# My novel might be nearly 100,000 words and it's middle grade



## sunaynaprasad (Jun 12, 2015)

My currently published book is somewhere around 45K words. I outlined the sequel's plot into something new (keeping the same basic plot idea, but putting in different scenes) and it looks like it's going to be more fun to write. However, are upper MG readers (10-11 is my target) really going to want to read a novel between 90K and 100K words? I know the sequel of a book should usually be longer. Some MG fantasies are longer than realistic MG fiction. Still, is this a good idea?


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## Deafmute (Jun 12, 2015)

lord of the rings is 450K and that is read by people in middle grades all the time. If its good enough to hold their interest honestly fiction can be absurdly long and people will still eat it up. That said publishers may be hesitant to put out something so long from an unknown author.


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## KellInkston (Jun 13, 2015)

I think that's fine. But I think you'll have to appeal to the "literati" of the middle grade audience- most would not have the attention spans.


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## Riis Marshall (Jun 14, 2015)

Hello Sunay

It's been said here before: if you've succeeded in telling a great story it will have exactly number of words it should have.

All the best with your writings.

Warmest regards
Riis


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## David Gordon Burke (Jun 14, 2015)

My two cents.  I am going to fly against the face of popular opinion.  For two reasons.  First off, have you heard Edgar Allan Poe´s thoughts on writing?  He believes that the short story is the perfect medium because the human attention span is limited and that in a novel we lose something every time we put it down and then come back to it.  (paraphrasing here but that´s the gist of it)  So the extremely long novel just compounds that issue, especially for kids.  

Our learned collegues here have nothing to lose by taking the optimistic and idealistic approach to your project.  You however will have to do the work of writing the novel and then will have to live with its eventual success or failure.

The truth is, if you had to ask whether it will be too big then you have doubts.  If you have any doubt whatsoever, you should consider chopping the book in half - possibly by having a climax to the story but then you could have a cliff-hanger in the resolution that motivates the readers to buy the next book.

You could also write and market them as if they were one book.  Meaning write it as if it were one book.  Finish them both (or finish the first and be almost finished the second before you put them up for sale)

There are a miriad of possibilities but if you have 83 reviews of a book at 45K I would assume you have sold quite a few books.  Don´t you want to sell as many or more of the next installment?  Wouldn´t it be safe to assume that SOME of the previous readers WON´T want to make as large an investment of time to read a much longer book?  

David Gordon Burke


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## shadowwalker (Jun 15, 2015)

From the time I could read, the size of the book didn't matter. If I got bored in the first chapter, the book got tossed. If I was intrigued/curious/interested throughout the 100k words...


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## David Gordon Burke (Jun 15, 2015)

shadowwalker said:


> From the time I could read, the size of the book didn't matter. If I got bored in the first chapter, the book got tossed. If I was intrigued/curious/interested throughout the 100k words...



Just curious - Do you believe that this is the norm with most MG and YA readers?  
And, from a marketing, marketability point of view, do you think the 100,00 word novel is a better bet for that market or two 50,000 word novels?  

David Gordon Burke


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## shadowwalker (Jun 15, 2015)

David Gordon Burke said:


> Just curious - Do you believe that this is the norm with most MG and YA readers?
> And, from a marketing, marketability point of view, do you think the 100,00 word novel is a better bet for that market or two 50,000 word novels?



I think it's the norm for readers I've known. They want to be involved in the story, and if the author can keep that going, the length doesn't matter. As to whether to make it one book or two, the question becomes can it really be two books? It's not as simple as just splitting the thing into two parts (and yes, I know LOTR but there are always exceptions). I would worry less about length and worry more about content (vis a vis "Gone With the Wind").


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## David Gordon Burke (Jun 15, 2015)

shadowwalker said:


> I think it's the norm for readers I've known. They want to be involved in the story, and if the author can keep that going, the length doesn't matter. As to whether to make it one book or two, the question becomes can it really be two books? It's not as simple as just splitting the thing into two parts (and yes, I know LOTR but there are always exceptions). I would worry less about length and worry more about content (vis a vis "Gone With the Wind").



Sorry, I must have missed the precise answer there.  When you say readers you have known, are we talking about kids in the YA or MG today or kids that you grew up with?  I ask this with all due respect since I seem to see an incredible number of answers here on the forum to the issues that writers face, and they seem to be answers based less on fact and more on anecdotal experience and less on fact.  In other cases it's largely a rose-colored-glasses idealistic belief in what one thinks the world should be.

https://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/the-stats

Now I will admit that the recent popularity of series like Harry Potter and the like have cultivated a whole new group of readers but isn't a bunch of authors sitting around saying that literacy is up and that the average middle grade student can read a 100.000 word novel something like the Soccer Association of American telling us that Soccer is the #1 fastests growing sport in America?  Well what did anyone expect them to say?  Soccer sucks?  We're going out of business?  Better to invest in Hockey equiptment?  C'mon!

Then there is t he LOTR debate.  While I have heard a ton of people SWEAR that they read LOTR as children, I've yet to see a child reading it.  I didn't read it until I was in my twenties.  There was a copy in my house alll through childhood and I picked it up and looked at it a few times but NADA.

Now there may be a bunch of younger, advanced readers that are attracted to the book now that they have seen the movies.  Then again, there may be some that just don't bother since .... well, they've seen the movies.  

This may be a simple perspective issue.  I stand by my original statement.  If the author had to ask the question then she has doubts.  Why risk it?

David Gordon Burke


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## shadowwalker (Jun 16, 2015)

Yes, I'm only stating what I have experienced, both among my peers and with my son/his peers, and with conversations with other parents with kids of those ages. Writing a book of that length that will catch and hold the attention of any reader is the challenge to the author.

But I also maintain that just because a book is lengthy does not mean one can just make it two books. One can't just chop it in two at 50k. My aside about LOTR referred to the fact that various publishers divvied it up into 2-7 volumes. It may have worked for that book; that doesn't mean it can be done with _any _book. There's revising and rewriting and general editing that has to be done so it _could _work; ie, it's not that simple.


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## sunaynaprasad (Jun 16, 2015)

I edited my synopsis down to 45 chapters and picked which chapters will probably be shorter.


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## Johnny (Jun 16, 2015)

I think it's totally fine, I read books that long when I was a kid.


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