At the writer's community I used to be a member of, the published SFF authors, who mentored me, often said that publishers would not take anything longer than 120k by new authors, except for rare cases. So, I've always aimed my work for the 90-120k range.
I have to wonder, though, if that's a word processor 90-120k wordcount or printer's count? Because, times I've done printer's count on a properly formatted MS, it's put the length up significantly. (From 75k to 90k in one case, I believe, but that was a couple years back and I may have had the margin size a bit off at the time, but I think I was using what was recc'd by my mentors.)
The current book I'm working at is aimed around 120k or so, and is turning out to be deeper and more political than I'd planned, somewhat in the style of Jacqueline Carey, only a bit more fast-paced. The novel I'm planning to write for Nanowrimo is an epic fantasy novel, or rather, epic fantasy turned on its head. It's supposed to be the first in a trilogy, and I'm aiming for 120k or therabouts. I do an outline of all scenes based on scene length, so, hopefully it shouldn't go over. *crossing fingers*
Now ... I've heard that it's just B&N who's doing the "No books from midlist authors over this length" thing. Is it other booksellers, too? I haven't seen anything official, just rumors so far...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
Hmm.
Date: 2004-09-10 05:11 am (UTC)I have to wonder, though, if that's a word processor 90-120k wordcount or printer's count? Because, times I've done printer's count on a properly formatted MS, it's put the length up significantly. (From 75k to 90k in one case, I believe, but that was a couple years back and I may have had the margin size a bit off at the time, but I think I was using what was recc'd by my mentors.)
The current book I'm working at is aimed around 120k or so, and is turning out to be deeper and more political than I'd planned, somewhat in the style of Jacqueline Carey, only a bit more fast-paced. The novel I'm planning to write for Nanowrimo is an epic fantasy novel, or rather, epic fantasy turned on its head. It's supposed to be the first in a trilogy, and I'm aiming for 120k or therabouts. I do an outline of all scenes based on scene length, so, hopefully it shouldn't go over. *crossing fingers*
Now ... I've heard that it's just B&N who's doing the "No books from midlist authors over this length" thing. Is it other booksellers, too? I haven't seen anything official, just rumors so far...