Writing to be Published: 2.2/3
Your book rules: right for genre, right length - why it matters
Today, I’m going to talk about following or breaking rules, adapting to genre and understanding about the length of your book.
Writing has rules. But “rules are made to be broken”, I hear you say. “I’m creative, a novelist, I don’t follow rules. I want to do something different.” Of course. Same here. Creative people do break rules. But you have to understand the rule before there’s any creative value in breaking it.
Below is what I wrote (slightly adapted) about rules in Write to be Published. (NB That link does not earn me any income as there are only secondhand copies available. If you would like a complete copy of the pdf version, I can sell this to you directly for £6. Let me know! Or, if you choose to pay the entirely optional yearly or founding subscription, I’ll send it to you free.)
ARE RULES FOR FOOLS?
You will hear stories of writers disobeying all the rules and still getting published. You will also hear stories of people smoking forty cigarettes a day for forty years and running across a motorway blindfolded but neither dying of cancer nor being killed by a car. This does not mean that smoking and crossing motorways blindfolded are sensible ways to behave.
Focusing on stories of successful disobedience is illogical and risky. Yes, sometimes a writer achieves a good publishing deal despite not following every rule. However, ask yourself three things:
Do you want to raise your chances or lower them?
Do you value your book enough to give it the best chance?
Would you prefer to be published sooner than later?
Slavish obedience of rules is for slaves. Ignoring rules is for ignorant people. Sensible people, when offered a rule or advice, do several things: they work out whether the person offering it has reason to be trusted; they listen carefully until they understand it; they work out whether it applies to their own situation. Then they decide whether to follow, adapt or ignore it. You are sensible people.
Almost any rule, once properly understood, may be broken, but you must always know why and what the effect will be. You should do it for a reason and let the reason be right.
Rules are not for fools. Rules are tools.
LET’S TALK ABOUT GENRE
Genre is one area where many writers wish to break free of rules. Again, you can do so but a) you need to do so with full understanding of what you’re doing and b) you need to recognise that you may make it slightly difficult for a publisher to publish your book.
Again, I can do no better than share what I wrote on the topic in Write to be Published. Again, adapted (shortened). See above for how to obtain the whole book in pdf form.
WHO CARES ABOUT GENRE?
You might be thinking, “But I’ve written a great story. Why does it have to fit a particular genre? Why can’t I be original?” Thing is, booksellers want to know where to put your book and who to recommend it to. They need to know this because readers like to know what they’re about to spend money and hours on. Readers tend to make fairly quick decisions based on a few criteria involving their personal preferences, and one of those is usually genre.
Of course, genres often overlap and blur, and contain many shades. However, one reason why a publisher might reject a book is that it falls painfully between two stools, and that booksellers will therefore find it hard to shelve and sell. So, think carefully about which pigeon-hole your book will peep from. Even if it incorporates two genres, it should have one main genre and I advise you to focus on that in the main thrust of your story and your submission. Only if your book is both startlingly original and eminently sellable can you avoid this.
BIG PIGEON-HOLES AND LITTLE ONES
A big pigeon-hole is the genre – such as travel writing – and it is one of the first things you have to tell a prospective agent or editor. But you should also be aware of the small pigeon-hole – the more specific group of books within which yours sits. For example, within travel writing there are ones that relate a new life in one place; or which relate a specific journey; or straightforward travel guides. Within historical fiction there are many different types: extremes of literary or commercial and everything between; light, social, grim or martial; historical romance or historical detective fiction; alternative 11 history; books in the style of Bernard Cornwell, Pat Barker or Tracy Chevalier. In the crime genre, the readers of Peter James, Ian Rankin, Kate Atkinson and Aline Templeton have quite different expectations from each other. You need to know more precisely where your book sits than simply that it is travel writing, historical fiction or crime.
THE RULES OF THE ROOST
Different genres and sub-genres have different requirements. Each one also changes over the years. New genres or combinations of genre can be created, but if you try a combination which has not been done before, you risk rejection, simply because there will be no pigeon-hole for it.
I am more rule-breaker than rule-follower by nature but I believe that we can only pointfully break a rule if we know what it is and why it’s there, and that includes the rules and conventions of genre. I’m not saying you have to follow them slavishly: I am saying know them, and know your readers, and then you will know what rules you can break and why; and the risks and benefits.
KNOW YOUR FELLOW-PIGEONS: READ IN GENRE
In other words, read books similar to yours. Then you can write a novel which fits perfectly and yet stands out.
Here are the risks you run by not keeping up-to-date with what’s being written currently in your chosen genre.
The Enid Blyton Trap. There are countless aspiring writers who decide they fancy writing a children’s book because they remember enjoying them so much when they were little. But the world has changed. We don’t have lashings of ginger beer any more but we do have health and safety and mobile phones. So, if you don’t read the modern stuff, you risk looking like some patriarchal buffoon.
Not knowing what’s already been done. You might not realise that a topic, voice or character has already been done to death or has recently been tackled in a high-profile book. You could look very ignorant.
Not having commitment to a career in this genre. Thing is, one book is not enough. Your agent or publisher needs to build a career with you and you must feel comfortable with the genre if you are to write several books in it.
Showing ignorance in your covering letter. Faux pas based on ignorance of genre are common in these letters.
Remaining outside the world of your future fellow authors. I spend a lot of time with other writers in my field and I would know if one of us wasn’t up-to-date with reading. I’d have a very low opinion of someone who couldn’t join us in our own passion and yet who presumed to reap money from it.
Arrogance. You might not feel arrogant, but it’s what a potential agent will think if you show that you don’t read in the genre. It displays a sense of, “Yeah, well, it’s easy to do what these crime fic/YA/pic book authors do – I can do that, easy as falling off a bike.” You can do yourself a nasty injury falling off a bike.
So, writers, know your genre!
LET’S TALK LENGTH
“How long should my book be?” Very often, the answer you will get is, “A book should be as long as it should be.” That’s an eyeball-rolling, pencilsnapping answer if ever I heard one. Certainly, a book’s length must feel right for that book. As a reader, you know what it’s like when a book feels too long or when an ending comes unsatisfyingly quickly.
But are there any rules about length? There are some conventions that look like rules, though they are the sort of rules that are ripe for breaking, as the later Harry Potter books show. (On the other hand, never look at outliers to tell you anything.) As a debut author, you take a major risk if you break conventions of length too obviously.
Some guidelines:
For children’s books, it’s important to adhere to the length of typical books for the specific age-range. The average length for books for 5-7s is not the same as that for 7-9s. I won’t list suggested averages for every age-band, because it’s not just about the age of the reader but the type of book and its purpose. So, all you can do is decide what existing modern books yours is most like and do some sample word counts. Keep within 10% of what you discover.
For a debut author, it is more important to keep within norms than it is for established authors.
There tends to be more variation within literary fiction than within a genre; and each genre will have different norms. (A good reason for knowing how your own genre works.)
In non-fiction, it’s more open, but shorter is generally better than longer, for commercial and cost-based reasons. A long book will cost more to produce and have a higher price-point; a more expensive book is usually harder to sell than one at a lower price-point. You’d need to be a very well known expert or have an extra compelling idea to get away with an over-long book.
If a book is too short, a reader may decide that it’s “not worth it” – yes, we all know that length not does equal quality but readers often think in terms of value being relative to the amount of time the pleasure may last.
A good target for a commercial adult novel, such as a romance or an historical novel, is 100,000 words. I have heard publishers ask for that as a minimum, though I’ve heard others refuse to give such a firm rule. If you head way over the 150,000 mark, you could be straying into “too long” territory, but it really does depend. Know your market.
Some genres suit a longer word count: fantasy and sagas, for example.
A novella – something under, say, 45,000, and aimed at adults – is unlikely to be published as a first novel. It’s a simple commercial reality: readers are unlikely to buy something so short by an unknown author when the price they’ll pay is likely to be the same as for a longer novel.
Whatever the word count of your first draft, losing some words would almost certainly benefit it because your writing will be tighter.
If you have to make your novel longer, don’t do this simply by padding it with more words. You should add new elements entirely, such as new scenes or a plot strand. If you just pad it, you will make it drag.
COMING NEXT
Actually, coming next will be a mental strength/wellbeing post but coming next in this Writing to be Published strand will be a look at how publishers make their decisions. And then in the final parts (Part 3/3) I’ll cover your submission process.
If you’re managing households/guests/catering over the coming “holidays”, you probably won’t have time for writing but don’t worry: you can still think and thinking is the biggest part of writing! Personally, I do my thinking when I’m either running or meant to be sleeping…
So I won’t say “keep writing” but I will say “keep thinking about your writing.” It can mull away, composting gently and who knows what might bubble up out of your busy mind?
Good luck!
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