On word counts.
I’m working on something new right now, and the best estimate I can give is that it’ll top out around 110,000 words, or perhaps a little higher. I don’t consider that the end of the world, but as I tentatively dip my toe back into the world of agents and editors, I know this isn’t the book I can use to entice them.
According to the conventional wisdom, thrillers should fall somewhere in the 80,000 to 100,000-word range, which isn’t necessarily a problem unless your story has more meat on the bones than the usual thriller. As it happens, Black Sun has that meat, and even with my usual round of aggressive self-edits, I doubt it’ll dip below 100,000 words. Consequently, no editor will buy it, and no agent will read it—quality matters for nothing.
Copyeditors are often worth their weight in gold, but the bulk of editors who do purchasing and provide commentary aren’t so helpful. The same applies to agents who are unwilling to put forth the effort to sell longer works. Editors labor under a foolish conventional wisdom, whereas agents want to do as little work as possible. If it’s not a potentially easy sale, their minds snap shut.
Anyway, this means Black Sun will be another self-pub effort. Not because it’s bad. Not because it’s controversial. None of that. But because someone somewhere decided on an unrealistic word count. Which strikes me as ridiculously inflexible and creatively disappointing.