Writing advice

[amberdreams]

I know a quite a few of my flist are writing original fiction, and so I thought I'd share this post I found on tumblr advising on novel lengths from the point of view of a publisher or publishing agent. Could be useful!
Check it out here

Comments

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

That was really interesting. Thank you Hun x

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

No problemo, it was interesting as I was told my first draft novel was too short by a couple of people (it was about 90k at first draft)

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

There is so much conflicting info out there. I always thought it was 75k for a standard novel 40k for YA and 120k for scifi but look on any website and you could guarantee a whole other set of numbers.

I bet they were only saying that as they wanted more : ) x

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Ha ha I love your explanation for their advice, I will run with that! LOL

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

It's the kinda thing I say! "Oooo no, definitely needs at least three more chapters. At least three!" ; ) x

[dear-tiger.livejournal.com]

That was a great post. Thank you for sharing it! Along the same lines, there is "77 Reasons Why Your Book Was Rejected" by Mike Nappa. I never tried submitting a book and thus never had one rejected, and I also hate anything with a number in a title, like, 15 ways to get the job of your dreams, and such crap. But I picked it up in a bookstore during last break because the language was very engaging and it had tons of excellent advice from the publisher's standpoint. It's along the same lines as this article but a lot more and in great detail. I really loved that book, and if you're interested in the topic, check it out some day.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

oh thanks, I will see if our library has it. Not that I am doing anything about submitting my novel anywhere - talk about procrastination!

[dear-tiger.livejournal.com]

Well, now I really want to know what the novel is and what it's about. It's totally understandable, though, if you'd rather not say.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

It's somewhat SPNish at first glance - about 2 brothers who fight demons but it has a bit more sci fi overtones and hopefully gives something new to the idea. But the lovely monicawoe beta'd it for me ages ago and in trying to tighten up the POVs it has now been languishing on my too hard pile for nearly/over 2 years and the sequel has been neglected too - in favour of fanfic! Oops. (I'm sure half my procrastination is fear of finishing because thenI'd have to do something about submitting it somewhere...! LOL)

[dear-tiger.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty awesome, and congrats to you on finishing it :D No judgement from me at all about not doing anything about it. Every time I even think about starting to write an original, my brain freezes.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Trouble is. I've had it hanging round so long now, I know when I pick it up again I'm going to want to do a MAJOR re-write because I've moved on so much (not necessarily got better, you know, but just moved somewhere different). As for the sequel - eek! I've probably got about 50k of that and left it stalled! Fanfiction seems so much easier in comparison LOL

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

In other words, "make it about 100K".

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Yep!!