How long is a book?

A short novel is 60,000 words long.

A novel of average length is anywhere between 75 – 100,000 words. A novel of 120,000 words is perfectly normal too.

Any book in the range of 150-180,000 words is a long one, and needs to work hard to justify its length. Anything over 180,000 words is really testing the patience of agents and may well make it harder to place. Anything over 200,000 words is almost certainly suicidally long.

Of course, all this applies to adult fiction. Children’s novels must be shorter than this: it would be very hard to sell any children’s novel of more than 100,000 words. A teen novel could creep over this, but not by much, please.

What are my chances of success?

In a word: small.

A leading agent will probably receive 2000 manuscripts a year, and take on a maximum of 2 new authors – giving authors a success rate of rather less than 0.1%. The good news is leading agents expect to be at least 90% successful in selling the work of new clients. In other words, the toughest hurdle is getting an agent. If you clear that obstacle, you have an excellent chance of finding a publisher.

Less well known agents will take on more clients than this – but they are also liable to be less successful in securing a publishing deal. In this game, there are no easy options.

One thing is for sure, though: you do need to make sure you send your work to enough agents. Don’t send it to one or two. Send it to ten or twenty. For more tips on finding agents, see How to find an Agent.

How long does everything take?

Hard to answer. Some books are taken on by an agent very quickly indeed (2-3 weeks). Other times the search can easily take a year. Writing an excellent, well-presented manuscript and making multiple submissions is the best way to avoid taking for ever.

Once you have an agent, getting a publisher can be very fast - a matter of 2 weeks - but can be much slower too (say a year). The better & more commercial the book, the faster the sales process is likely to be.

Finally, once you have a book deal, then expect 1 year - 18 months for the book to be on the shelves. Sounds ludicrously long, but it's true. Some books might get onto the shelves in just six  months, but that would be very fast indeed - not something we've ever come across ourselves.

How much can I sell my book for?

OK, let’s assume you’ve written a brilliant book (no doubt with the help of a brilliant Writers’ Workshop editor). You’ve got an agent. How much cash can you expect for your months of labour?

The sad but honest answer is not much. Average advances have been falling – and they still are. A top agent nowadays might achieve an average advance of £30,000 for their clients. If that sounds like a lot, then think again. That advance is for a 2-book deal. You’ll need to knock the agent’s 10-15% off the total. And VAT on the agent’s take. And your own expenses. Unless you really churn your work out (not something many successful authors manage) then your hourly rate is going to look fairly miserable.

And that average figure is for top agents. Lesser fry will tend to have a less glittering client list, and that will translate into lower average advances. Research carried out by the Society of Authors suggests that an average two book deal is for just £12,000. Overall, SoA members average £6-7,000 a year in income from writing. In short: don’t give up the day job.

The one bright spot? Much of the reduction in advances affects existing authors. First-timers can often sell their work for eye-popping amounts, as publishers compete to find the next Big Thing ...

The simple truth

Writing novels is hard work. Few succeed. The pay is mostly rotten. So why do it? Because you love it. Because you have to write.

And the secret of success? Simple:

Rule 1

Write what you want to write and what there is a market for. If you’re not sure what the market is, then go into a bookshop and find out.

Rule 2

Be utterly perfectionist about your work. The successful writers are the ones who obsess over their every page; who revise their work repeatedly. And quite often they’re the ones who come to us for help.

Good writers need good editors – and you can’t get better than us.

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