Is 109,000 words to long for a YA/ adult fantasy novel?
The problem I'm having is that I'm thinking it's to long. But I can't edit any more out otherwise the story line is going to be way to fast paced or important plot threads are going to be missed, which is going to ruin the book and the sequel.
Thanks for any useful help :)
It's also worth noting the following:
Twilight (1st book in series): 118,501
Hunger games: 76,800
Divergent: 105,143
And some general guidelines:
Genre Guidelines
Picture Books -200-500 words
Early Readers - 500-2000 words
Chapter Books - 5,000-10,000 words
Middle Grade - 25,000-45,000 words, most averaging 35k.
Young adult - 55,000-90,000 words
- YA contemporary tends to be on the shorter side, 60-70k
- YA fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal tends to fall on the longer side due to world building, 70-90k
Adult - 70,000-115,000 words
- Romance - 85,000-100,000 words
- Cozy Mysteries - 70,000-85,000 words
- Mysteries, Horror, Crime - 75,000-95,000 words, most averaging 90k
- Sci-fi and Fantasy - 80,000-120,000 words, most averaging 100k-115k
- Literary and Women's Fiction - 80,000-100,000 words
Hope this helps!
I recently had some dialogue with an agent via Twitter, and the advice was to 'not get too hung up on word count' and 'if they like it, then it doesn't matter'
Equally, my fantasy novel aimed at 9-12 year old's comes in at just over 55k, I asked if this was too short given my target age, and I was told not to worry.
It seems to me that part of the agents process is to get it to the right length. They care about the story first and if they like it, they will help get it to the right length.
I think based on this, 109k for a YA fantasy is probably OK. If it's ready to send, go for it, and good luck!