Book too short? Here's the Cure

More and more often, Intrigue Publishing receives well written manuscripts that don’t fit our submission guidelines. For example, we have found that, Y-A books aside, we do not do well with novels shorter than 80,000 words. Sometimes the prose is so strong and the story is so good that we return the manuscript and ask the author to expand it to a more marketable length. If your books is already well written (a solid plot, good writing, good subplots) this can be a real challenge. Just cramming in more stuff can make a good books worse. So what is an author to do?
In my own manuscripts I’ve found that I can actually If that doesn’t get you to the desired length you may have to add an entire scene or two. You have to be careful here. You don’t want to add a scene that feels like it was shoved in. It needs to serve the story and not disrupt the pacing. In the genres I write, it usually calls for introducing an additional challenge for the hero to face, and a scene where he overcomes it.
But we may be getting ahead of ourselves. If you’re an outliner like me you should first take a close look at the book’s structure. You may find that the beginning is too short, or there’s not enough happening in the middle. This process may highlight the perfect place to add a scene and fix the problem. Some places are easier to add than others.
Look at your major plot points. You have to have several steps to get to them, right? So maybe you can add one more step without hurting the pacing. Odds are you won't find it in act one. Usually there is only one inciting event that triggers the novel's core conflict. Act two is where you put most of the book’s turning points. The middle of the novel should be all about the protagonist trying and failing. You might be able to add a scene or two, or even whole chapters, without hurting the flow of the story.
Of course, you don’t want to add a step in your story that delays the plot. One safe thought is to look closely at your theme and your character arcs. Look for a situation that presents a plot obstacle AND a character issue. Or perhaps a new obstacle plus a thematic illustration. Reread your ending and see if you can add something to the middle of the book, an earlier failure that will make a later moment more poignant.
I’ll have more suggestions for filling out a too-short novel. Next week.