Some reader pushback!
Interestingly, I got some reader pushback from my last entry. That doesn’t happen too often. I’ll address what they said now.
In short, they disagreed that the thriller market is dominated by the 80,000-100,000 word range and cited a variety of bestsellers that exceeded that word count, such as Gone Girl. However, I’d say that examples like those are the exceptions that prove the rule and provide some insight into how word counts should be viewed.
Every contract I’ve gotten over fifteen years has included a provision insisting that my completed manuscript not fall outside the 80,000-100,000 word range. Every contract. This is as certain and predictable as a publisher neglecting to do any promotion for a book they’ve paid a pile of money for.
Can thrillers exceed 100,000 words and succeed? Of course they can! And I’d say something like Gone Girl proves my point that when editors and agents allow books to be as long as they need to be, the chances of a breakout success increase. Readers can tell when a book has been pared back, and they don’t like it. I received feedback exactly like this from people who read and otherwise enjoyed Juárez Dance. They wanted a longer book. I wanted a longer book. But them’s the breaks.
Long books can be indulgent, and indulgence is bad, but if a book holds you for 100,000+ words, let it. Don’t marry yourself to an imaginary maximum.