Two days ago, I was hit with the existential crisis that The Alleys of Olde Architecture is way, way, way too long—for a single book. This was not a shock to be told, but I had been hoping to win an agent over nonetheless, and then brainstorm creative solutions down the road with someone who knows the industry. Several of my first query letters included a whole paragraph about how monstrously long my manuscript is… That may have been a mistake.
I strongly suspect every agent I queried last week is going to shoot it down, largely based on the length. I don’t know if they will even bother reading the samples I sent after they see the word count. So, I spent the day retooling my approach. Gotta roll with the punches!
The result is that I will no longer be pitching The Alleys of Olde Architecture, a 525,000-word novel…
I will now be pitching A Key for Every Lock, a 115,000-word novel, the first in a three-part saga called The Alleys of Olde Architecture. This shorter book is comprised of the first three Acts of the overall story.
Part One will be the same size as Harry Potter 3.
I’m feeling good about this! I always wondered if I would have to split it up—it just took a kick in the pants from a reputable agent to actually do so. The only downside is that I probably blew my chances with a half-dozen of the agents I had listed higher up on my ‘Agent Wish List.’ (Maybe I can query them again in a few months; we’ll see.) But, well, live and learn. There are plenty of fish in the sea, including a few at the top of my Wish List that I have not yet contacted.
115,000 words is obviously a lot more manageable, both for a publisher and the reader. This is about the size of the third Harry Potter book. It could be pitched as YA or Adult (the size and content are appropriate for both,) and the new title (A Key for Every Lock) fits in absolutely perfectly with the story (as do the titles for Part Two and Part Three) and I actually think The Alleys of Olde Architecture works even better as the overarching title of the whole saga rather than of an individual book.
The most fortunate thing is being able to split the story up so easily. The manuscript was written in seven Acts, and thanks to the natural rise and fall of narrative waves and a little luck, the end of Act III makes a perfect stopping point. Likewise, Acts IV through VI then form a cohesive, narratively-satisfying arc for Part Two. Minor tweaks to the first and last chapters of each Part may be necessary, but nothing extensive.
After making the big decision, I had to rejigger the website and write a new synopsis to get ready for Round Two.
Today I will start crafting some more submissions as I continually remind myself that the book I have been writing for the past nine years is now called A Key for Every Lock… I do love it, but it will take some getting used to.