Would agents and publishers be willing to publish novels that are under the average word count?

[DAgent]

So from my understanding the average word count to be accepted as a novel is around 70,000 words. My current work in progress is sitting in around 60,000. I'm currently working on making sure everything in it makes sense and holds water right now, which so far, it does.

But if I was to try to publish it as is now, might they decline no matter how good it might be? Or would they count that as a novella instead? And does anyone publish those in great numbers these days?

 

[sknox]

There are so many variables, I wouldn't worry about length. First you have to get an agent, which means even before first you must write queries. I am, of course, assuming you mean to publish traditionally.

Also, you can go to various publisher sites. At least some will have guidelines.

 

[Tirellan]

The further you are outside the guidelines the better your work has to be to accepted. They are guidelines after all - not rules.

 

[J Riff]

..why not, they publish them if they are under-quality...

 

[Robert Zwilling]

At the end of the day, the publishers are going to publish what is selling. You might want to check the newest stuff that is currently being published. I wouldn't be surprised if the word count is shrinking.

 

[PadreTX]

On a video I saw on youtube, the lady who said she used to work at two publishers stated novel length should be 60K to 90K. Somewhere else I heard 80K.

Then again, what I am currently reading, A Game of Thrones, is 292K.

I would think a novel of 60k would be acceptable length, and not considered a novella.

Does this sound correct?

 

[Dan Jones]

With a first-time author IMO a slightly lower word count may actually work in your favour. The reasons being that taking on any first-time author represents a risk for a publisher. It's a conservative industry, and they like known quantities, so debuts are risky. One way of mitigating the risk is to have a book that costs less to make, and the obvious way to do that is to have fewer pages. For a run of ten-thousand books, a word count of 60,000 could save around £3000 on a book with 70,000 words, and £5000 on a book with 80,000 words . And clearly the savings grow as the print run increases.

Of course, having a lower word count won't save your novel if it's not good enough, so normal rules still apply there!

 

[Tirellan]

On a video I saw on youtube, the lady who said she used to work at two publishers stated novel length should be 60K to 90K. Somewhere else I heard 80K.

Then again, what I am currently reading, A Game of Thrones, is 292K.

I would think a novel of 60k would be acceptable length, and not considered a novella.

Does this sound correct?

Was this lady refering to SF/F or novels in general? SF/F generally stands outside the conventions of general publishing for word count because of the need for worldbuilding.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Unless one is writing another Game Of Thrones, whatever Martin does has little to do with what most other people are doing. He is writing his own ticket.

 

[Astro Pen]

80k for a first novel is pretty normal. Buyers will see a book, not something skinny as a novella (which they expect rightly or wrongly to be cheaper.)
That is for sci-fi . I believe you can up that a bit for fantasy.

 

[Dragonlady]

The paper magician by Charlie Holmberg is a young adult debut novel that comes in at 56,000 words. I listened to an interview with her, I think on Writing Excuses podcast, where she was anxious about the word count. It was published by Amazon. I'm at about 65,000 words at the mo, and confident I'll be at about 80 by the end of the redrafting if I don't make it there at the end of the first draft.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Remember that word count for Young Adult is considerably less than for SFF meant for adult readers, which especially for Fantasy would probably be safest around 90-100,000—and yet, if they really like it and a greater length is necessary to tell a particular story as it should be told, they have taken on debut authors whose books were far longer.

So write the book, concentrate on making it the best that you can make it, at the length that the story seems to call for, these should be your first considerations as you write—no one is going to accept a submission just because it fits within some predetermined length if the story comes across as either padded and wordy, or too slight and thin to support the ideas and the plot it contains—run it by some beta readers, revise as necessary, then send it out to agents (or to those companies that will take unagented submissions), and see what kind of reaction you get.