I’ve been stressing about keeping my dark epic fantasy debut at less than 120k words. Looks like I might not need to:

(From Thread Reader, which archived the thread from James Long (senior commissioning editor at Orbit)’s deleted Twitter account. Copying here because I don’t know if or when Thread Reader will go away.)

Quick thread on word count for debut epic fantasy novels, because there’s a load of terrible advice out there and it’s hard enough trying to write a brilliant book without worrying about whether your manuscript is too short or too long. 1/15

      1st caveat: I’m talking specifically about epic fantasy - not contemporary/urban, historical, etc. What might be considered a desirable word count in one sub-genre might not be applicable to another. That said, I think what follows here can also be applied to space opera. 2/15

2nd caveat: I’m talking about writing epic fantasy for traditional publication, not writing with the intent to self-publish (the latter operates by a different set of dynamics altogether). Oh, and 3rd caveat: I’m talking specifically about debuts. 3/15

      So, word count for an epic fantasy debut. The internet has a lot of opinions about this, and they’re mostly wrong. One of the most common I see is this: ‘If your debut is longer than 100k words you won’t be able to land an agent and/or attract a publisher.’ Which is… 4/15

…total bullshit. I recently bought an epic fantasy debut that clocked in at this exact length and have since discussed with the author how we can develop the story, partly to increase the word count, because 100k - I think - is too short for an epic fantasy debut. 5/15

      Looking at other epic fantasy debuts I’ve acquired in the last two or three years, one came in at ~120k words, the other at ~230,000. So let’s bin this notion that writing a book that exceeds 100k words is somehow putting you at a disadvantage. It’s not. 6/15

So what is the ‘best’ length for an epic fantasy debut? If we take ‘best’ to mean ‘a word count that won’t make agents/editors raise an eyebrow’ then I’d recommend shooting for around 150k. But it’s fine if your word count comes in ~25k on either side. 7/15

      Ideally, you probably want to land somewhere between 125 - 175k. Straying too far on either side could see you run into certain issues. For example, it’s hard to pitch a book as being ’epic’ fantasy when it’s only 90,000 words long and appears as a slim volume. Similarly… 8/15

…a book that soars past 200k is going to incur higher production costs, meaning the bottom line is under greater strain, thus affecting profitability, etc. Which is fine if you’re a New York Times bestseller, but potentially tricky if this is your first rodeo. 9/15

      Delivering a manuscript that’s falling somewhere between 125 - 175k will mean you avoid potential issues. That’s not to say you can’t go significantly above or below these totals - just be aware that if you do, you’re more likely to run into challenges. 10/15

Anyway, word count is less important than quality. A book’s length can be changed. But unless it’s has real quality, an agent/editor isn’t going to be interested in helping the author shape their work. So worry less about length and more about whether your book is good. 11/15

      I can only speak for myself here, but I’d never say ‘Wow, this manuscript is incredible, but it’s 30k words too long/short and so I’m going to reject it.’ Because the length can be fixed. So it really is all about the quality of the reading experience. 12/15

Hopefully this thread offers some clarity in terms of appropriate word count for a debut epic fantasy novel. It frustrates me to think new writers are following online advice given by people who have no idea what they’re talking about. 13/15

      If you’re interested in reading some of the epic fantasy debuts I’ve worked on (and mentioned above), be sure to check out LEGACY OF ASH by @thetowerofstars (BlueSky) and THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by @AndreaGStewart (BlueSky). And keep your eyes peeled for… 14/15

…the Empire of the Wolf trilogy by @__Zwan__ (BlueSky), coming in Spring ‘22. All very different novels, all varying lengths, but all wonderful reads that are worthy of your time. Right, get back to your manuscript and stop worrying so much about length! 15/15