Are Fantasy Books In Danger?

Hey friends! Welcome back to the Loose Leaf List. I’m pleased to say that, following some fantastic beta reader feedback, I’m nearing the end of a second round of revisions on my fantasy novel!

That means I’m starting to think about sending my book out to literary agents. All the things I tried to ignore during the drafting process come into play now: marketability, pitching, and whether my book is the right length.

That last point has proven more bothersome than I expected. Because it turns out that fantasy novels like mine are expected to be much shorter than before.

Early Warning Signs

I first became aware of shrinking fantasy word counts thanks to this May 2023 Twitter thread from author Hana Lee, which shows that fantasy books have shorter word counts starting in 2024. In particular, Lee provided this scatterplot of word counts by debut year:

In a further post down the thread, Lee offered two potential theories for the sudden dip in word count:

If I had to guess, the truth is a bit of both.

When I Realized I’m In Trouble

Okay, so fantasy novels are expected to be on the shorter side now. No worries, I thought. It used to be that new fantasy authors could write 150,000+ word doorstoppers without publishers batting an eye, so as long as I keep mine under 150,000, I should be fine. Some things work in my favor:

• My novel is for adults, not teens or children, which means more words are expected

• My novel has two points of view, which tends to beef up the word count compared with only one point of view

• My novel is set in a fantasy world rather than the real world, which means I need more words to describe the setting and society

Given all of that, I should be fine, right?

Well, not so. When I sent my book to my first round of readers, it clocked in at 121,000 words. And every one of my readers (who are all pretty tuned in to industry expectations) flagged my word count as potentially problematic. Some even said I should try to get it below 100,000 if possible.

This doesn’t necessarily ruin all my hopes and dreams. My current revisions are going well, and I do expect the novel to turn out quite a bit shorter than 121,000 words. But it makes me wonder: How will this affect other authors who aren’t me? Authors who might need 150,000 words or more to build out their worlds, explore important themes, and give characters the development they deserve?

The whims of the market have always clashed with the types of art authors want to create. This is nothing new — but it doesn’t mean we can’t grumble about it.

Do you prefer shorter novels, or giant doorstopping tomes? Comment your thoughts!

Review Corner

2024 has been a pretty good reading year for me so far, at least compared to 2023. Here are two of my new favorite reads that I’ve discovered since January!

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

In a fantastical world where the king has outlawed gods, Kissen is a bounty hunter who kills gods for cash. But when she encounters a little girl whose soul is bound to a god of white lies, she must take them on a deadly quest to a city infested with dangerous gods to figure out how to break their bond.

This fantasy novel isn’t particularly long (well, considering what I discussed above, maybe it’s about right for the current market), but it packs a ton of lore and a lush world into its pages! I especially enjoyed the cranky main character and the well-received disabled and queer representation.

For more thoughts, see my full review of Godkiller here!

Something More by Jackie Khalilieh

This YA contemporary novel follows Jessie, a Palestinian-Canadian girl who gets diagnosed with autism three weeks before starting high school. Determined to fit in, Jessie writes a list of goals for the year, but the attentions of two boys make her go off script.

I usually need a high concept to get interested in a contemporary novel, and I’m also not a big fan of love triangles. So imagine my surprise when this book pulled me in, made me feel every emotion under the Sun, and left me wishing I could make a time vortex back to 2015 and give this book to my younger self!

For more thoughts, including a slightly embarrassing story about how this book got me trapped in my local library’s patio, see my full review of Something More here!

In Case You Missed It …

In which I round up my favorite fun posts that I made this month!

First up, on both Instagram and TikTok, I dug into my astrophysics knowledge to talk about some of the things science fiction novels often get wrong about space:

Over on Instagram, I recommended books based on songs from Taylor Swift’s new album:

For the Whovians over on TikTok, I revealed some of the things in Doctor Who that were designed by children:

@looseleafellie

To everyone who’s ever made fun of the Abzorbaloff, how do you feel about crushing a child’s dreams? 🤨 #DoctorWho #WhoTok

And finally, on both Instagram and TikTok, I discussed the real names for common typographical symbols (dinkus, anyone?)

Thank you so much for reading! Until next time, bookish friends.

Love,

Ellie