I finished The Words of Making yesterday. It clocked in at 230,000 words. The bummer is that when I told my editor she was vaguely horrified by the length and said I would have to cut a substantial amount. We didn't get into numbers, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to drop it below 200,000 words at least.
Apparently the trend is for shorter books in epic fantasies, the George Martins and Steven Ericksons of the world (and a few others) excepted. I'm guessing that if I sell well I will have more leeway to go longer, but as page length directly affects the price I don't have much negotiating room at the moment. Ah, well. I've already thought of some things I can cut, and I'm sure there's more I'll find as I go through. There are some full-blown scenes that can go, but what I regret is that a lot of the "flavor" of the world-building gets lost. But such is life for the as-yet-unknown novelist.
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About Me
- David Forbes
- Novelist, happy dad, home theater geek, cheesy horror/sci-fi movie fan.
3 comments:
Congratulations ;-) Cutting the length is fun, it's just like a sculptor working his block of marble. Enjoy!
Thank you both! I'm digging in and cutting with a vengeance. I tend to overwrite, so whittling things down isn't that hard. I just hope I can get enough out without having to make too many deep, painful cuts.
The humor in THE AMBER WIZARD and its sequels isn't really at the forefront. These are rather grim stories, though there are moments of levity, usually in character interacts rather than ha-ha occurrences.
My YA novel, FOREVERNESS, has a lot more humor in it of the kind I think you mean. That's out at three publishers right now trying to find a home. Keep your fingers crossed!
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