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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25505
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25505
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

55K words is a novella; your teacher is wrong there. 80K to 85K is a good book length.

If your story will require two books (or however many), _finish them all_ before shopping the first one to an agent. Explain in the cover letter that it's a _completed_ series. Agents may balk at an open-ended cliffhanger from a novice, but if you say that the two/three/etc. books are already done, that shows a) that you have the drive to complete several books and b) if the agent wants to buy the series, the publisher won't have to worry about whether you'll be able to complete the story and if you'll leave readers/accountants hanging. _::cough::George R.R. Martin::cough::)_

A break point should be the end of an Act if your overal series is broken into three/four/five acts. Whether that's a huge "no questions are answered" cliffhanger or just a pause point in a larger tale depends on your story. The Harry Potter series is a set of seven books which have seven clear separate stories, each with a beginning/middle/end, which are also part of a larger story. But the Belgariad is one story told in five volumes, and each book ends on some kind of cliffhanger — I think book 3 literally ends in the middle of a scene as the heroes are captured and led off.

Getting your reader to care is no different in a book-ending cliffhanger than a chapter end. Either your reader is invested or not. Either you care about the character's fate or not. I put down the Fablehaven series at the end of book 2 of 5 because I absolutely did. not. care. if these two stupid children lived or died or succeeded or failed. I also stopped reading the Gregor the Overlander series at the beginning of book 4 of 5 because I cared too much; the heroes were being seduced by a dictator/fascist/tyrannical man-child, and I read to _escape_ reality, thanks. But I'm desperate to pick up the next Rick Riordan series because I adored Percy Jackson and his friends.

Original score: 6