Beta Reader Group discussion
Writing Advice & Discussion
>
So, I Just Got Word from a Literary Agent and Word Count Expectations... The Internet Was Wrong.
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
A.J.
(new)
Apr 10, 2020 09:29PM
Great information, thanks
reply
|
flag
thanks for the guide. but guides keeps changing over time and depends a lot on the publisher and agent, so is only a rough guide not an absolute. but still quite useful.
Thanks a lot for the guide! What about coming of age? I know it's not technically a genre, but it feels like it's the only words that describes my manuscript. Can you get away with 'coming of age' as genre in a query letter, and if so, what's the word count? In my current version of my unsent query letters, it goes 'coming of age psychological thriller' and '65 000 words' - is that alright - or too short? Should I instead call the genre (about two girls aged 17 - 18) New Adult?
This is super helpful, thank you so much!
John wrote: "Ah shoot, mines Literary Fiction and it was originally 200,000 words, I managed to cut it down to 86,000 "You were able to cut your book in half! I'm super-impressed. This post indicates 80k-100k, so sounds like you've done it. Why not pitch at the 86k level & if the agents bite, you can continue to perfect it/expand it with their blessing ... In general, it's such a long, hard road to traditionally publish, you may eventually decide to either self-publish or toss the manuscript into a drawer while you work on your next project & wait for responses.
Thanks for the advice! I'll be taking this into consideration for my novel.
Joshua wrote: "So,I just got word from a literary agent, actually from two literary agents, and I just wanted to share some insightful things about word count expectations. What you read on Reddit or the Intern..."
What about Young Adult Sci-fi or Fantasy?
A good start but other agents and publishers will give you different values. The truth is there is no one official standard. What you want to shoot for is being like the others that get published in that genre.
But don't pad your book to make it longer and do not cut out essential thing to make it shorter.
John wrote: "Ah shoot, mines Literary Fiction and it was originally 200,000 words, I managed to cut it down to 86,000 then I set about making the necessary changes thinking the maximum was 100,000. It says onli..."The advice here is somewhat confusing to me.
I always thought the goal of literary fiction was to be very long with pretentious wording and no plot at all just a pantsed slice of life.
At least that is what the literary fiction I tried to read actually was.
Wmba wrote: "John wrote: "Ah shoot, mines Literary Fiction and it was originally 200,000 words, I managed to cut it down to 86,000 then I set about making the necessary changes thinking the maximum was 100,000...."I don't know what you were trying to read, but the fact that you think the defining characteristics of literary fiction as a genre are "very long," "no plot at all," and "pantsed slice of life" shows you don't read literary fiction and don't know what literary fiction is.
I'm in a similar boat with John. My time-bending sci-fi sprinkled with Hallmark romance about a pair of brothers on a hero's journey was just over 235K before I edited it to 168,500. Then, in January, I sent to a professional editor, who has done a wonderful job of keeping me involved throughout the process. Now? It's back up to just under 169K.She indicated to me that she clearly feels that it is publishable now. That is very exciting to me, as you can imagine. My primary plan is to reach out to agents for a traditional pathway to publishing,
In the meantime, I can't really post it to Goodreads for reviews as it has yet to be published in any format. The copy editing and proofreading have been done. If I find an agent that shows interest and they find a publisher that wishes to edit further, fine! I do want it to be the best book that it can be.
I understand that it's just going to be difficult to find that agent or publisher that wants to take a chance on this unpublished author. At the same time, I am not really looking for a major rewrite--but of course, would love to have someone read it and tell me how wonderful it is!
Oops. Did I say that out loud? Sorry.
This is gold! Thank you for sharing it with us.
John wrote: "Ah shoot, mines Literary Fiction and it was originally 200,000 words, I managed to cut it down to 86,000 then I set about making the necessary changes thinking the maximum was 100,000. It says onli..."Self publish.
Dienekes wrote: "Wmba wrote: "John wrote: "Ah shoot, mines Literary Fiction and it was originally 200,000 words, I managed to cut it down to 86,000 then I set about making the necessary changes thinking the maximum..."I read what I can find at the dollar store for a buck.
Two of them were definitely literary as there was no plot and nothing else of interest. They were pantsed pieces of crap that could only be described as slice of life.
You might call them very well written nothingburgers. Full of words that are beautifully done using huge vocabularies, yet signifying nothing of use for the real world.
Bruce wrote: "I'm in a similar boat with John. My time-bending sci-fi sprinkled with Hallmark romance about a pair of brothers on a hero's journey was just over 235K before I edited it to 168,500. Then, in Janua..."Good luck.
I doubt any agent or publisher would look at any book that long unless your name was Rowling or Patterson.
But give it a try and be sure to check out how to query and sell your book properly in a document to agents.
Find the best agents for your genre from writers market or other resources and target them.
Wmba wrote: "Dienekes wrote: "Wmba wrote: "John wrote: "Ah shoot, mines Literary Fiction and it was originally 200,000 words, I managed to cut it down to 86,000 then I set about making the necessary changes thi..."Thank you for responding. It's good to know your entire basis for judging a genre of literature is two books you bought at a dollar store. That's a bit like concluding "all rock music is overly commercialized unoriginal crap" based solely on listening to two songs by Nickelback, but at least everyone knows what informs your opinion and can consider it accordingly.
Bruce wrote: "I'm in a similar boat with John. My time-bending sci-fi sprinkled with Hallmark romance about a pair of brothers on a hero's journey was just over 235K before I edited it to 168,500. Then, in Janua..."I'm not really a sci-fi reader, but I've worked with a couple of dozen authors beta reading and doing swaps, and a few have managed to land agents or publishing deals. Several others have gone on to indie publish, some quite successfully. The longest manuscript I saw get picked up was 129K/historical fiction. That manuscript happened to be on a "hot" topic in historical fiction at the time.
I think your word count is going to be a dealbreaker, but you might want to consider getting on Twitter and trying Pitch Wars/#PitMad. In #PitMad, you're really just trying to sell agents on your story's premise. (You're limited to pitching your book in 280 characters in a Tweet.) If you can get someone to fall in love with your premise, they might be willing to overlook the word count. (Although getting an agent is only step one. They still have to sell your book.)
Good luck.
