Debut Length? Puzzzled

No.

This has been scarletpeaches, giving you a simple answer to an oft-asked question, in Scotland, broadcasting for AW.

Pudge, I can't speak for other parts of the world, but I was advised by a UK professional that around 95K is a good mark for a first time novelist in that market. Definitely not much beyond 100K.

Hope that helps.

:editor's hat on:

Go by the word length guidelines as set out by your target publishers.

Doesn't matter if it's your first novel or 31st.

If you're after a specific category romance line, they are very strict on word count. Don't give them 76K words when they want 75K or they will trim to fit.

Right. Go by the genre, the market norm, etc. A YA novel is going to be shorter than a historical. It's not unheard of for a historical debut to be 200K, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a YA debut that is longer than 100K. If you read the genres you're writing, you should have no problem finding/know how long those books usually are.

I think the reason you hear a lot about lengths for a "debut novel" is because people always hold up the exceptions to the general category rule (Deathly Hallows is a jillion pages long, and it's MG/YA!) as a reason that their book can be an exception too. But most (though not all) of those exceptions come from established authors who might get a little more leeway than the average writer starting out.

The consensus is correct: Aim for the publishers' targets.

Except...what if you're not aiming for a publisher, but an agent first?

If it runs over and every word is essential, then you should be Okay when looking for an agent. If it's a wonderful book that snags an agent, and still needs to be trimmed, then your agent will tell you so.

scarletpeaches said:

Except...what if you're not aiming for a publisher, but an agent first?

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Agents know what publishers are looking for, so essentially, you're dealing with the same game play.

And remember, even Rowling's debut was rather short. So don't look at Deathly Hollow as an industry standard.

maestrowork said:

It's not unheard of for a historical debut to be 200K

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Well that's good for me! Mine is probably going to end up being around the 110K mark and I was fretting that it was too long.

Really, you just have to look at the size of debut novels on the shelves.

In the UK at least, there definitely isn't a 100k limit on word count. There are many 'big' debuts published every year...not that I think 100k is that big a book, but there you go.

Erm this may be a little...off (not sure) but what if say you're writing an historical YA. Should you stick roughly to that upper limit of 100k? I only ask because my current WIP is exactly that (Historical YA) and my first draft is going to clock in around 86-88k with stuff to be added later). Thanks very much for the help.

scarletpeaches said:

No.

This has been scarletpeaches, giving you a simple answer to an oft-asked question, in Scotland, broadcasting for AW.

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Yes.

This has been blacbird, giving you the other simple answer to the same oft-asked question, in Alaska, just being difficult.

caw

When i first tried to market mine, I think it was around 140K. No one gave me the time of day, and I was advices by a few agents to cut it in half. It took a lot more work than I thought it would, but now I have two books. One at 85K and a sequel at 100K. Will it help? I'm in the process of finding out right now. (wish me luck!)

Greg Iles's and Alan Folsom's debut novels were well over 200k words long. Christopher Reich's Numbered Account was at least 150k. The latter two got multi-million contracts, and these books weren't very well-written either.

How could that possibly happen? I don't know.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for Sabbath. My take is, make the story as long as the STORY needs to be -- no longer, and no shorter -- instead of trying to suit obscure "rules".

I hope I'm right

Twilight clocks in at 544 pages.

I'll say what I always say. Most authors AREN'T the exception to the rule (no matter how much we like to think we are ). Most new authors will not be able to publish a book longer than 120 000.

But.

If one feels like one's work can't be any shorter, if one truly feel the writing and story is strong enough, then by all means give it a shot. But understand you are going up against the odds. And considering the odds are even harder now with the economy, you should appreciate what a tough path you are giving yourself. Thus make sure as many elements as you can are in your favour. Make sure your query letter is snappy, exciting, and as tight as possible. Anything slightly overwritten will tell the agent/editor that the reason your book is as long as it is is because you can't edit. Make sure you are as professional as possible. You have to work harder to prove you are an exception, it's just a fact. But it isn't impossible. Just much much harder.