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Q&A How long is a single-title romance novel supposed to be?

Publishing is a risky business. Publishers lose money on a lot of the titles they publish and new authors are a much greater risk than established ones. The longer a book, the more it costs to prod...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:49Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29046
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:32:55Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29046
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:32:55Z (over 4 years ago)
Publishing is a risky business. Publishers lose money on a lot of the titles they publish and new authors are a much greater risk than established ones. The longer a book, the more it costs to produce, and therefore the greater the loss if it does not sell. Therefore publishers look for books from first authors that fit into fairly narrow page range limits that they know have the best chance of selling in their genre while keeping the risks lower.

These length vary by genre and may vary over time as well. Lots of agents and organizations like Writer's digest publish the lengths are are currently selling best in every genre. It is best to consult the specific market you want to sell to to find out what they are taking at the moment.

Can you sell outside these ranges? Certainly you can, but in that case there needs to be some factor that offsets the risk you are asking the publisher to take, such as a work of exceptional quality or already having an established name or platform that will guarantee a certain level of sales.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-07-02T17:22:24Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 0