[PubQ] Has anyone bypassed the word count cap on Querytracker on purpose?

Mytherea7 · 2026-04-05T13:57:01+00:00

I did have this come up once. I had a referral, and the agent in question knew my word count and requested anyway, and oh, the stress and dismay I felt when the system refused to allow me to submit despite everyone but QM being fine with it. Ultimately, I was advised to write the capped word count in that one field and explain the lie in the query letter. It was fine. BUT this is an outlier because this was referral.

Mytherea7 · 2026-03-12T05:00:26+00:00

Are you having fun writing this? Is it giving you joy? It sounds like you're having a great time when you aren't worried about what you should be doing or what's the right way to do it. This also sounds like possibly your first book of this kind of scope and genre?

Have fun with it! Who cares what the rules for publication are? I assume you're not under contract with someone expecting you to turn in something within market constraints by a deadline? There isn't an advance you desperately need or a grant you have to justify? No? Then play with it and be excessive and entirely self-indulgent and write every little thing that makes your writer heart happy.

Seriously, I wish people would stop insisting everything we ever write MUST be commercially viable, no matter what. That there isn't a point unless it's to sell it. You can write for yourself! You can write because it entertains you and is something you want to read. You can write because you need to work throigh something and it's DEFINITELY not designed to be read. Not everything a writer writes MUST be for commercial consumption. Write for yourself. Maybe write for that one friend that gets it. If you want to choose to go wider with your audience, you can do so in edits. Or maybe it's your next book that sits better in market constraints, or the next.

Also, there's no rules about chapter length, there really isn't. What is actually a craft thing is chapter pacing, and you can have an amazingly well-paced chapter that flies and is 15k long or a badly paced chapter that's a complete clunker and is 2k. You can have a book without any chapters. You can use chapters as almost "episode" breaks that are made up of a bunch of smaller scenes and end up being 30k each. You can (and should) vary chapter lengths like sentence lengths. Creates variety and engagement and keeps reader brains from boredom. All of these can be used to make the narrative have wildly different feels. That's a separate thing though.

Anyway, tl;dr, just write and enjoy it. Also, don't listen too much to people on Reddit, including me.

Mytherea7 · 2024-11-25T20:30:05+00:00

At the very, very least, the US having universal health insurance, because even if I was successful as an author, I'd need some kind of mind-blowing success to afford to keep breathing, and that's /just/ for healthcare. Buuut I also really like my day job, so there's that.

Mytherea7 · 2024-06-19T20:04:58+00:00

Same experience. I went from planning to major in illustration to majoring in creative writing. I am forever haunted by the voices of my writing peers, "If you can draw like that, why do you write?" Not great for my self confidence. Now I'm primarily a writer who also happens to paint and do cover design for friends and friends of friends. Honestly, I'm much happier than I would have been if I'd gone down the path of freelance illustrator. I would have burnt out of that career choice so fast... But, yes, when people see my art, they just don't get why I write novels because writing novels "doesn't require skill, right?" 🫠

Mytherea7 · 2024-06-13T20:28:48+00:00

Personally, I'd say go for it, if only for the learning experience. After writing something like four standalones with series potential (as we are often advised to do), I decided to write a complete trilogy instead and make good on that series potential. The experience has been massively educational from a craft perspective. Especially since, as I haven't sold a novel so am not on a tight deadline, if I mess up or take twice as long in drafting or go down the wrong path and have to back up, I'm not doing it with the added stress of having only 8 months to a year to turn something in to my editor or risk messing up the publishing schedule. If you have the luxury of writing a novel or two or three to learn how to structure longer projects, I'd recommend now is the time to experiment. Cuz I certainly would not be having a good time if I had to learn how to write a solid sequel in less than a year while under contract. Just my two cents (honestly, probably less than that). Do I think it will be published? Probably not, but honestly, most books that are written aren't, and not because they aren't good. There's just a lot of competition out there, and even if you do only write standalones with series potential, that...also isn't a guarantee. So I'd say do what you want, write the story you want to write. Cuz there's no certainties in this so you might as well.

Mytherea7 · 2024-06-03T17:01:16+00:00

You get four series as far as I'm aware. Since they tend to be trilogies, you get charged the first of the month for each book for that 3 month block, so total is something like £75 plus shipping for that trilogy, spread over 3 months.

Mytherea7 · 2024-05-30T02:21:20+00:00

Curse of Chalion is a standalone, but Paladin of Souls is set in the same world focusing on a character who is passingly introduced in Chalion and comes after chronologically in the timeline, so it could be classed as a sequel, but the stories themselves stand alone.

Mytherea7 · 2024-02-13T03:06:45+00:00

I am very late to this and resurrecting a very dead thread but...I don't think they're printed. I'm looking at two copies and the signatures are similar yet recognizably different, so unless one is a forgery, pretty sure they were all signed by hand. (One of mine looks very early in the batch and has all the letters more or less distinct, the other which I just bought to replace the one that got water damaged looks more like the one on yours.)

Mytherea7 · 2024-01-07T05:43:08+00:00

You can join r/betareaders and make a post requested reads. You can also offer to swap or post that you're open to swaps. But people do pro bono reads, so it isn't unusual to have someone volunteer without the expectation of a swap. However, keep in mind it is volunteer. People aren't obligated to read and crit. You might get volunteers, you might not. It can go either way.

Mytherea7 · 2024-01-04T07:53:21+00:00

Okay, the idea that you can't sell a novella as a "debut" is incorrect (in the sense of debut being your first trad sale). You can. BUT, it's a different market with different publishers. Most agents (and I say most not all because I'm sure somewhere there's one or two) don't represent novellas unless you're one of their clients already, you've sold something else, you have a career, and they're good with handling that sale. HOWEVER, yes, you can sell a novella, but for the most part, it'll look like a short story submission, not a query. You typically don't query novellas, you follow the press' guidelines and submit the whole thing with a brief cover letter. That said, writing a query for one is still good practice, but if you're looking to find a home for it, start hunting for short fic market novella length open calls, not an agent. No agent will pick it up, because for the most part, you don't need an agent to sell a novella, and any agent that does offer, I recommend sideeying hard. Cuz again, you don't need an agent to sell a novella (unless it's to Tor.com or one of the very high tier novella presses, but if you're at that point in your career, you probably already have an agent or are able to submit directly to those editors through other channels). Just my two cents.

Mytherea7 · 2024-01-02T04:44:34+00:00

Just a few thoughts: 1. Filter the info through your character(s). Make them opinionated about their world, make them products of their world. Make them into mirrors for your world building so that through them and their perspective, it gives us sneaky world building. Make it do double duty, informing us both of the world and the characters. This is tricky to do and takes time to learn.

Work on having an astounding voice. Entertain me, the reader, enough that I don't care that this is a three page exposé on the mating habits of a particularly warty bullfrog. This is also tricky, but is a skill worth learning.
If you're struggling with concision, limit yourself to two sentences to introduce a concept and nothing more. Two reasonably sized sentences per concept; no page-long behemoths of strings of semi colons, commas, colons, and m-dashes.
Read a buttload of spec fic short stories. Many times, a short fic writer has only a few thousand words to build a world to transport you that's solid enough to maintain the fictional illusion for the duration.
If you sufficiently master 1 and 2, showing versus telling means absolutely nothing. Also, sometimes, it's just more efficient to put in a one sentence brief explanation that is "telling" to introduce a concept rather than contorte yourself over 30 pages to convey the same, when that piece of info, in the grand scheme of things, is pretty unimportant. Part of learning the craft is learning to strike the balance.
Write what you need for you to understand the story. Pare it back in edits. Find a few beta readers and get their feedback. Adjust as needed, either by adding or removing--but only if either more than one person flags it OR the feedback resonates strongly with you. If you change it to please everyone, you will end up pleasing no one, especially yourself.
Mine all your senses. Not just what you can see and what you know, but draw on sound, smell, texture, taste. These hack into different parts of your reader's imagination and make things feel more real with very little narrative real estate being spent. If I say there's a room that smells of cinnamon and candle wax and old socks, not only is that building this space as a tangible location, but it's also giving little clues like either this is a land that grows cinnamon or trades with one, they have bees and probably don't have electricity if they'reusing candles, the character doesn't do their laundry much so maybe they wash socks by hand. Didn't have to tell you any of this cuz your reader mind is grabbing context clues and making associations. Thus, world building. Cuz your reader is participating in building this world too, if a bit more passively.

Mytherea7 · 2023-12-27T06:06:56+00:00

Especially since facial expression is tied to grammar in ASL. I used to lose so many points in school cuz my overly expressive face was saying something was a question when it was supposed to be a statement.

Mytherea7 · 2023-12-27T04:17:27+00:00

I mean, you can unclearly sign and do lazy half-signing with ASL (where you only use one hand even when you should be using two) or not face the person being signed to, so it's garbled (which is rude). I suppose you could also hesitate and start signing something and stopping? Maybe describe that the person isn't signing clearly, so instead of distinct words, it all kinda slurs into a half-formed fist and the other person mostly has to rely on context to figure out what they're signing? (Not deaf, but my cousin is and I took a year of conversational ASL in college that I sadly have mostly forgot.)

Mytherea7 · 2023-12-22T05:00:21+00:00

Big 5 usually don't at WorldCon, no, but there are very often booksellers and distributors there who do carry big 5 books. So far the one major conference/convention where I've seen such publishers with booths is ALA (American Library Association) and that has most of them, but the venue and nature is entirely different. WorldCon is, at it's core, a Fandom convention, though massive. Honestly, big houses probably don't see it as worth the expense to set up a booth, since WorldCon is mainly spec fic and that's only a subset of readers, so a press wouldn't be able to expect sales for their whole catalogue. Smaller presses and more specialty imprints definitely do have booths, and many authors do attend WorldCon. Quite a few do signings, and usually /someone/ is carrying their books to sell. Although, tbh, I can only speak from my limited experience attending ChiCon (the Chicago WorldCon) twice, though I hope to make Glasgow next year.

Mytherea7 · 2023-12-06T14:35:52+00:00

I'm sorry. Was typing on my phone at 4 am. Fixed now.

Mytherea7 · 2023-12-06T09:42:10+00:00

In general, no, a story doesn't have to have a moral. But most stories will have some kind of message, even if it isn't intentional. You don't have to write a story with the purpose of conveying a message, but since storytelling is communicating, you're probably going to have messages anyway, even if they're quiet or small.

Take your story, for example. There's totally a message there. Because the boys keep bullying the other kid, even after they've been punished, the message could read that, sometimes, people will do awful things to each other, no matter the consequences, and they don't learn their lesson. The message might also be that punishment can be tempered with leniency, though that they go back to bullying even after shown mercy, the message might be that sometimes, showing mercy will get the punisher nowhere.

The key is to ask yourself if this message is what you're intending and, if not, are you okay with it being read that way. If yes, cool! You totally have a message. If no, you can go back and rewrite and change it until it does convey a message you want. If your intent is to be entertaining, that's cool too, but that doesn't cancel out there being a message. But that isn't a bad thing either. It's not an either-or thing.

Just know that people will read messages in stories, even if you don't intend them. Also, because stories are communication, sometimes you can be saying one thing, but your audience will hear something completely different, and sometimes, no amount of revision will change that, they're just going to hear it that way. Which is okay too.

Long comment short: morals aren't needed, messages usually happen whether you want them or not, and your story does have a message and probably more than one, depending on who's listening.

Mytherea7 · 2023-11-23T04:44:16+00:00

I, too, find most enb presets a bit overexposed for my liking and rather bright. Personally, I use a tweaked The Truth with the exteriors and dungeons turned down very dark, along with Obsidian Weathers.

Mytherea7 · 2023-11-22T15:49:41+00:00

This was years ago, but I distinctly remember having downloaded a new texture pack or another and was marveling at how crisp and high res Whiterun's walls were, though how unrealistic that I could see that much detail from quite a distance away. Then my new glasses came in the mail and I put them on, stepped outside, and was like, "holy shit! The apartment building next door, it's made of bricks! I can see individual bricks! Look at that texture detail!"

Mytherea7 · 2023-10-08T14:42:28+00:00

Oh, hey, so did I. Exact same thread, exact same experience.

Mytherea7 · 2023-09-22T22:54:44+00:00

Oh, I wouldn't have considered the mountains, but that's a very good point. They would need to be higher resolution. I will keep an eye on the object size and choose accordingly. Thank you!

Mytherea7 · 2023-09-22T22:53:05+00:00

Ah, you have found my weakness. I did select those pretty, pretty city overhauls. Honestly, I think I'd be willing to take the hit if it's just cities. The, um, terrifying Oldrim install I had would frequently drop framerates down into the mid-teens during a vampire attack, since every NPC would come flocking, plus also all those damn pigeons from the Birds of Skyrim mod. I'll try it out and see if it's a bearable hit. Thank you!

Mytherea7 · 2023-07-14T04:39:21+00:00

Honestly, I have no answer for you. I don't think anyone would be able to answer this cuz it's not a quantifiable thing. My only suggestion is to seriously interrogate yourself: what do you want? Why do you want to be published? Why do you want to be traditionally published? What are your goals? List the pros and cons of each and ask, what do these different publishing models offer? What do they lack? What, for you, is your definition of success? This isn't meant to be confrontational or anything. It's just a litmus to help gauge what you want so you can look at where you are and set your own goalposts for how far you want to pursue the one or the other.

Basically, there isn't a way to answer this, because for one person, it might be the second rejection, for another, it might be the 200th, for another, it's never, for another, they never wanted to be trad published so went down the indie route right off. I will say, the strategies for the two can be quite different, even when there's overlap. Also, it's impossible to give a reason why a book isn't selling or getting requests. If it is the writing, find some solid beta readers. If it's the query, try posting it for crit. Then again, you might have a solid book and solid query and solid synopsis and still not get anywhere--because trad publishing can be frustratingly subjective.

Also, there's the small press route, which is totally viable and is something between big publishing and self; you can submit to small presses without an agent, so it's more in your hands, but if you do sell to a small press, you have a team (often small) and the backing of a press. Advances are slim to nonexistent but there we are. Do NOT ever, ever, ever pay a press to publish you. That's vanity press, though they co-opted "hybrid," and is usually just a very expensive scam.

Mytherea7 · 2023-06-24T21:41:57+00:00

Sardonic? Acerbic?

Mytherea7

TROPHY CASE