sure the book is actually MG and not YA, not just age wise but tone and subject matter wise.
 

Old Hack

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The first Harry Potter book was published over twenty years ago. That's a long time in publishing, and perhaps not the best comparison.

Books which are longer or shorter than the norm will always have a tougher time getting published, but if they're really good they do get through. However, it's worth taking another pass or two through to see what else you can cut. I bet you can do it.
 

Gidget1225

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I'm not an agent but I am a MG author who signed with an agent with a 87K MG.
I sincerely appreciate your input.

I would highly recommend ... trimming . . . paragraph here, a sentence there. You'd be surprised how much you can whittle down a book that way.
Funny I recently did this kind of whittling from 98k to get to my lowest count, or so I had thought.

As for crossover to YA. That's really not going to be a thing, not really.
Oh---I have much to learn.
So make sure the book is actually MG and not YA, not just age wise but tone and subject matter wise.
I look forward to having 50 posts to get the input of those on AW. I finally picked up a few middle grade beta readers today.

Thank you for all your great input.
 

Gidget1225

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it's worth taking another pass or two through to see what else you can cut. I bet you can do it.
A little part of me (okay, not so little) wants to say that, after revising the ms from 158k to 125k to 100k to 98k and, most recently, to 82k, it's not possible to reduce the word count any further. Then, I recall a verse in a song that I like, it states, "the word impossible is just an excuse not to try."
I'm not about to stop trying to do what is needed to get this story published.
Thank you for your response.
 

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Ignore that little voice telling you it's not possible. That little voice is wrong.

The best thing for you to do now is to get your post count up by giving a lot of critiques. It'll give you a great insight into how to improve your own work, it really will. And then once you've found your rhythm put some of your own work up in Share Your Work, and see what people say. Good luck!
 

ElaineA

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The best thing for you to do now is to get your post count up by giving a lot of critiques. It'll give you a great insight into how to improve your own work, it really will.

This is the *best* advice. I'll add, don't restrict yourself to MG critiquing. You can get great insight from critting ANY work. I always recommend hanging around in Query Letter Hell, even if you're not querying yet. The need for queriers to write a compelling "story of your story" in 150 words lets a critiquer really see what's important and what's not, how one perfectly chosen word can replace 3, or 5, or more. It's always easier to gain this skill on other people's work, since you are not emotionally invested in the story.

It's really impressive how far you've whittled your story down already. It seems like every time I revise, my stories grow rather than shrink. :( Good luck as you keep going!