The Offical "Uh-Uh" from CR Press

Sparhawk · Jun 17, 2005

Ah well, so now I'm 0 for 2 on my latest novel. My manuscript is at one other place and is currently being reviewed. BTW, has anyone ever had a rejection because their book was too long?? That's what I recieved, they only consider books bewtween 80,000 -95,000 words.. so I guess 161,120 sort of comes in outside that range. I wish that this fact was mentioned in their site. I went back and checked again but didn't see it. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

brinkett · Jun 17, 2005

Eek! 161,120 words? Sorry to hear about the rejection. I think you'll better your chances if you cut the word count. It's too high, especially if you're a first time author.

Jenny · Jun 17, 2005

Hi Sparhawk,

I've got the rejection thing down pat, but my work tends to be too short. It's all those damn uni tutors who insisted on me cutting my beautiful words to reach some arbitrary (I'm kidding) word limit, and now I write short all the time. 160K is a daunting amount of words. Sorry I've no useful suggestions, but I'm passing the virtual chocs. Take three or four.

Jen

arrowqueen · Jun 17, 2005

Yep. 120,000 is about the max - and even that's pushing it these days. (Unless you're Stephen King, et al...)

brokenfingers · Jun 17, 2005

Hey Sparhawk.

Yeah, it seems novel length is another issue with first time writers. Check out the Novel thread and do a search. The matter's come up multiple times (check Uncle Jim's too) and it seems length definitely does matter with agents and editors for multiple reasons.

Good Luck!

Jamesaritchie · Jun 17, 2005

Sparhawk said:
Ah well, so now I'm 0 for 2 on my latest novel. My manuscript is at one other place and is currently being reviewed. BTW, has anyone ever had a rejection because their book was too long?? That's what I recieved, they only consider books bewtween 80,000 -95,000 words.. so I guess 161,120 sort of comes in outside that range. I wish that this fact was mentioned in their site. I went back and checked again but didn't see it. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

161K might be way too long, just right, or even too short.

Length limits really apply primarily to certain publishers and individual book lines.

If you write a 161K book, it needs to be aimed at a book line that takes books of this length.

New or established writer, it's always best to know the required length foir a certain type of book before you write it, rather than just writing it and hoping there's a publisher for something of that length.

Greenwolf103 · Jun 18, 2005

Sparhawk, so sorry to hear about your rejection. I'm curious, though: Did you know they don't take books longer than 95K words and submit anyway? If so, this could be the reason for your rejection. Publisher's guidelines must always be followed, esp. if you are a first-time author or novelist. I agree that 161K is pretty high and definitely a big difference compared to 95K; have you received any feedback along the lines of shortening it? Has it gone through several rewrites in an attempt to bring that word count down?

Then again, word count might not have anything to do with it. A book can be rejected for a number of reasons.

Sparhawk · Jun 20, 2005

Greenwolf103 said:
Sparhawk, so sorry to hear about your rejection. I'm curious, though: Did you know they don't take books longer than 95K words and submit anyway? If so, this could be the reason for your rejection. Publisher's guidelines must always be followed, esp. if you are a first-time author or novelist. I agree that 161K is pretty high and definitely a big difference compared to 95K; have you received any feedback along the lines of shortening it? Has it gone through several rewrites in an attempt to bring that word count down?

Then again, word count might not have anything to do with it. A book can be rejected for a number of reasons.

I didn't know about the limit, and didn't see it on their site. They said it was there, so I'm assuming I just missed it. Don't see how but I am far from perfect.

Before I parsed this story, it was 178,543 words. My first novel was 131,232 words... Yes it went to PA before I knew better. I knocked out some stuff to get this latest book down to 161K, but am reluctant to do anymore without impacting the flow of the story. I guess I'm not only long winded but I'm long-written as well (LOL). I'm hoping the story will find a home somewhere and I'll just keep looking.

KimJo · Jun 20, 2005

Sparhawk, sorry to hear about your rejection. Best of luck trying to find another home for your novel!

LloydBrown · Jun 20, 2005

Sparhawk said:
Ah well, so now I'm 0 for 2 on my latest novel. My manuscript is at one other place and is currently being reviewed. BTW, has anyone ever had a rejection because their book was too long?? That's what I recieved, they only consider books bewtween 80,000 -95,000 words.. so I guess 161,120 sort of comes in outside that range. I wish that this fact was mentioned in their site. I went back and checked again but didn't see it. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

For a first-time writer, I've heard that you should keep it under 125,000 words in general. They might look at something offered a bit over that, since they can count on it to come down during editing, but you're clearly way beyond a manageable range.

80-95k is a very tight range. That's odd.

Jamesaritchie · Jun 20, 2005

LloydBrown said:
For a first-time writer, I've heard that you should keep it under 125,000 words in general. They might look at something offered a bit over that, since they can count on it to come down during editing, but you're clearly way beyond a manageable range.

80-95k is a very tight range. That's odd.

80-90K is a very common range for many book lines. Generally speaking, most book lines give only a 5K margin up or down, so if 90K is wanted, the range will be 80-95K.

Jamesaritchie · Jun 20, 2005

Length

Sparhawk said:
I didn't know about the limit, and didn't see it on their site. They said it was there, so I'm assuming I just missed it. Don't see how but I am far from perfect.

Before I parsed this story, it was 178,543 words. My first novel was 131,232 words... Yes it went to PA before I knew better. I knocked out some stuff to get this latest book down to 161K, but am reluctant to do anymore without impacting the flow of the story. I guess I'm not only long winded but I'm long-written as well (LOL). I'm hoping the story will find a home somewhere and I'll just keep looking.

And story can be written at any length without harming the flow. If you don't believe me, wait until an editor buys your book. If that editor needs it to be 100K, she'll make it so in a few days with some masterful slasshes of a pencil.

The Offical "Uh-Uh" from CR Press

Sparhawk

Jenna's Cabana Boy

brinkett

Elder Scrolls devotee

Jenny

Who should be writing ...

arrowqueen

RIP, our sarky besom

brokenfingers

Walkin' That Road

Jamesaritchie

Greenwolf103

I'm a grrrl dog, yo

Sparhawk

Jenna's Cabana Boy

KimJo

Outside the box, with the werewolves

LloydBrown

Jamesaritchie

Jamesaritchie