Dear Geist,

Does my novel have to be 75,000 words long to get accepted by a publisher or agent? I just got home from a writers’ meet-up where everyone talked about it like it was true. My novel is only 65,000 words, and I’ve already sent the draft to two agents. Help!

—Ricky Terwinger, South of Crowsnest Pass

Dear Ricky,

You may hear other general rules about how long a book—novel or otherwise—ought to be, measured in number of pages or words. For much of the 20th century, 70,000 or 80,000 words was considered a good saleable length for a novel—that is, a size and weight of novel that people would buy. Some veteran publishers still use those numbers as a reference when pinpointing the market for books with unconventional size, format, design, paper, text and visuals. But it’s never been a rule. The only restriction on a physical book is that it fit nicely and attract the right attention once it’s on the bookshelves of libraries and stores. The exceptions are series, which sell better when they conform to a size and length. Other than that, we don’t know any book publisher with a good solid novel manuscript who would ask a writer to add another few thousand words, just to hit the 70,000 mark.

—The Editors