Literary Fiction word counts?

DeannaR

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I have read so many lists, articles, and watched YouTube videos trying to determine an appropriate word count for lit fic. I went into my novel with a desire for it to be as long/short as it needs to be. I am, if anything, an under-writer. My first draft ended just over 30k. My revisions and developments increased my word count to 45k. Here i am happy with the story, the pacing, character development and few sub plots. I feel that adding to this will feel just like what it would be, filler. And I hate filler reading or otherwise. But after all my research I'm concerned that it is just too short and agents/publishers will reject it based on length alone? Is this a legitimate fear or have i been procrastinating on the internet too long?
 

lacygnette

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I think that's short. My understanding is 80-90K. Here's a link from Writer's Digest. I did a search on "fiction word count" and got a lot of hits. Most of them suggest that range. You could also search here in AW; there's probably one (or several discussions).
 

DeannaR

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Thanks Lacy, I read 75-90k for fiction but also an article which suggested literary fiction is generally shorter, (I will try to find and link to it) most searches I do come up with fantasy or YA fiction. Fantasy of course would be much longer, usually over 100K is my understanding. I will keep digging, off to check out the article you attached!
 

dragonfliet

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As a general rule, 50,000+ This is a little less than a 200 page book. Which is SHORT. It's acceptable, however, but it is noticeably short. Something to keep in mind.
 

L. OBrien

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45k is short. Technically, that's a novella, which is a bit harder to market. If you're epublishing, there's more leeway, but it may be a tough sell. Even if your book is the perfect length for the story, some agents will make the assumption that short books are short due to lack of plot/character development, and will auto-reject based on word count. Doesn't mean it's unpublishable, but it may take a bit of searching to find agents who are receptive to short books.

There was another thread on this exact thing a little while ago, though I'm not sure which forum it was in (if I can find it, I'll link it).
 

America's Proust

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I think it's wiser to go with anywhere from 80k and up. Remember, one of the greatest novels of all time, Gone With The Wind, is 418,053 words long. The published version was 1,036 pages when first released in 1936.
 

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John Banville's The Sea, which won the Booker in 2005, is 200pp long. Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings, which won it in 2015, is 700pp. (And the copy I'm reading has very small print, so it's taking a while.) A story is as long as it is.
 

DeannaR

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I would expect that over or under a specific agents prefered length will be a challenge to sell. I appreciate the insight, going in my feeling was the story will be as long or as short as it needs to be. I write short, my first draft was 30k, after revising i ended at 45k. I will do what i can with it, and if it doesn't make it, that's what the next book is for. Right? :)
 

dragonfliet

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Since people keep talking about how a book needs to be a certain length or more (from here http://commonplacebook.com/art/books/word-count-for-famous-novels/):

42,715 – The Tequila Worm – Canales, Viola
46,118 – Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
47,094 – The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
47,180 – The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
48,523 – The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton
49,459 – Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
54,243 – The Hours – Cunningham, Michael
56,695 – As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
56,787 – A Separate Peace – John Knowles
58,428 – The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
59,635 – Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
59,900 – Lord of the Flies – William Golding
60,082 – The Dew Breaker – Edwidge Danticat
61,922 – All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Remarque
63,422 – Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
63,604 – The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
63,766 – Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
64,768 – The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
66,556 – The Color Purple – Alice Walker
66,950 – Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
67,203 – The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
67,606 – Ironweed – Kennedy, William
67,707 – The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
68,410 – Drinking Coffee Elsewhere – Packer, ZZ
69,066 – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
70,957 – Woman Warrior – Maxine Hong Kingston
72,071 – White Fang – Jack London
73,404 – The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
77,325 – Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling
78,462 – The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

A book is whatever length it should be. It's possible that you might get an agent that doesn't bother to read it unless it meets x words, but do you really want that agent that doesn't even read the query or the first ten pages because of an arbitrary word count?
 

beckyhammer

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A story is as long as it is, but only if it's fully fleshed out. 45k does seem short -- as a reader, I'm not sure I'd be that interested in picking up a book that's under 200 pages long. If a book is that short some folks might assume it's insubstantial and not worth getting invested in. If you're totally confident that the story is already fully developed, then trust your gut. But I'd recommend taking the 10,000 foot view of your plot, themes, characters, etc. and seeing if there are any elements that have gotten short shrift that you could spend some more time working on. Good luck!
 

L.C. Blackwell

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Some agents do have very specific preferences where word count is concerned. I recently read a blog post by one who will not look at any genre (except fantasy) where the work runs over 90k. Others are more flexible, but you won't necessarily know which ones when you query.

I wish I did know. My upmarket/literary historical is clocking in at 116k, and I'm pretty sure that's not helping as I query. Sigh....
 

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I've also been querying my upmarket/literary historical novel at about 120,000 and it's not going far. Historical fiction tends to be longer but I'm currently looking for ways I can cut back. As a first-time author too long can be too much of an investment for publishers.
 

E. Steve

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Super discussion. I just finished the first draft of a novel and it is just north of 70k. I don't want to add additional chapters just to meet a target word count, so it was helpful to see the list of great books that were at or below 70k.
 

gbondoni

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FWIW, I'm writing a Literary novel and aiming for around 90K which is where the sweet spot seems to be (based on my research, your mileage may vary) for agents and publishers of this sort of book. Of course, knowing my novels, the thing will end wherever it wants to and then I'll either be stuck with a suboptimal length or attempting to prune / expand to hit the target. Again, your mileage may vary, but I will likely try to hit the word range.
 

Jo Yan

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The Old Man and the Sea: 26,601

That one sold okay.

The Pink Institution: 140 pages (that's all I could find; I'm guessing 25,000 tops)

That one is loved by many, myself included.

Many small presses prefer/accept smaller word counts. Lily Hoang's Changing comes to mind.
 

blacbird

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The Old Man and the Sea: 26,601

That one sold okay.

It also had an unusual publication history, starting with the fact that its author was established as probably the premier American writer of fiction at the time. I don't know if he'd already won his Nobel, but if not, he did shortly after.

Second, as I understand, it was written by request for magazine publication, in the days when magazines like Saturday Evening Post published lots of fiction.

Them conditions don't exist for most of us today.

caw
 

mccardey

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It also had an unusual publication history, starting with the fact that its author was established as probably the premier American writer of fiction at the time. I don't know if he'd already won his Nobel, but if not, he did shortly after.

Second, as I understand, it was written by request for magazine publication, in the days when magazines like Saturday Evening Post published lots of fiction.

Them conditions don't exist for most of us today.

caw
Although, if wishing made it so...
 

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Since people keep talking about how a book needs to be a certain length or more (from here http://commonplacebook.com/art/books/word-count-for-famous-novels/):

42,715 – The Tequila Worm – Canales, Viola
46,118 – Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
47,094 – The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
47,180 – The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
48,523 – The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton
49,459 – Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
54,243 – The Hours – Cunningham, Michael
56,695 – As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
56,787 – A Separate Peace – John Knowles
58,428 – The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
59,635 – Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
59,900 – Lord of the Flies – William Golding
60,082 – The Dew Breaker – Edwidge Danticat
61,922 – All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Remarque
63,422 – Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
63,604 – The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
63,766 – Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
64,768 – The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
66,556 – The Color Purple – Alice Walker
66,950 – Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
67,203 – The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
67,606 – Ironweed – Kennedy, William
67,707 – The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
68,410 – Drinking Coffee Elsewhere – Packer, ZZ
69,066 – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
70,957 – Woman Warrior – Maxine Hong Kingston
72,071 – White Fang – Jack London
73,404 – The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
77,325 – Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling
78,462 – The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

A book is whatever length it should be. It's possible that you might get an agent that doesn't bother to read it unless it meets x words, but do you really want that agent that doesn't even read the query or the first ten pages because of an arbitrary word count?

The Old Man and the Sea: 26,601

That one sold okay.

The Pink Institution: 140 pages (that's all I could find; I'm guessing 25,000 tops)

That one is loved by many, myself included.

Many small presses prefer/accept smaller word counts. Lily Hoang's Changing comes to mind.

Here's a couple of award winning litfics from this decade

2011 The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes -- 163 pp
2013 The Luminaries -- Eleanor Catton -- 848 pp
 

Jo Yan

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A few more short classics:

Of Mice and Men: 29,160;
A Christmas Carol: 28,944;
Animal Farm: 29,966;
I am Legend: 25,204.
 

cornflake

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A few more short classics:

Of Mice and Men: 29,160;
A Christmas Carol: 28,944;
Animal Farm: 29,966;
I am Legend: 25,204.

The thing is, those have no bearing on someone trying to sell a novella today -- especially a new author trying to sell a novella today.

Anything is possible, and small houses do publish novellas, but the 'these famous works that are either way over or under general wc guidelines made it (often decades ago) so don't worry about wc' thing --which is not at all specific to the quoted post or even this thread -- I think does a disservice. Yes, outliers can work, but the notoriety they garner when it happens speaks to the likelihood. It's better to try to either meet general guidelines or keep expectations aligned with not doing so, imo.
 
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Jo Yan

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I went into my novel with a desire for it to be as long/short as it needs to be.

Awesome.

But after all my research I'm concerned that it is just too short and agents/publishers will reject it based on length alone?

Depends on the agents/publisher and the quality of the work.

Is this a legitimate fear or have i been procrastinating on the internet too long?

There's plenty of publishers that publish <45,000, as some have listed.

The thing is, those have no bearing on someone trying to sell a novella today -- especially a new author trying to sell a novella today.

Anything is possible, and small houses do publish novellas, but the 'these famous works that are either way over or under general wc guidelines made it (often decades ago) so don't worry about wc' thing --which is not at all specific to the quoted post or even this thread -- I think does a disservice.

I'm unsure what this sentence is "specific" to, but my posts in this thread have been aimed at offering help/encouragement to the OP.

Yes, outliers can work,

Because the OP did not state a publishing preference, to assume it is through mainstream publishing is reckless. The 45,000 WIP is not an outlier in smaller houses, as demonstrated in my previous post.

It's better to try to either meet general guidelines or keep expectations aligned with not doing so,

Yes.

Good luck on placing your work, DeannaR.
 

cornflake

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I meant my comments about lists of published works that fall outside traditional guidelines in terms of wordcount weren't specific to your post or even the thread, as this issue, and those types of responses to posters asking how big a problem their too-big or too-small wordcounts are, come up repeatedly.

Also, no, the OP doesn't specify, but is talking about agents. While it's possible to get an agent to rep a novella, it's less likely, as smaller houses are more likely to take unsolicited subs and less likely to offer contracts that agents find a lot of financial benefit in. Hence I assumed, perhaps wrongly, the OP was interested in a broader range of possibilities than generally exist if someone is targeting houses that specialize.
 

Scythian

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A few more short classics:

Of Mice and Men: 29,160;
A Christmas Carol: 28,944;
Animal Farm: 29,966;
I am Legend: 25,204.

Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart (basis of 9 films thus far) is around 30K
The Bridges Of Madison County is 36K
I Am Legend, however, is not 25K, it's 49K. I just converted it with Calibre into RTF and checked. I had to check, because I remember the story, and it couldn't be 25K:) Only a very, very snappy adventure story could do it in 25K, and I Am Legend isn't that snappy, it's moody and broody and needs a bit more space to breathe.
 
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Elenitsa

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I am not in your country. However, I have heard from my publisher and a few literary critics that lately the critics and the publishers prefer shorter novels. I was told that my novels (published and having some good reviews) in two volumes are too long, and most literary critics don't read as much in order to review them and promote them, as they receive lots of books every month. So, you might be successful from this point of view. And true, I have seen a lot of books lately below or around 200 pages. Mine aren't/

The ones in question are "Live in turmoil" (62,000+55,000 words =117,000, historical/ adventures/ family saga, covering several decades) and "Rightness'friends" (72,800+68,000=140,000, YA). "The wanderers of the seas" (historical/adventures) is 63,500 words (270 pag) and it was true that it got more reviews from the critics. The one I have just submitted, "The Crew", also YA, is 46,700 words (220 pag).