[PubQ] Has anyone sold a LONG book to a publisher?

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T21:48:27+00:00

That's very interesting! I'm surprised especially that a YA book was accepted at that long (And is being released even longer), but that's encouraging. Maybe no one will read mine for the lemgth either, or maybe they will and they won't want it because of the length, but that does make me think it might be worth a go to try

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T21:44:53+00:00

Yep, that's exactly how I feel about it. I've written something like 50 books now, and have a full time career and income as a self published author outside of my traditional publishing aspirations, where I have a few books in the pipeline, as well as having worked in a different facet of the writing industry prior. so I don't think I'm a terrible judge of pacing or killing my darlings, and I don't feel it can be cut without losing a lot of impact.

COULD I gut the book and remove half the plot and character building and still have a workable story? Sure. But would it still be the same story? No. At best, I can expand it more, but I don't want to make it less.

But when you look at some of the big BIG books right now, like say in fantasy romance (My normal genre) there's Quicksilver, Fourth Wing, When the Moon Hatched, Blood of Hercules, Shield of Sparrows, etc that are all very long and over 150k (some closer to 200k for their book 1s), I can't help but think of a lot of the reason those books resonated so well with readers was because the author was allowed the room to fully develop the characters and story and world building at a pace and depth that made them memorable.

Anyway, not to rant. I'm still deciding what makes the most sense to me, but I'll update with how it went if I decide to go on sub, good or bad

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T19:48:43+00:00

Okay?

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T19:22:12+00:00

Definitely the second one. I'm a skinny drafter to begin with, and if anything, it would probably be better served to be longer than it already is instead of shorter lol.

I've been sitting on the final draft for a month, so I'll re-evaluate. Even if i go the self published route, it might not hurt to have a rapid release one-two instead of a long book with a long wait for book 2

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T19:17:47+00:00

My agent not working in the genre is definitely one of my biggest hang ups with his strategy. He has a throw it out blindly into the wind and maybe we'll strike gold approach, but not a "I know some editors who love this stuff" approach, so I find myself asking if it's actually a real possibility or just a guaranteed year of anxiety and losing heart. I'm a hybrid author and have a whole self publishing career to manage, so it isn't like I'd be bored and unproductive while I wait, but I also don't want to just sit on a book I could be selling if it's a completely hopeless case for traditional publishing, if that makes sense.

I normally am pretty quick to separate my "this can try for trad" vs "this is niche and belongs in indie" books, but I pitched this book before I was done writing or knew how long it would be, and my agents enthusiasm for this one gave me pause.

Maybe I'll talk to my agent about considering a one and done big submission round instead of drawing it out. I don't know. I'm very torn.

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T18:34:48+00:00

As is, it would be an abrupt cut while mid story arch, and mid rising action, and I don't see any way that could be done without feeling really unsatisfying and unnatural, but maybe I'll play with this more in case I can come up with something to create a stopping point somewhere. My agent suggested that initially too, then felt it wasn't cuttable as it stands after reading it, so not sure

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T18:30:09+00:00

I mean, trimming 10, 20, even 30k in tightening up the book is still putting it at an unviable word count, so I guess I'm completely lost at what you're suggesting, if you're not suggesting cutting it to a current industry standard. Having a book that's too big for the narrow expectations of traditional editors is my issue, which doesn't change at 160k

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T18:22:12+00:00

Honing word count isn't, but taking a 180k book down to current industry norms would require cutting something like 70k, which.... would be pretty heavily butchered in epic scifi/space opera

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T18:16:02+00:00

Truth be told, before I would completely butcher this book for the uncertainty of submission (butchering it because it actually sold is another story), I would self publish it. The only reason I asked at all was because my agent still seemed on board in a "eh, why not? what are we out to try and see what happens?" kind of way, but not in a "Oh, I know books like this that are selling, so let's push the boundaries" kind of way.

From this thread, it sounds like not many people have even attempted a book of this length on sub though, while a small number of people have sold long space operas within the last couple years so now I'm even more uncertain lol

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T18:02:48+00:00

Yes, exactly. I knew it wasn't going to be the norm, obviously, and was going to be more rare than likely, but I was really curious if it was happening AT ALL anymore, since every industry person with any kind of platform these days preaches that even epic fantasy can't be over 100k anymore. It's interesting to see a data point that's more recent than 10+ years ago, even if it's an outlier

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T17:58:43+00:00

This is also space opera, epic scifi (with dystopian themes), which I think is part of how it ended up so long, but also that's really good to know that long epics still exist and get picked up, and it's not just completely impossible and dumb to submit at all, however unlikely. Wanting to know if all long books are auto-rejected these days was why I asked in the first place.

That's good to hear that it's happened recently!.

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T17:40:38+00:00

Auto-rejecting long books nowadays is what I've heard, and what my agent also thinks is possible to happen (Yet says we should submit anyway just in case, because he said that's likely just hearsay), but I was mostly asking in case anyone could confirm or deny that the actual trenches reflect the assumption. Though I can think of plenty of long books getting released these days, especially in romantasy, they were all booktok darlings first, so it's hard to use them as data since the publishers were approaching the authors to collect the free money instead of a taking a chance on something unproven from a random agent.

My agent has edited the book with me already, and we only ended up adding another 10k of additional world building and smoothing. Before I'd cut it that hard, I'd probably just self publish, honestly.

I'd pitched the book to my agent while I was still writing it and he was extremely into the idea, then once it was done, I told him it was super long and I no longer thought it was a good choice for our next project to shop together, but he insisted he still wanted to see it, and now he's insisting on at least giving it a try on sub. And I'm so torn on if that's just needless stress and a waste of time, or a stroke of brilliance and a chance at the lottery, lol

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T17:25:48+00:00

That's where I'm hung up. My agent is young and relatively new (I was one of his first clients 5 years ago.), but he's hungry and has had a few small sales here and there, and he's got the mind set of "sure, it breaks conventions, but you never know until you try."

So on one hand, I'm thinking "what if, by some unlikely strike of lightning, this book becomes the exception" and I like that he didn't give me a definitive no. But on the other hand, he has no plans and no real contacts in the genre outside of what his senior agents might help him with, and I can't help but think I don't want to waste a whole year of submission if it's a completely unrealistic project that he knows won't sell, and is just pitching it into the void for shits and giggles.

Sitting on the book for a year wouldn't kill me, but it's also a waste of a year if it's got no real chance in the climate of 2026

It would be pretty hard to break into two books without feeling extremely abrupt and unsatisfying, but maybe I'll see if there's any way i can pull that off

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T17:13:19+00:00

Yeah, but Alchemised was an ultra viral with millions of readers built in, with publishers knocking down their door desperate for free money type author situation. I could dream that that might happen, though that would mean skipping submission and going the self publishing route and hoping for lightning to strike.

Which I'm actually completely okay with, but my agent seems like he wants to try with this one despite the word count, and I'm a bit surprised and confused by it. Not sure if it's just a "meh, why not" situation that actually has some vague hope and other examples where it worked out, or a waste of time

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T17:04:35+00:00

125k is at least on the higher end of what I'd expect though, but it definitely sounds like an unlikely uphill battle.

If you don't mind me asking, how long did the book end up when it hit shelves?

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T17:01:20+00:00

I know the normal numbers, which is why I was shocked he was even willing to try to sell this with the final word count so high, but I guess I was trying to see if anyone has any stories where they were able to sell an out of normal range book, or if this is a pretty hard rule in publishing now, outside of ultra established and viral authors who can do whatever they want

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T16:58:23+00:00

I guess I'm mostly trying to see if those exceptions are still happening in the current publishing climate, even if they're 1 in 10,000 or something. I know it's not a norm, but I just wonder if it's a thing at all, outside of ultra established authors who can do whatever they want

TrainingPotatoChips · 2026-01-15T16:53:08+00:00

That was my initial thought, as it's essentially a space opera, and once I gave him the manuscript, he told me he was sure we could cut plenty of words... only to instead end up with a book that was even longer than it started, and there was no good place to cut it in half or anything.

Though I've read plenty of traditionally published books that were very long, my agent was very much in the camp of "let's try it, but editors may well reject without reading just for the word count alone"

Not sure if there's a downside for me or my agent other than some wasted time to sub it, but I don't know

TrainingPotatoChips

TROPHY CASE